Conveniently & Quickly Manage Stress, Stretch, Adapt to Cold, & Air Out Apartment:
On my balcony in Soviet Era housing
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Fresh air: so vital for health
Besides all those deadly farts we all blow, just about everything synthetic — plywood (shelves, cabinets, tables, countertops, dressers, many walls & doors), books, plastics — is outgassing toxic fumes for the life of the product, & we are all inhaling that shit all the time.
That…ain’t…healthy!
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio where the winter winds off Lake Erie were like daggers through our clothes, so I adapted while young. (Warning to helicopter parents: the remainder of this paragraph may result in conniptions or worse.) An Atlantic crossing before age 3 may have helped as well. While my parents & much older sister huddled in their bunks with their barf bags during the entire 10-day journey, I ran wild & unsupervised aboard a huge troop transport ship converted to ferrying us refugees from war-torn Europe to the Americas. Late March & early April in the North Atlantic is neither the balmiest time nor place. How I, a mere munchkin, didn’t get washed overboard to feed the sharks rattles even me a bit when I think about it all these decades later.
I now live in Lithuania in northeastern Europe, which is further north than Germany, but I think Cleveland was more brutal because of the incessant wind. Cleveland is the real Windy City. Chicago is the Blowhard City, & that’s what the journalist who coined the term “Windy City” meant; he was talking about Chicago’s politics & politicians.
In the oldest Soviet apartment buildings in Kaunas — 1962 vintage & pictured here after recent remodeling — I thrive on the ever-changing view & generous display of life all around me. Because sometimes it feels like there’s no time to relax, I just try to make every moment enjoyable in its own way. Every time I get up from my computer, I always step out onto the balcony for a moment or 2 before proceeding to the kitchen or wherever I was heading. A breath of cold fresh air, watching the local flock of pigeons circle the yard…
