It was a hell of a way to wake up!

Ochakiv got hit with the first snowstorm of the year last weekend...in early November...so something tells me that this winter will be a lot worse/a lot more normal for Ukraine than last year. A bigger problem in Ochakiv than the snow is the wind. Since we're right on the water, the wind gets pretty intense. So much so, in fact, that I was woken up on Sunday morning by my kitchen windows blowing open and knocking all my stuff off the window sill. I spent the next hour standing in a puddle of snow/melting water with the wind/more snow blowing in my face as I tried to close the window and called everyone I could think of in town for help.

The problem, though, was that the power (and water, for that matter) was out, so people's house-phones weren't working and getting in touch with someone was tough. Eventually I ran across the hall and woke my neighbor Vasilli up (did I mention that all of this was happening at 7:30 on a Sunday morning?) and he can over and fixed it in about two minutes...apparently the windows aren't that difficult to close if you know the elaborate sequence in which to do so (there are 5 windows in all), and since I had only ever opened one, I had no way of knowing that. Now, the power is back on and I'm fine, except for having to walk around the half-dozen trees that blew down in the storm and the lake-sized puddles of melted snow/ice that are, well, everywhere.

Also, congrats to Josh for winning the Mahaffey, AGAIN! Miss you, buddy.