It is Snowing

Monday, January 03, 2056

I love to watch the snow fall from the sky. Today’s fall brings my favorite kind of snowflakes. Big, fluffy, lazy snowflakes; taking their time; uncaring of the problems of you and I; uniting to change the world.

I grew up in and around Los Angeles, California. Santa Monica wasn’t too bad. But the San Fernando Valley was hell at times. The first half of my life that I spent in semi-desert has given me an appreciation and love for the winters here in Kyiv. I would always take a winter here in Kyiv over a summer in the San Fernando Valley.

I love looking out of the windows of my apartment. A good snowfall makes that even more enjoyable. My living room has nine huge windows, which form a half circle, that give me a great view of the city. The windows draw me to themselves throughout the day. I have never tired of the view from my windows, especially after it snows.

I have a photo file of pictures I have taken of Kyiv from my window. I try to take a photo each anniversary of moving in here. Next month will be my fiftieth anniversary. Counting the photo I took on the day that I moved in that will make fifty-one photos. Together they make an interesting slide show of how Kyiv has changed. When I first moved here, my view from the sixteenth floor allowed me to see over most of the buildings here in Obolon, the district I live in, here in Kyiv. This building was the tallest building for at least two kilometers. Now there are so many high rises here that the evening lights are quite spectacular. This in turn gives me great enjoyment when I look out of my windows at night.

I reread my prior journal entry. It’s kind of depressing stuff. I sound like I am whining too. What the hell am I worried about? Good God, I am almost one hundred years old! I should not be scared. I’ve lived longer than I could have expected. When anyone is this old, dying is an expected part of the immediate future. I shouldn’t be afraid of anything.

I don’t have time to worry about dying. If I was young with a long future in front of me, that would make sense. Worrying doesn’t make sense for me. Not in my situation.

And so what if I die?