Cold water flat

To celebrate our arrival, the district has shut off our hot water. Most services in the city are still centralized, so the steam for your heating and your hot water are utilities like water and sewage. And every year for about three weeks they shut off the hot water to “clean the pipes.” This is just a fact of city life, and people deal with it by traveling to friends’ apartments in other districts of the city, or unfortunately by simply not bathing. This is never a good idea in a place where synthetic clothing fabrics are very common.

In our apartment, it’s not as bad as it sounds. It is amazing how quickly you can get used to things. Our salvation is an unreliable stream of tepid water that comes from our ‘Atmor’ electric water heater. This infuriating device is a life-saver.

We do have a legitimate beef with the timing of this year’s shut-off. Usually they wait until summer is well underway and it is reliably warm before they do it. But it always happens when we arrive. In summer 2003, when we were here the water was gone for much of our stay. And I’ll never forget the day they cut the hot water in 2005: it was the morning of July 12, our wedding day. So as we rushed to get to the ZAGS on time, I shaved with cold water.