Blockade of Leningrad

10 December

Ran to my lesson again today. Such an arrangement is really the best. I get out the house early, jogging. Then I meet with a private student who pays me on the spot. 

For several days, Iowa was colder than here even though it's farther south. Though it was colder, I couldn't impress anyone with my reports of -18 Celsius. That happens here often.

For a few days, my back has been hurting.  The upper part on my spine would spear daggers of pain shooting forth whenever I moved. For awhile, thought it was because I was slumping too much, so I made a conscious effort to keep my back straight up or even straighter.  This had little effect. 

I continued to have the belief that I needed to find something that would FIX whatever it was that was giving me trouble. Makes sense, right?  I thought maybe it was push-ups. I've been doing many more push-ups than usual lately. For many years, I was very rarely doing push-ups—mostly because I was doing pull-ups. Now, every other day, I'm doing upwards of 75. I’ve switched from pull-ups because the weather is wet and there is always water everywhere.

Then I thought about water. Have I been drinking enough?  I looked back at the past couple days and saw only some soda that I drank thinking it would keep me awake, and a bit of tea from clients, but practically no water. I decided to immediately correct this deficiency and stated drinking as much as possible. Thankfully, there are water containers featured prominently in all the businesses where I teach, and at the office. 

It appears that I have found the problem. The next day, my back felt much better. 

I went to St. Petersburg this weekend.  My friend there showed me how to use her back-massaging mattress. It's a South Korean construction, I’m not sure if I can call it an invention, from a company called Ceragem. The user lies down, face up. During the process, a hot brick, with bumps on top, moves from the base of the tail bone slowly all the way to the crown of the skull. The pain is tremendous, but pleasant. The operational temperature of the brick is 60 degrees Celsius, or 140 F. 

http://www.ceragemus.com/ceragem_rh.asp

During my 50 hours in SPB, I used the treatment several times. Silvia claims that it is used by astronauts at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, and by others who are interested on supreme health. 

On the last day in St. Petersburg, we visited a museum dedicated to Soviet Life.  In the Second World War, the Germans laid siege to the town that was known at the time by the name of Leningrad. They blockaded the city for several years. They did not allow any supplies to be delivered. No humanitarian aid as is now so popular. People starved.  I visited a museum dedicated to the memory of this horrific period. One display shows the amount if bread that is rationed.  An adult would be allowed 125g of bread per day. If I curl my index finger, the 125g is about as big as the finger and the knuckle on the hand. 

This is the size of 125 grams of bread.

Date that the rations were published | workers | service | people who can’t work | children

18 June 1941 factory workers received 800 grams, service workers received 600 grams, non-worker and children received 400 grams.

On the 20^th of November, the ration was down to 250 grams for factory workers and 125 grams for everyone else.

The blockade lasted from  8 September 1941  until  27 January 1944, 872 days after it began.