Well… they turned off the hot water. Yep. OFF. Like none, non-existent, nothing comes out, nada. And in typical Russian (Ukrainian) style, there was NO NOTICE. Where we live, there are no hot water heaters. It is all centralized, and gets pumped into the buildings. Sure, a few people may have heaters (electric, on-demand water heaters) hooked up to their cold water just for situations like this, but not many have this — and we certainly don’t.

As I said, in typical Russian style, two days after the water was turned off there was a piece of paper taped to the space above the mailboxes saying that the hot water will be off until July 8. That’s another 2 weeks. Which if you can read between the lines, and again, knowing how inefficiently things actually get done around here — I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s off for another week past that, at least.

The worst part –> It’s not even that warm (outside air temperature) in Kiev yet. The Summer hasn’t “hit.” Some days, perhaps late in the afternoons, it does get warm — but it definitely isn’t July/August-type warmth. I think that there are still a few communities on the Left Bank that have hot water — maybe we should just go and raid their homes — They do the maintenance in a few phases.

Actually, I think my brother in law has the right idea. He, without notifying any of us, went out to the summer house with his girlfriend after work, and spent the night –> where there’s warm water now! The little snake, rat, varmint, gopher — menace to the golfing community.

The Reason for this turn-off:

The Government turns off all the hot water in order to do yearly maintenance on the pipes, filters, valves, heaters, etc… Fair enough, because I’d like the water to stay warm all winter long, and without interruption. In fact, our buildings are heated using water running through radiators in all the rooms… so it’s quite important that the whole system works properly — but damn, 3 weeks (or more) of cold showers –> Ugh?

I think they also like to save money (and not have to pay for the gas to heat the water). Who knows, really.

Either way, I’ve only been averaging a shower every 3-4 days (or more) anyhow — so what’s the big deal if I miss a half a dozen showers, and wait for the warm water again?