January 10, 2023. Day 321 of war.
Rain in California made it to the international news. I tell my parents about atmospheric rivers in theory and how they look from inside the car on a highway and outside my window. They also had rain for two days and did not go for their walks and now their mood is affected by it. I try to convince them that their age has nothing to do with the interconnection between the weather and mood and ask them to go outside even for a tiny bit. They nod and smile.
Mom says: there are so many wonderful people around us! And dogs! And cats! And it's been a constant in our lives!
We talk in Ukrainian mostly during this conversation. It means that I make mistakes and they correct me and I get tired and distracted. But they know me well and to keep me on track they give me new words to learn - one of them is a wonderful expression for squeezing/purging. After I write it down they tell me that I should use it to describe my relationship with my constant switching to russian language.
This conversation happened after the tragedy of Dnipro. We try not to discuss details of tragedies during our video conversations - but go through the list of family and friends. Kharkiv was without power and water after the attacks on the same day but everyone checked in as being safe. Mom tells me about her memories from the vacations in Crimea when she was a kid.
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