The book I was reading as Malone's “Lies My Government Told Me” came out is entitled "Why We Sleep." It brings you up-to-date on the latest thinking in sleep science.
The message in the first chapter is that our bodies are evolutionary adapted to conform to circadian cycles. Two major cycles, in fact. We have an internal clock that registers time without any external references. However, for most people it operates on a 25 hour cycle rather than 24. It uses the second cycle, daylight and darkness to re-synchronize itself.
The author makes the point that most of us moderns do not get enough sleep. Artificial light, city noise, coffee, alcohol and sleeping pills have messed with nature enough to confuse us. It affects our health and longevity.
Living without electricity off and on for the past few weeks, particularly this last week, has caused us to revert to a farm style way of life. We've been going to bed about 9 o'clock because there's just nothing to do in the darkness. We start to slow down with sundown, which is about 4 o'clock these days. I find it relaxing.
Today we had a bucolic, village like day. You can't go to the parks or museums this time of year. Last Sunday we went to the Sunday farmers market. Today I planned to take Eddie and Zoriana to the Yunost market to buy some nori to make sushi. I recently wrote that we had struck out in four grocery stores trying to find it.
I suggested to Grandma Nadia that she might want to come along. She's comfortable with vendors and market stalls and has good advice. After she agreed, I suggested to Oksana that we could bring Marianna as well. She took two nanoseconds to assess the pros and cons of being by herself for five hours and said yes!
We walked, Marianna on my shoulders, a mile through lightly falling snow to a bus stop that would take us to the Yunost market. Grandma brightened up when she saw the possibilities. I know the market pretty well and took her to my favorite stalls. The first one has packaged goods for reasonable prices. We brought oatmeal, candles, buckwheat, eggs, and a couple of candy bars at the kids lobbied very hard to get. Next we went down toward the sushi place, passing the fishmongers where Nadia bought a couple of mackerel. The Oriental market sold us 50 sheets of nori for about nine dollars - a better price than the supermarkets, even when they carry it. Next door is a greengrocer which always has a line of four or five people. The prices are right and Grandma is very price-sensitive. The kids absolutely devour mandarin oranges.
We circled through the dried fruit sellers – just about all Muslims from the 'Stans – and brought figs, prunes, and mangoes. Somewhere along the line Nadia said that we should look for shoes for Marianna. I offered the observation that we had to take a tramway to the Metro returning home in any case. Riding two more stops would take us to the end of the Metro line at Lisova where there is a huge secondhand market.
Grandma was in heaven. We spent half an hour choosing two pairs of shoes for Marianna, after which we had to look for another knit winter cap for Zoriana. This was over my objections – she hates hats, which is why she loses them all the time. It turned out well, however. She got one, and since I have not been able to find my knit caps for this winter I also bought one.
It was lunchtime. Eddie was hungry. Grandma Nadia rarely eats in restaurants, so I suggested that we find one. We wound up in a cafeteria style affair where everybody had their fill, after which we took the Metro back to Livoberezhna and the bus home.
This is the kind of quotidian activity that holds the family together. Grandma was able to make a contribution in helping select both the groceries and clothes. The kids contributed and were pretty good about sharing the candy on the bus on the way home. Marianna enjoyed the new experiences. The people in the shops, you don't see many kids in the first place, were very interested in this old American with three children. The used clothing stores seem to be an Arab specialty, and these gentlemen made a point of repeating the kids names as we left the store. They know what they are doing.
Eddie and Grandma made sushi for dinner. The light was only out for four hours today. All is well in our world.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the good looking woman was in a wonderful mood after being alone for the whole afternoon, grandmother is feeling good about herself and being rather tolerant and nice to everybody, and the strong man enjoyed an hour's relaxation listening to music with Oksana before a productive half-hour on the exercise bicycle.
In answer to a couple of suggestions, no we are not going to bug out to another country anytime soon. Grandpa Sasha is in no shape to travel, we don't have a car, and we are not in danger here. But most of all we belong here. This is our home.
An interesting sidelight on your comments on sleep. In medieval Europe (where the nights were long) there existed the concept of 1st sleep and 2nd sleep. They were usually separated by a couple of hours where, in the middle of the night, you might converse with your neighbors. I first read about it in a Smithsonian Magazine article 30 years ago. Here is an updated article on the subject. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep
There is an excellent book called 'Second sleep' by Robert Harris. I highly recommend it.