It seems that life has decided that things have been too boring and uninteresting for us for too long. We had a nice trip and we've been happy especially since Avrora's birth[1]. The universe felt this was an unnatural condition for us. Or at least me.
On May 28th, 2005, while we were in Las Vegas and a few weeks prior to his 47th birthday, Aleksandr Lysukha - my wife's father - died. He died from complications relating to his drinking problem, as we have heard. He'd been in a coma for a week+ and in the hospital for a month. Her family didn't inform us until last night. After the funeral. He was a monster in many ways and almost all of that had to do with the uber heavy drinking and he was largely estranged from his exwife and daughters. I never even met the man and since things were so strained between Lyuda's family and him he didn't know about me. He didn't know that his youngest daughter got married. He didn't know that his youngest daughter got married to an American. He didn't know about Avrora. In fact, he had been so estranged from the family that he may not have even known his youngest daughter no longer was even in the Old World anymore. Lyuda had been working up the guts to try to talk to him about all of the above. Now she never will.
Drinking in Ukraine is a plague upon men. The average male life expectancy is less than 62 years old. Some of that can be accounted for by the fact they are often working in crazy level unsafe conditions, but that's only some of them (the mines and chemical industry, frex). You might think that's its poverty that's doing this too...until you see that Ukrainian women live until past age 72. In fact, there are 1.045 boys/girls between the ages of 0-14. Between the ages of 15-64, it swings to .919 boys/girls. For ages of 65 and older, the ratio falls much further to .508. Contrast that with the approximate figures of 1.05, 1, and .72 for the same age groups for Americans or 1.05, 1, and .74 for Canadians[2]. A very large difference is that Ukrainians drink and drink damned hard. It's taking its toll. Bad.
To make matters worse, my own family is having issues. My youngest sister has had her life 100% implode. Her kids are with my other sister. Her ex is making uber threatening comments. She even started packing a gun[3] and there are nasty rumors about what exactly is going on: drugs, death threats, and more. IDK what's true, false, or just someone lying their fundament off.
I'd just like a year of no nasty wild events. Please?
1. The miracle of pregnancy is just surviving it.
2. Canada has a similar population size to Ukraine and a much better healthcare system: Ukraine's pop (I suspect) is overcounted and shrinking while Canada's is growing.
3. Yes, she lives in Texas. No, I have no idea if she has a clue about how to wield one of those things properly. Yes, she's a 'cowgirl'. She embraced Texas big time. ick. Every child of my family has turned into someone rather different. I'm the ubergeek. Tina's embraced latino culture. Tessa's embraced Texas 'culture'. Ted's a former jock/military type.
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