The weather has improved.
Life is more stable, though there is a gnawing concern about the health of the economy.
I'm not summarizing the state of affairs in Russia. I'm talking about my life in America since moving back to the United States from Moscow five months ago. My family and I have come home after seven years abroad in Russia and the Middle East, and we're coping with culture shock in our own country. America is full of prosperity and high-tech gadgets that we had only a vague notion of in Russia. We watched in amazement at my sister's home near Baltimore when she declined to pick up her ringing telephone, aware through her caller ID that it was a bothersome telemarketer.