What a discovery!!! Today after long and intensive scientific research on the effects of cold weather to the human body (I was the main lab monkey), I have come to some not so scientific conclusions. If I didn�t mention it before, from November or December of 2000, until June of 2001, I had a chronic cough. I had in past years (1997 to 1999) this same problem and in those years when I was unable to rid myself of this cough and it would become to painful for me, I would have to be airlifted out of Armenia and back to a recovery center in California (Mom and Dad�s house) to dry out. Never would the California winter and my parents well heated house fail to rid me of my condition within days. I�ve concluded the cause of this condition has to be due to a combination of cold temperatures, high humidity levels and in the past, my lack of resources to properly heat my living area. I also knew that it was not a contagious condition, as from May to June of 2001, I was helping to care for new-born baby, who never got sick of constantly being coughed on and only became desensitized to loud sudden noises (classical music and random coughing makes for a very well tempered baby). Many years before, when Armenia was suffering its worse energy crisis, I had a cousin in Yerevan, who every year would get a chronic cough that would last him the whole winter and appeared to make him more vulnerable to getting flu�s too. Now why do I feel more confident that my observations have merit? Well, these last couple of weeks, the temperature has dropped and the average temperature has been around 0c. I keep my living space, where I spend most of my time from 20c to 30c. Only when I go outside, to some ones house that is not well heated, or if I forget to put some wood in the woodstove and the temperature in my room drops below 16c for more than a half hour, the same cough return. When I return to an area that is above 20c, the cough goes away within an hour. I went to dinner last night at a friend�s house and was talking about this cough problem and it was agreed that it was not only me, but most people here have the same problem. There are so many people that suffer from this and it is only due to our lack of resources to properly heat our homes. During Soviet times, this was really not an issue. A year before the war broke out, the city of Martuni had piped in natural gas, which was used not only to cook, but to heat. Prior to that, it was heating oil and diesel. Today, heating oil and diesel, based on the income of most is too expensive to heat with. Wood is the way most people seem to go, but the increase in need I would bet is causing our lush green forests to wane. In the last couple of years, piped in natural gas has retuned to Stepanagert and other areas of Artsakh, with work moving forward to eventually cover the entire country (Martuni is said to have gas by the end of this year). Though this should resolve the issues I have addressed in this log, the cost of heating with natural gas in a way far exceeds the cost of wood. This is only a true statement as the cost of wood for many is the cost to rent and fuel a truck (maybe $20). The rest is you and your friends going out with axes, other cutting instruments and a couple of bottles of Vodka. Now mind you if people had jobs that provided a reasonable income to pay for the gas they use to heat their houses with, they would not have the time to go out and chop down a few trees each year. The general opinion is people would elect to heat with gas if it was a true and affordable option. Even people here know that a live tree is worth much more than a dead one. Hey, I wonder if we could get the tree people to help us? They could run some campaign to save the Artsakh forests by promoting people to invest in the economy here. Something like, create a job, save a tree. Hey, maybe the Diaspora could bypass the tree people and do it themselves. Interesting idea, I wonder if anyone other than me is thinking on this level?