Oh my God...this took ages

The St. Petersburg photos are finally up. It took 2 hours to upload them all into the photo album. I wrote most of the trip report last night, so while the photos were uploading, I was downstairs doing cardio.

http://itinerantwriter.blogspot.com/2007/08/baltic-cruise-part-3-st-petersburg.html

Lance and I are kind of working on a collaborative piece entitled "Cruise Etiquette for Dumbasses" or something to that effect. It will be full of snark. But it's our way of blowing off steam about all the things that frustrated us on the cruise.

I'll give you a couple examples right now...

In Helsinki, our tour guide was telling us about the immigrant population. Someone asked, "Do you have any Muslims in Finland?" She replied that there was only a tiny population.

Spontaneous applause broke out on the bus.

WHAT. THE. HELL?

Lance and I were looking at each other with our jaws on the floor. It's bad enough if people have prejudices, but to just flaunt them openly like that...no wonder why the rest of the world thinks badly of Americans. I can only imagine what our tour guide was thinking. Let's not even mention that there were Muslims on the cruise. What if some of them had been on that bus?

(There was also a GLBT group on the cruise...I think there was a gay commitment ceremony in the chapel during our first full day on the ship. I'm completely surprised that I didn't hear anyone say anything about that...but they were all pretty discreet anyway.)

Okay...another example of the mind-blowingly stupid:

When we were in Stockholm touring the Royal Palace, an older lady (probably in her 70's) turned to me and said, "I don't like this tour guide...she doesn't think in English."

Uhm...perhaps that's because SHE'S SWEDISH! She spoke flawless English...better than most native speakers. She also spoke fluent Russian. I'm sure this lady has barely mastered one language. So again...WHAT. THE. HELL?

Anyway, I haven't actually written anything down yet, but we've been brainstorming ideas back and forth for days. I may not put thoughts into MS Word until I finish the rest of my trip reports and photos.

Down by the Old Mill Stream

Lance mentioned to me this morning that Findlay, Ohio made the national news, but of course, not in a good way. It's the most flooded spot in Ohio, and one of the worst in the nation right now. CNN has a live cam set up right outside the downtown area right now...I'm not sure why. It's not all the exciting to watch a flooded street.

Of course, I have many relatives living there. Both grandmothers, my dad, various aunts, uncles, and cousins...

When I still lived there (we moved to Columbus when I was 10), we had at least one flood (Findlay seems predisposed to them)...not sure how old I was at the time. But it seemed pretty bad. That was small time compared to the one they're having now, which is comparable to the 1913 flood, which is now the stuff of legend.

It's a sobering thought that parts of Oklahoma are also dealing with flooding too, for the second time this year at least. That's going to be something we take into consideration when we buy a house...we have to make sure we're not living on a flood plain.

I have no word on how family members are doing at the moment, but I'm sure I would've gotten a phone call or an email if things were really bad. I think my Grandma S. is probably fine...she lives nowhere near the river. Grandma E. (in the nursing home) is surrounded by flooding...my dad told me that the other day. I'm not sure how he's doing.

The Blanchard River is receding...for now. More rain is expected.

And now, Tell Taylor's song, inspired by the Blanchard River, probably not something he would've written had he been living there right now:

Down By the Old Mill Stream

My darling I am dreaming of the days gone by,
When you and I were sweethearts beneath the summer sky;
Your hair has turned to silver the gold has faded too;
But still I will remember, where I first met you.

The old mill wheel is silent and has fallen down,
The old oak tree has withered and lies there on the ground;
While you and I are sweethearts the same as days of yore;
Although we've been together, forty years and more.

Chorus:
Down by the old mill stream where I first met you,
With your eyes of blue, dressed in gingham too,
It was there I knew that you loved me true,
You were sixteen, my village queen, by the old mill stream.