Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Monday, July 6

12:21 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Fox Hill Dr.
12:41 a.m. Loose dog, Parker Rd.
7:51 a.m. Walk-in reports someone is passed out in vehicle by side of Bond Rd.
11:37 a.m. Suspicious vehicle on Timber Ln.; gone now
12:21 p.m. Fedex truck pulled down service wire, Stoneleigh Rd.
4:56 p.m. Disabled logging truck, Reservoir St.
6:01 p.m. Dog barking for six hours on Village Way
7:39 p.m. Fireworks reported near Gail Dr.

Tuesday, July 7

10:31 a.m. Teen out of control, Wachusett St.
3:04 p.m. Power outage on Union St., possible lightning strike
4:00 p.m. 911 hang-up from pharmacy
5:56 p.m. Lost dog; found at 6:37 p.m.
8:53 p.m. Fireworks in Colonial Dr. area
9:28 p.m. Sewer pump flashing, Mark Bradford Dr.
11:15 p.m. Two youngsters walking around neighborhood, Pine Tree Rd.

Wednesday, July 8

7:46 a.m. Parent concerned about teenage son who ran out of gas, could have been in the Brookfields
8:35 a.m. Minor motor vehicle accident, Main St.
9:25 a.m. Female appears to be distressed, Main St.; OK
10:01 a.m. 911 Child reports seeing men burying live dog; incident misinterpreted, folks attempting to trap or stop a fox
10:41 a.m. Walk-in reports brother trying to sell equipment that doesn't belong to him
11:31 a.m. Two lost dogs reported
2:16 p.m. Excavator in ditch and employees arguing, Steele St.
4:16 p.m. Kids on bikes riding on Princeton St.
11:21 p.m. Doorbell rang at residence on Cedar Rd. and resident heard scream; investigated, all quiet

Thursday, July 9

12:57 a.m. Suspicious vehicle, Main St.
1:23 a.m. Traffic barrels overturned and multiple smashed watermelons, Salisbury St.; Howe's Farm in Paxton has empty watermelon bin
8:45 a.m. Caller awakened around 4 a.m. by someone pounding on her door
12:40 p.m. Youths skateboarding in Subway parking lot
12:45 p.m. People playing in cemetery
4:01 p.m. 911 Teen reports dog missing, Orchard Rd.
6:20 p.m. Man selling meat and chicken from truck, High St.
7:55 p.m. Wife reports husband bitten by dog while on his bicycle; owner refusing to give info, Mill St.

Friday, July 10

12:44 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Main St.; individual lost; escorted to Worcester line
3:46 p.m. Half dozen teens on Woodland Rd.; caller would like them to move
6:26 p.m. Call regarding dog bite; was supposed to hear status of dog's vaccinations
7:21 p.m. Three juveniles, two on bikes, one on skateboard, at church on Main St.
7:27 p.m. 911 abandoned call; child playing with phone
8:31 p.m. Strong odor of natural gas, Shrewsbury St. area
8:42 p.m. Large cloud of smoke near Shrewsbury St. reported
11:05 p.m. Large number of youths reported on Oregon Trl.

Saturday, July 11

12:46 a.m. Strong odor of natural gas reported at Shrewsbury St./Woodridge Rd.
5:52 a.m. Winfield Dr. resident believes vehicle part of string of burglaries; also, wife saw mountain lion by mailbox two weeks ago
9:55 a.m. Two lost dogs, Bailey Rd.
11:09 a.m. Vehicle parked sideways in street, Bull Run
11:23 a.m. Walk-in inquiring about Holden Fire Department Explorers can drive, lost keys, and civilian police academy
12:20 p.m. Third call regarding power, North St.
1:30 p.m. Two teens with buckets collecting change, Shrewsbury St.; removed from intersection, then called about soliciting regulations
2:14 p.m. Child and father assisted back to vehicle from Rail Trail
3:05 p.m. Suspicious motorcycle parked in driveway, Broad St., driver returned, ran out of gas
3:08 p.m. Gun shots, Chapel St.
8:24 p.m. Fireworks reported, Mayflower Cir.
10:03 p.m. Power outage, North St.

Sunday, July 12

5:09 a.m. 911 silent call, Dawson Cir.; possible phone line problem
3:10 p.m. Loud music from Nelson St. residence
3:51 p.m. Large tree limb fell across neighbor's yard, making power lines hang low, Brennan Way
7:48 p.m. Truck almost hit cyclists, River St.
9:28 p.m. Check on bike rider with dark clothing and no reflectors

Paxton

Monday, July 6

2:47 p.m. Loose dog walking on West St.
5:33 p.m. Request that police speak to people regarding possible illegal burn on Knollwood Rd. Advised it is a cooking fire

Tuesday, July 7

5:57 a.m. Homeowner reports popping noise outside, then loss of power, Squantum Rd.

Wednesday, July 8

4:18 p.m. Possible illegal dumping at Boynton Park, Boynton Pkwy. area

Thursday, July 9

9:30 p.m. Missing black Labrador, Grove St.

Friday, July 10

2:23 p.m. Someone threw four bags of trash into Dumpster rented by homeowner, Streeter Rd.

Saturday, July 11

11:52 p.m. Report that someone is trying to break into house, Meadowbrook Dr. Friends playing practical joke

Sunday, July 12

4:41 p.m. Someone is riding dirt bike in roadway, Camp St.

Princeton

Monday, July 6

8:39 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Willson Rd.

Tuesday, July 7

11:30 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Ralph Rd.
11:47 a.m. Property found, Rocky Pond Rd.
11:53 a.m. Public service, Mirick Rd.
4:12 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Westminster Rd.
4:30 p.m. Public service, Miles Ave., Westminster
5:30 p.m. Request for light department, Grow Ln.
5:55 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Esty Rd.
6:45 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, East Princeton Rd.
11:25 p.m. Officer investigation, Main St.

Wednesday, July 8

2:53 p.m. Public service, Town Hall Dr.

Thursday, July 9

10:54 a.m. Disturbance, Ball Hill Rd.
11:01 a.m. Assist other PD, Sterling Rd.
6:50 p.m. Lost/missing person, Ball Hill Rd.
8:23 p.m. Assist fire department, Calamint Hill Rd. S

Friday, July 10

4:02 p.m. Assist fire department, Clearings Way

Saturday, July 11

10:54 p.m. Suspicious person, Hickory Dr.

Sunday, July 12

4:53 p.m. Narcotics, Fitchburg Rd. Citation issued
5:56 p.m. Property found, Mountain Rd.

Rutland

Monday, July 6

8:01 a.m. Assist other PD, Bond Rd., Holden
8:24 a.m. Person lost bucket of tools from back of truck earlier in morning, Inwood Rd./Maple Ave. area
8:30 a.m. Request to speak with dog officer about dog that died during the night, Turkey Hill Rd.
8:30 a.m. Request to speak with officer regarding traffic issues at Kenwood Dr./Walnut St.
10:17 p.m. Report of people screaming, Kalloch Dr.

Tuesday, July 7

10:48 a.m. Vehicle has been parked on street for a few days, Main St.
4:27 p.m. Utility pole hit by lightning, Welsh Ave.
7:00 p.m. Person riding bike yelled at by truck load of young men, Main St.

Wednesday, July 8

8:11 a.m. Coyote dead beside road, coyote pups nearby, E. County Rd.
4:25 p.m. Keys locked in car, Peters Ave.
9:08 p.m. Keys locked in car at Mobil Station

Thursday, July 9

5:42 a.m. Notify person on Glenwood Rd. that relative needs to be picked up at Shrewsbury Station
6:47 p.m. Person at station reporting two boys misbehaving at Memorial Field

Friday, July 10

8:35 a.m. Dead bobcat, Pommogussett Rd.
8:51 a.m. Female out running encountered aggressive fox with kits, Johanna/Linwood
12:38 p.m. Suspicious males trying to get tree work, Cameron Dr.
5:49 p.m. Complaint about barking dog, Watson Ln.
7:27 p.m. Person locked herself out of car, Miles Rd.

Saturday, July 11

8:59 a.m. Person having trouble with someone on Craig's List, Main St.
10:06 a.m. Person wants to know rules about operating mini-bike, Main St.
10:31 a.m. Several bales of hay in East County/River Rds.
10:39 a.m. Officer left message at Kenwood Dr. home for owner to call station
2:15 p.m. Person wants to speak with animal control officer about cats in neighborhood, Sunnyside Ave.
3:18 p.m. Person at station to talk about problems with neighbor, Sunnyside Ave.

Sunday, July 12

5:01 p.m. Report of disturbance during the night, Laurelwood Rd.

Sterling

Monday, July 6

11:08 a.m. Report of bobcat and cubs, Redstone Hill Rd.
5:54 p.m. Disabled bus on I-190 on off ramp to Rte. 12

Tuesday, July 7

10:04 a.m. Caller requesting to speak with animal control office regarding notice received, Leominster Rd.
3:06 p.m. Report of vehicle off roadway, deep into woods, I-190
10:25 p.m. Injured deer beside the road, Chace Hill Rd.
11:16 p.m. Officer investigating injured deer, Chace Hill Rd.
11:41 p.m. Vehicle going wrong way at Crazy Corners, escorting party to Chocksett Inn

Wednesday, July 8

2:21 a.m. Car abandoned in middle of Osgood Rd.
9:39 a.m. Caller wants to speak with officer regarding neighbor issue, Heywood Rd.
11:44 a.m. Disorderly conduct, youths yelling profanities from vehicle on Boutelle Rd.
1:06 p.m. Kitten found, Riverview Rd.
5:00 p.m. Report of dog bitten by coyote in yard, dog will be quarantined, Kendall Hill Rd.

Thursday, July 9

9:58 a.m. Request to speak with officer regarding ongoing neighbor issue, Leominster Rd.
12:56 p.m. Vehicle blocking view of cars, Leominster Rd.
3:18 p.m. Officer wanted, female expressing concern regarding person sleeping on bench at children's playground, Griffin Rd.
6:20 p.m. Officer requested for tree removal crew causing damage to home, Tuttle Rd.

Friday, July 10

3:56 p.m. Caller can't get home due to road-closed signs, Justice Hill/Elliott Rds.
8:57 p.m. Caller wants officer to respond for unruly child, Bean Rd.

Saturday, July 11

8:18 a.m. Dog found in kennel with other dogs that doesn't belong there, John Dee Rd.
11:26 a.m. People sitting in lawn chairs in Griffin Rd., vehicles have to go around them
3:47 p.m. Report of speeding boat on the lake on Hall Ave.

Sunday, July 12

3:02 a.m. Loud party in area of Shady Ln.
8:19 p.m. Person at station to report an older dog loose on golf course

What Amazon thinks I want

I've been shopping at Amazon for 10 or so years (thanks to panklam). I find their recommendation system useful, intriguing, and, on occasion, three-alarm bizarre. Based on something I bought sometime, here's what they think I might be interested in purchasing now:

I'm gonna guess that lumpfish caviar tastes pretty much like it sounds.
I think I'm gonna have to order Spam® and Cheez Whiz® so that they'll get a clearer picture of my culinary preferences.

On the future of print journalism

The afternoon edition of The Gardner News carried just a small wire service story, below the fold, with a Dallas dateline, that said that President Kennedy had been shot. By the time that I read that paper, on November 22nd, 1963, we'd already heard the news on the school's PA system and we were sent home early.
For the next bunch of days, the TV stayed on, mostly tuned to CBS where we watched Walter Cronkite as he guided us through that wrenching time.
As important as newspapers were at the time, their ability to deliver timely news had been eclipsed by radio and then television.
The decline in the number of newspapers began long before the World-Wide Web. "The United States had 267 fewer newspapers in 1990 than it had in 1940." More importantly, readership of printed newspapers has similarly declined. "...fewer than 18 out of 100 Americans today buy a daily or Sunday newspaper. Back in 1946, 36% of the population bought a daily paper and 31% took a Sunday edition"

In this context, about 20 people gathered last night at the Northboro library for a conversation about the future of print journalism. The speaker and discussion leader was George French, former editorial page editor of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. French brough his 38 years of experience and a folder full of clippings to help the group explore the past, present, and future of print journalism.
The discussion began with a clip from a Charlie Rose show on Future of Newspapers. In the show, three newspaper publishers discuss how they are dealing with the varied challenges to the newspaper industry. Robert Thomson of the Wall Street Journal observed that, from an advertiser's perspective, "Google devalues everything that it touches."
This point became a common theme throughout the evening as the participants talked with eagerness and anxiety about what would become of newspapers and, more importantly, journalism. The founders knew that we needed journalism, French noted, to keep our institutions open to all citizens.
The Telegram and Gazette's daily circulation is about 78,000. French described how the print edition promotes telegram.com with additional stories and features, all in an effort to strength the Telegram brand. The strategy appears to be working. Online readership contributed more than 600,000 unique visitors per month.
Subscription and advertising revenues continue to be hammered, however, by services such as Google and Craigslist, the latter siphoning off the lucrative classified advertising market. As a result, newspapers are considering a variety of subscription models. The Wall Street Journal has been able to attract subscribers for their strong business content, but the general population seems to be resistant to paying for web news. Alternate modes of payments, such as electronic micro-payments for selected content, led to a discussion thread about the particulars of how online payments would work. While many people are quite comfortable with regular online commerce, a good bit of resistance and fear remains. The division ran rather jaggedly across generational lines.
This, in turn, brought the group to another key theme: whatever newspapers, print or otherwise, do to survive in the next 5-10 years may only keep the current subscriber base, a group that is typically older than the general population. "People under 30 don't read newspapers," said one participant.

"The future of print journalism," French concluded, "is uncertain," referring to this New Yorker cartoon.
Amid all of the comments that addressed technical, political, policy, cultural, and aesthetic issues, French noted and the group agreed that people would pay for value, but that what they valued changed over times and across generational boundaries. People want good content and, for that reason, "The prognosis for journalism is very good."

---

Notes

As important as local news may be, we also have to point out that morning's Telegram has no stories written by TG staffers.

---

Editorial disclaimer
I have known George for more that 45 years, since his college days. I owe him a great debt for teaching me my first guitar chords back during the Great Folk Music Scare of the 1960s. I also owe him deep thanks for his friendship with my mother and with me over these many years. He's the real deal.

That's another way of describing what Mass Highway does

There's been a bit of controversy about Gov. Deval Patrick using his name on signs that tout the good works that Mass Highway is doing.
I have no opinion about the appropriateness of the governor or any official claiming credit.
I would, however, suggest that the folks who create these signs be a bit more careful about their choice of words. In some contexts, the phrase "On the job" has meanings that are different from what I think they're intending.

Queen Lake Association 2009 Annual Meeting

It's the Saturday after Independence Day and so it's the day for the annual meeting of the Queen Lake Association....

From OnTheCommon.com

If you're looking for summer in Canada, you're looking in the wrong place.

Canadians surprised, disappointed that their short summer is going to be short, but not for long.

One night in April 1968

On April 15, 1968, late at night, I was spinning the dial of my even-then ancient FM tuner (one with tubes and no cover because I needed to get at the wiring) and found a station that was playing the album cut of The Doors' Light My Fire. Other stations at the time were playing a badly-edited single.
The next song, East-West from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was, and I don't fear exaggeration here, life-changing. (That song and that band is within three degrees of separation of all of the music that was and is important to me.)
The disc jockey was Mississippi Harold Wilson. The station was WBCN. I listened as urgently as a thirsty man would go face-first into a river.  For all I know, that old tuner is in the Westminster dump, set on 104.1.
More than 40 years later, 'bcn is still on one of the buttons on my car radio, but it's been quite a while since I listened regularly. We all got older and all tried to stay young, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. Around the time of Nirvana or maybe it was Green Day, the music was, well, boring, and the disc jockeys sounded like frat boys. Howard Stern came in and brought some new energy, but the music still wasn't getting it done.
They probably should have hung it up a while ago, but they stayed on, like Willie Mays finishing his glorious career with a pitiful stint with the Mets. (Mays later said "growing old is just a helpless hurt.")
Sam Kopper, the morning dj, used to close out his show with 2120 South Michigan Avenue by The Rolling Stones. The song title comes from the address of the old Chess Records studio in Chicago. Let's play that one and say good-bye.

You can read more here:

• Laughing Goose the Weatherman's blog - (sniff) (sniff)
• Dan Kennedy's blog - Forgotten but not gone — until now
• Memorable moments in ’BCN history
• WBCN signs off air in CBS Boston radio shakeup
  
• Rocking no more Its eye on sports, CBS pulls plug on legendary WBCN
• FM start-up muscling into sports talk A CBS-launched rival to WEEI emerges in post-WBCN shakeup
  

Roasterboy's notebook

The following are a few items that wound up in my notebook during our travels through Finland and Iceland.

Why we went

In his book about Red Auerbach, Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend, Bill Russell talks a lot about tribes. He and Red came from different tribes, saw the world filtered through those tribal heritages, and yet came to respect and love each other.
Similarly, my mother was curious about a person's ethnic heritage, occupation, education, hometown, and other bits of background information. These attributes never fully defined a person, but always told something important. She wanted to know these things not out of prejudice, but from a desire to understand.
In 2000, Sandra, my mother, and I took a tour of England and Scotland, the lands of Sandra's heritage. We visited Skye, the place where Sandra's ancestors left in the 19th century. 
My grandparents on both sides emigrated 100 or so years ago. They left a land that was a Russian duchy in the last decade of czarist rule. They brought their language and culture, but little else.
Why did they leave Finland, not to return? Dunno. Maybe they had dreams of better futures for themselves, their children, and grandchildren. Maybe their parents said the wrong thing at the wrong time and they said, "I'm out of here." I can speculate about what they thought they were going from and going to, but, finally, I don't and can't ever know.
And, it's in that spirit, that we went to Finland.

General observations

1. Travel teaches us that we'll make mistakes, get lost, spend too much, or miss something important and we'll still have a good time. 
2. It's hard not to take someone else's trip. Well-meaning people at home and on the road will offer advice on places to go, things to do, foods to eat. We take all suggestions seriously and apply what we can. We are, however, who we are with our habits, comforts, and energy levels. We travel to stretch ourselves, but might only try something as exotic as licorice ice cream.
3. When traveling, you have to remember a few very important details, such as the hotel location and room number and the next train or plane departure time, only to forget them so that you can remember the next bits of important information.
   Meanwhile, there are other things that you want to remember for a long time, but don't know what they are. Is this statue, that view, last night's meal important? Why didn't we get the names of those nice people on the train, that helpful taxi driver?
   I found myself often saying, "I want to remember this."
   What things were those? you might ask.
   You know the answer, don't you?
   

Television

Travelers know that nudity is more common on European television shows. We watched one show, a British show, if I recall correctly, with Finnish subtitles, about the sauna. When Mummu ja Vaari (grandmother and grandfather) go off to sauna, you're see a lot of skin and it was not taut, youthful skin.
Another show, from England's Channel 4, was titled How to Look Good Naked. It was kind of a Queer Eye for the Dove Gal, where a stylist named Gok Wan helps ordinary women look and feel beautiful, even to the point of posing naked for a photo shoot.
We relied on CNN International and the BBC for news. (CNN International is, in my opinion, a much better news source than the domestic CNN.)
When those weren't available or when we couldn't watch the same cellphone video clips from the Iranian protests one more time, we watched Finnish channels. Although modern television technology can make even the simplest station look pretty good, Boston TV stations have much higher production quality than the Helsinki stations. There were few live reports, Doppler radar weather forecasts, or headlines crawling along the bottom of the screen. The news shows were comparable to the talking heads of the 1970s.

Smoking

Smoking is not permitted in any public building, so smokers used every opportunity to smoke outside. On a few occasions, we ate indoors to get away from the smoke.

I couldn't get a sense of how much cigarettes cost in Finland, but expect that, like everything else, they are expensive. European warning labels are much more serious, as we saw at the duty-free shop in the Helsinki airport.

Continental breakfasts

Continental breakfasts, as presented in American hotels, typically include some stale donuts, little boxes of cereal, and maybe a toaster so you can make your own toast. Continental breakfasts on the continent, by comparisons, are massive. You can have eggs, porridge, baby bratwursts, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, various yogurts, fruit, a half dozen types of muesli, coffees, juices, many types of breads, rolls, and rye crisps. Breakfast was typically our largest meal of the day. The meal is included in the price of the hotel room.

Maps, newspapers, and the unwired life

We found Internet access in the business centers of the hotels, but otherwise lived through a disconnected time. Our cellphones aren't the type that work elsewhere in the world.
We relied on maps and printed tour guides. The maps were pretty good, but with a few annoying characteristics. Finnish street names are long and so the print gets quite small on the maps. In addition, in an effort to be helpful, the map makers put numbers on the map to identify items of interest. Those items might be museums, historic buildings, or a paid advertiser's restaurant. Those numbers often obscured the street names.
Finnish-language newspapers were freely available in the hotels. Newspapers in English were harder to locate and often out of date. Also, because of the time difference (Finland is seven hours ahead of the U.S. east coast and 10 ahead of California.), news from the States was typically a day late. All of the European newspapers had been printed and distributed when, for example, news of Michael Jackson's death hit the wires.

Cellphones

People on cell phones are, for the most, annoying in any language, but the Finns didn't seem as loud. I don't know if it was a sense of courtesy, the much-noted Silent Finn, or if the Nokia cellphones are better at giving aural feedback so that you know how loud you are.

Languages

We would have been paahtoleipä (toast) if the Finnish school systems didn't do such a good job teaching languages. Most people are able to speak three languages (Finnish, Swedish, and English) and often more (German, French, or Russian). Menus typically included English translations. Announcements at train stations and airports always included English.
Icelanders' command of English wasn't quite as crisp, but we fared quite well.
The word bacon is pekoni in Finnish and beikoni in Icelandic.
Small bits of Finnish became suddenly familiar to me as we traveled. Words and phrases that I'd spoken for a lifetime, such as kiitoksia (a casual form of "thank you") looked odd when I first saw them in print.

Food

We had good meals, several that were quite good, some that were utilitarian. We had fish often, red meat a few times, and the wonderful array of goodies that came with the breakfast buffets.
One restaurant offered reindeer fawn liver.
Sandra sampled the local beers and found them good. Wines came from Argentina and California, but rarely from Europe.
Finns drink a lot of coffee. (Various studies indicate that they drink the most per capita of any country in the world.)  The coffee is strong and, in my opinion, not very good. I'm kinda fussy about coffee and find that few places on either side of the pond put a lot of care into the selection or preparation of their coffees. (I should note that I grew up on my grandmother's boiled coffee and learned from my father how to reuse coffee grounds for many days in a row. Anything that can be done to coffee, we've done it.)
Friend Jenny spent her junior year of high school in Denmark. One of the first phrases that she learned in Danish was "I'll have what she's having."
In Finland and Iceland, that is too risky. Because of some medication, I have to be very vigilant about certain foods. Most of the time, it was easy to know what not to order. In a couple of instances, however, I couldn't figure out the ingredients and opted to have yogurt instead.

When family members returned from Finland back when I was a kid, they'd invariably bring back Salmiakki, a candy that looks and, at first, tastes like licorice, but then lurches onto your taste buds with a dose of its key ingredient,  ammonium chloride. Finns say that they love it.

Cars

Small cars dominated the scene in both countries. Somewhat surprisingly, Toyota is the top-selling brand in Finland. VW, Ford, Opel (GM), Volvo, Fiat, Nissan, other Japanese, Korean, French, and German nameplates round out the crowd. We saw just a few Range Rovers, one Hummer, a couple of American sedans, and several that I couldn't recognize. Some reports says that the Russian Skoda (now manufactured in the Czech Republic) is popular, but I didn't see any in Finland and just one in Iceland. We saw a few Chinese small trucks and more larger American cars/SUVs, Land Rovers, and other off-road vehicles in Reykjavik.

Other stuff

The error message 404 means that the page that you're looking for can't be found. Most web sites have a simple message, saying that the link is broken and the page is missing, most likely deleted in reorganization of the web site. The Finnish rail company, VR, has a 404 page. It has a picutre of this guy. Dunno why.

Notes from our bus tour of Helsinki:

• Audio tour of Helsinki offered in Finnish (including colloquial Helsinki dialect), Swedish, German, English, French, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. 
• Tour guide said, "Helsinki has as many as three symphonies." "Many Finnish men say that nothing beats a good sausage."

Roasterboy, unwired

More than 10 years ago, a friend remarked that it took less than a generation to go from over-the-air television and wired phones to TV with wires and phones without.

It took another decade, but we've abandoned our land-line phone. It was easy to have our home phone number transferred to my cellphone. (I puzzled over this for a while. I've had the same cellphone number for 16 years, but we've had the home number for nearly a dozen more.)
For a couple of weeks, we've been taking a trial run on a cellphone-only life. I forwarded calls from home to my phone. No big surprises. There have been a few times when the call quality wasn't great, but a lot of calls go to other people's cellphones, so we can't always tell where the problem rests.
A habit that we've developed over the last quarter-century is to come home and immediately glance at the answering machine to see if there are messages waiting for us. Not only are there no messages, but there's no machine. There's a flicker of an empty feeling, but it passes quickly.

Talking for a long time on a small cellphone is often uncomfortable. Bluetooth headsets are, for some, a cool and workable solution. For others, however, a more traditional approach is in order -- ThinkGeek :: Retro Phone Handset

Iceland is an island named Island.

We grew up in a time when thermonuclear was imminent. We'd seen pictures of mushroom clouds. We'd hear of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) as the operating principle that kept us safe. (As long as the Soviet Union knew that we weren't afraid to destroy the world, they'd not launch an attack. And this is what we'd imagine the world would look like after such a war, a time when, we were told, the living would envy the dead.
We found this apocalyptic landscape on the southwestern tip of Iceland where we spent the last two days of our travels. We went to the Blue Lagoon.
Both a day spa and a hotel (called The Clinic), the Blue Lagoon (in Icelandic, Bláa lónið) provides warm (40C), rich blue water, supersaturated with silica salts.
People come to the waters to relax and to be healed. It's not uncommon for people flying to or from Europe to arrange a stop-over in Iceland. They get off the plane, get on a bus, travel to the Blue Lagoon, spend a few hours and quite a few krónur (Iceland's currency), get back on a bus, return to the airport, and continue their journey.
Let me quote from the Blue Lagoon'sofficial story:

The seawater originates 2000 meter/6562 ft beneath the ground where it is heated by earth’s natural forces. At this depth the temperature is 240°C/464°F and the pressure is 36 times the pressure on the earth’s surface. The geothermal seawater comes into contact with cooling magmatic intrusions and captures the earth’s minerals, resulting in
this unique natural source known for its healing power and actives.
...

The Lava surrounding the Blue Lagoon was formed in 1226 and is called Evil Lava because it is rough and difficult to cross due to its porous surface.

Evil Lava, indeed. The landscape is fierce. Hardy moss and lichens manage to find nutrients in the lava rock and endure the harsh winters. This picture is a view from our room. A nearby geothermal power station produces electricity from the superheated waters. Steam rises in the chilly air. (We were promised a warm day of 18C, but the low clouds hung around most of the time, keeping the temps in the low teens.)
In addition to electricity, the power plant produces steam that runs in large pipes across the lava fields. It's too difficul to dig into the rock to bury the pipes.

The Clinic is a single-story building with 15 rooms, a small dining room, conference rooms, several private rooms for massage and other treatments, and its own pool of the aforementioned blue water. The guest rooms are excellent examples of Nordic simple elegance with the beds, closets, and cupboards made of jatoba wood. (Iceland was deforested in the 17th and 18th centuries, so most wood is imported.) The bathroom and shower included several unfamiliar features, as is typical of European fixtures, but we managed to figure out the essentials. As an added amenity for intimacy, there is a Cat-5 network port in the headboard of the bed.
We arrived in early evening and missed dinner at the Clinic. It was a short and pleasant walk to the main spa. The path curls around several blue pools and between massive piles of lava rock that had been pushed aside by the ambitious developers.
Dinner was very nice. Sandra had arctic char. I had trout. Both looked and tasted like salmon. With dessert and coffee, the meal came to 12,500 ISK. about 100 bucks 'merican. (The Icelandic krónur is worth $0.0078.) After a leisurely stroll back to our digs, we went into the water.
Of course, the first thing that you notice is the warmth, followed quickly by the rich smell of the silica salt. The water is about four feet deep. The bottom of the pool is smoothed lava rock covered with a slippery layer of silica salt that's anywhere from just a coating to several inches. They call it mud, so we'll go with that term. It's very slick and yet will stay on your skin easily. It's not always the kindest material to hair and can stay in your ears for several days if you're foolish enough to put it in there in the first place.
We had the pool to ourselves for an hour. We could float around, feeling the warmth of the water, the chill of the air, the weightlessness. With low clouds, the light was diffuse. There was no sense of time or direction.In the soft sensual bath, we drifted. Troubles floated away. Thoughts became quiet.
We couldn't wait to get out there.
Doesn't make much sense, does it? With all the turbulence back home, why would we want to cut short a serene time in an exotic location. As best as I can figure, we'd had such a good time in Finland, good times with each other, thinking and not thinking about our lives past and future, sketching out several next steps that might refocused us and bring a renewed balance and direction. We have a life of many blessings and were eager to re-engage.
But not quite yet. We'd bought low-cost tickets and we learned from the airline that it would be prohibitively expensive to change our flight.

Instead, we enjoyed our breakfast at the breakfast table and then took a bus in to Reykavik.
As we traveled east toward the capital, we saw more plants and, eventually, more houses and people. By the time we reached the city, there were trees.
The bus station was on the outer edge of the city. We walked first to Hallgrimskirkja, a featured church that was undergoing repairs and covered with scaffolding and plastic. It was a five-minute walk to downtown, a busy and energic weave of small streets packed with artist shops, restaurants, and upscale stores selling furs and Rolex watches. We had a nice lunch seated with an unhappy American couple on one side and an unhappy Icelandic couple on the other. These weren't typical. The locals were pleasant, eager to help, and the tourists, mostly young and healthy, seemed either to be on their way to or from backpacking on the glaciers.
We had a nice walk back to the bus station where I learned that I'd goofed and picked up a bus schedule from a different bus company. It would be another three hours before our bus would take us back to the Blue Lagoon. We grumbled for a bit and then found a tour bus that would show us the sights of the city. It's a beautiful city, one that works hard.
On the bus ride back, I overhead a child talking with his parents. It sounded as though they were speaking Finnish.
"Soumalainen?"
I asked. The father nodded. Before he could speak much more, however, I explained that I only spoke a few words of Finnish. We chatted the rest of the way in English.
Back at the clinic, we had a light dinner and another dip in the pool. The clouds briefly lifted from the horizon around 11PM, letting sunshine stream across the Evil Lava.
Our bus would pick us up shortly in the early afternoon on Sunday. I concluded our European dining experience with a lunch of a hot dog, Pringles®, and a Coke®. Icelanders say with some pride that they make good hot dogs. I agree. Hot Dog Annie's doesn't have to worry, but it was a good hot dog.
Our plane's departure was delayed because they were waiting for a tourist group from Denmark; this was the last flight to Boston for the day and I presume that the airline didn't want to have to put the tourists in a hotel unti the next day.
The plane was full. We carefully put our package of Iittala glassware in the overhead bin. We were seated near a family with many children, all of whom were happy, eager to talk with their parents about this thing or that. Meanwhile, the woman behind Sandra was kicking the seatback.
We were about 20 minutes late getting to Boston. The signs said that the city of Boston was glad to have us here, but the customs officials were bored and humorless, mall cops with guns. We knew that we were back in the States when, after we'd wove our way through the rope lines from baggage claim to the final customs station, we had to wait for one official to tell us which line was empty. "OK, you can go to line six now," he said.
Outside the terminal, we watched with amazement as an airport worker gathered up the luggage carts, tied them with bungee cords, and drove this long train back into the building. There was
real talent at work back here in the U. S.of A.

Wait. What?

Two NPR staffers — All Things Considered producer Graham Smith and staff photographer David Gilkey — are traveling with Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment.
At last check, the initials NPR represent National Public Radio.  As in, radio. Sound. No pictures. Radio.
I'm gonna get me a job as the official sniffer for PBS.

These folks are reading my mail

From

Return to Helsinki

We were met at the Helsinki train station by the taxi driver who'd brought us to the station the week before. We talked about our travels to the north and about his upcoming trip to New York and Washington.
About Helsinki. Not surprisingly, Helsinki is a very white city, whiter even than Holden. Finns are not the stereotypical Nordic types, however, with blond hair and pale-to-pink skin. Brown and even black hair, such as my mother's, is common, as are some oriental features (high cheekbones, skin several shades from pale) as the result of mixing with the Sami people of Lapland.
That said, people of color are noticeable for both their rarity and purity. In the 90s, Finland accepted many refugees from the Somali civil war, with the result that you have African teenagers hanging out, speaking what this ear believes is perfect Finnish.
There are also immigrants from other parts of the world - southern Europe, Turkey, south Asia, and a few from the Pacific Rim. Tourists, too, come from all over. The breakfast buffet included sushi and rice. The dining cars on the trains served a decent curry.
We had an early dinner at a Nepalese restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel. We had the best nan we've ever had. Our meals, with lamb, rice, and yogurt sauce, were very tasty, although mine was, and this was a surprise to me, too spicy to enjoy full. I'm usually pretty good about being able to take the heat, but I needed help from the yogurt quite often.

A couple of hours later, we had sauna at the hotel and then settled in for some Finnish television. One show was a three-hour accordion talent show. An intense girl of nine or so played a creditable version of Take Five.
On Thursday, we were scheduled for an early-afternoon narrated bus tour of the city, giving us time for a leisurely breakfast and a walk to the Olympic Stadium.

Our hotel offered a couple of English-language newspapers, the International Herald Tribune and the Financial Times. At home, I get nearly all of my news online and generally read the newspaper only on Sunday. Here, with time and a hunger for words I could recognize, I savored the experience, particularly the IHT.
The Olympic facilities were a couple kilometers from our hotel. Finland had been given the rights to the 1940 Olympics and had built the stadium and related complex through the 30s. Those Olympics were, um, overcome by events. As a result, the Helsinki hosted the 1952 games.
We took the elevator to the top of the Olympic tower and had a magnificent view of the city and beyond. We were told that, on a clear day, we could see Tallin, the Estonian capital across the Baltic. The day was clear so we believed that we saw it.

The afternoon went quickly. We had our dessert first at a small ice cream stand, under an umbrella because we were told that the seagulls would attack us, toured the city by bus, and had lunch at a nice restaurant on the Esplanade. As I've mentioned, businesses often play American jazz as background music. This nice restaurant, however, wasn't paying close attention to the lyrics, I guess. Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam is not your typical lunchtime tune
After lunch, we went shopping, finding some nifty things at the Iittala and Marimekko stores. We were delighted with our purchases, but we now had to travel with a bag of fragile glasses. It was agreed that Sandra would carry the Iittala bag and I'd tote the other stuff for the rest of the trip.

We were tired. We'd walked a lot, seen a lot, but decided to take one last tour around the big plaza between the train station and our hotel. We saw people enjoying the fine weather with a late-afternoon beer (not to be confused with the mid-morning, lunch-time, mid-afternoon, after-dinner, or late-night beer). Kids were on skateboards. Bicyclists zipped through the crowds of people. It was a fine place to be and also time to get ready to move on.
I picked up a few things at a corner grocery store for our supper. I neglected to get a spoon for our yogurt, so we ate using the coffee stirrers in the room. (In our visit to Iceland, we saw a clever feature, a folding plastic spoon that fits inside of the cover of the yogurt container. I saved a couple of them for future travels.)
The next morning, we walked around a bit, had mid-morning coffee and a Napoleon at Cafe Ekberg. Our taxi-driver friend picked us up again and so we had another chance to talk about his trip. He'd heard that the Statue of Liberty crown was reopening, but we agreed that the crowds would be massive. He'd take a boat ride around Lady Liberty and visit the Empire State Building and the Guggenheim in New York. His plans for Washington were still open.
Finnair flew us to Iceland. With the time difference, the four-and-a-half hour flight only took a half-hour. We landed in Keflavik Airport, got some strange money from the ATM, and took a bus to the strangest place on the planet.

Is you is or is you ain't wired?

It's never too late to find your purpose in life

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Holden

Monday, June 29

1:21 a.m. 911 Suspicious pickup truck in driveway on South Rd.
2:04 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle in light department parking lot
8:45 a.m. 911 Uncontrollable teen on Wachusett St.
9:59 a.m. Loud explosion heard on Duxbury Dr., then on Quinapoxet/Windy Ridge. Light Dept. aware
11:06 a.m. Assessors will be going around town this week
12:05 p.m. Suspicious people selling magazines or books on Avery Heights Dr.
1:10 p.m. Injured hawk on Reservoir St.
2:28 p.m. Two boys reported selling books/ magazines on Courtney Dr.
3:54 p.m. Complaint of suspicion of person siphoning gas
4:10 p.m. Bullet found in father's old belongings

10:32 p.m. Music too loud on Dorothy Ave.

Tuesday, June 30

1:17 p.m. Caller concerned about check written to kids collecting donations and selling magazines
12:21 p.m. 911 Skateboarders refuse to leave Mountview School
12:59 p.m. 911 hang-up from Main St.; trying to reach bank
5:31 p.m. Multiple calls of tree down on Putnam Rd.
7:02 p.m. 911 Suspicious motorcycle and truck at end of Mason Rd.
11:06 p.m. Fox seen on Putnam Rd.

Wednesday, July 1

10:22 a.m. Disabled tractor trailer in front of library
11:35 a.m. 911 Two-car motor vehicle accident on Main St.
1:48 p.m. Two car motor vehicle accident on Main St.
3:44 p.m. 911 Two-car motor vehicle accident on Main St.
5:59 p.m. Question about military/medical leave from individual being reported AWOL by his employer
7:15 p.m. Turtle crossing road in front of Police Department

Thursday, July 2

1:16 a.m. Report of several teens running through yard on Pinecroft Ave.
1:20 a.m. 911 Report of lawn chair set up in the middle of Salisbury St.
5:48 a.m. Inquiry about noise ordinance; someone emptying a dumpster at 5:30 a.m. every Thursday
7:24 a.m. Dog barking all night, Woodland Rd.
9:20 a.m. Camelot Circle resident reports fox problem
9:43 a.m. Tree crew blocking lane of Main St.; told to move off road
10:12 a.m. Youths moving cones and barrels at town pool on Salisbury St.; items placed in road during overnight shift
10:12 a.m. Complaint regarding dumpster on Fairview Ave. being emptied at 5:30 a.m.
11:35 a.m. Timber Lane resident concerned about foxes
11:51 a.m. Missing cat reported
1:00 p.m. Large dog on sidewalk near Mountview; belongs in neighborhood
1:38 p.m. Fox reported walking around on Driftwood Dr.
4:00 p.m. Report of individual lighting off fireworks
6:37 p.m. Suspicious person asking employees strange questions in Friendly's parking lot
9:50 p.m. 911 Someone moved traffic barrel into roadway to disrupt traffic on Salisbury St.
10:45 p.m. Loud offensive music reported from Mayflower Circle

Friday, July 3

2:17 a.m. Loud music and fireworks reported on Mayflower Circle
3:35 p.m. Caller asking what time parade starts; told no parade in Holden
7:36 p.m. Loose dog reported at Jefferson School
8:30 p.m. Youths skateboarding at Senior Center
11:25 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle coming from Paxton toward Holden

Saturday, July 4

1:26 a.m. Fireworks reported near cemetery on Main St.
4:38 a.m. 911 Report of neighbor lighting off fireworks on Paugus Rd.
9:00 a.m. 911 Report of black bear on Slipper Hill Lane
9:38 a.m. Large limb on tree near Bailey Rd.
12:34 p.m. Walk-in reports seeing black bear on Main St. two hours ago
8:30 p.m. Traffic light-crosswalk being triggered when no one's around at Subway on Main St.
9:19 p.m. Fireworks going off on Fox Hill Rd.
10:02 p.m. Family of foxes reported in yard
10:08 p.m. Fireworks reported on High St.

Sunday, July 5

1:46 a.m. Report of noisy gathering on Homestead Rd.
12:07 p.m. Citizen wondering if there's a band concert today
2:41 p.m. Small puppy missing from Malden St.
4:06 p.m. Caller asking about e-mail from IRS regarding refund; advised call IRS directly rather than sending info via e-mail
5:06 p.m. Propane tank missing from home; will contact gas company to see if they're responsible
9:04 p.m. 911 Report of kids throwing fireworks in road on Wyoming Dr.
9:56 p.m. Barking dog reported on Putnam Rd.
10:48 p.m. 911 Report of four sheep in road on Salisbury St.

Paxton

Thursday, July 2

8:16 p.m. Leicester Police advising of suspicious auto with four males wearing black gloves, Laurel St.

Saturday, July 4

12:24 p.m. Report of bull mastiff on Lawrence St.

Sunday, July 5

6:54 p.m. Suspicious pickup trucks, Pleasant St.

Princeton

Monday, June 29

4:25 p.m. Public service, Town Hall Dr.
6:20 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Houghton Rd.

Tuesday, June 30

10:10 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Gregory Hill Rd.
3:36 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Rte. 140 North
6:11 p.m. Suspicious incident, Allen Hill Rd.
7:54 p.m. Suspicious person, Mountain Rd.

Wednesday, July 1

5:16 a.m. Assist other police department, Main St.

Thursday, July 2

7:07 a.m. Suspicious person, Brooks Station Rd.
10:40 a.m. Lost/missing person, Bullard Rd.
2:45 p.m. Officer investigation, Town Hall Dr.
9:19 p.m. Request for light department, Westminster Rd.

Friday, July 3

12:30 a.m. Disturbance, Ball Hill Rd.
9:28 a.m. Assist other police department, Wachusett St., Holden
12:52 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Ridge Rd., Rutland
12:52 p.m. Assist other town department, Ridge Rd., Rutland

Saturday, July 4

2:26 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Brooks Station Rd.
3:56 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Mountain Rd.
4:03 p.m. Request for animal control officer, East Princeton Rd.
6:08 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Sterling Rd.

Sunday, July 5

2:00 a.m. Assist Westminster Police Department, Wachusett Dr.
9:08 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Hubbardston Rd.
6:25 p.m. Suspicious person, Ball Hill Rd.
9:28 p.m. Open door/window, Worcester Rd.

Rutland

Tuesday, June 30

7:49 a.m. Complaint about trucks using "Jake brake" not in a natural way, Pleasantdale Rd. and Prospect St.
2:04 p.m. Person stole wood from side of garage, Barre Paxton Rd.

Wednesday, July 1

8:05 p.m. Caller reports hitting a deer, car is damaged, Pommogussett Rd.
8:10 p.m. Caller reports family of skunks has moved into garage, Fairview Ave.

Thursday, July 2

9:53 a.m. Complaint about loose dog, constantly barking, Highland Park Rd.
1:33 p.m. Snake in basement, Vista Circle
1:55 p.m. Resident upset with the conditions at the playground, equipment is being damaged by youths, Memorial Dr.
3:03 p.m. Caller reporting that someone used his Dumpster, Central Tree Rd.
8:02 p.m. Person came to station to report cars blocking other cars behind town hall, Main St.

Friday, July 3

8:25 a.m. Person came to station to speak with officer about suspicious behavior of contractor, Main St.
10:23 a.m. Report that vehicles are driving on lawns in the area and leaving tire marks, Ten Rod Rd.

Saturday, July 4

12:05 a.m. Report that dog fled during fireworks, Sassawanna Rd.
8:42 a.m. Homeowner reports that well pump is broken due to silt from the road and water is running into yard, Sassawanna Rd.
7:46 p.m. Loose cows, Pommogussett Rd.
11:30 p.m. Caller reports hitting dog that then took off, Pommogussett Rd.

Sunday, July 5

6:54 p.m. Paxton Police reports receiving calls about three pickups playing tag on Barre Paxton Rd.

Sterling

Tuesday, June 30

10:13 a.m. Escort requested, Worcester Rd.
1:22 p.m. Report of stray dog at beach, Hall Ave.
3:24 p.m. Person came to station to pick up paperwork, Leominster Rd.

Wednesday, July 1

8:36 a.m. Man sleeping under bridge, Muddy Pond Rd.

Thursday, July 2

9:33 a.m. Lost black and white dog, possibly sprayed by skunk, Worcester Rd.
12:05 p.m. Report of lost cat, Laurelwood Rd.

Friday, July 3

7:49 a.m. Report of baby falcon in back yard, appears to be injured, Boutelle Rd.
5:18 p.m. Missing black cat, Squareshire Rd.
8:54 p.m. Report of fireworks going off at house on Redstone Hill Rd.

Saturday, July 4

3:54 a.m. Person talking very loudly on cell phone, Charles Patten Dr.
9:38 a.m. Young hawk on the side of the road, unknown whether injured, Boutelle Rd.
9:07 p.m. Officer wanted, report of fireworks, Newell Hill Rd.
9:12 p.m. Officer requested for fireworks, Redstone Hill Rd.
9:19 p.m. Officer wanted, fireworks, Lakeshore Dr.
9:25 p.m. Request for officer regarding fireworks, Newell Hill Rd.
9:28 p.m. Request for officer, Heywood Rd.
9:28 p.m. Requesting officer assistance with fireworks, large boat loaded with fireworks ready to be lit, North Cove Rd.
9:32 p.m. Officer requested for fireworks in area of Osgood Rd.
9:43 p.m. Officer wanted, fireworks, Redstone Hill Rd.
10:36 p.m. Lancaster Police requesting assistance to Bolton fairgrounds for multiple fights in progress at rodeo, Route 117, Bolton

Sunday, July 5

7:34 a.m. Report of fireworks debris in yard, Blueberry Lane
8:07 a.m. Officer wanted, Blueberry Lane
9:24 p.m. Loose German shepherd, Worcester Rd./Boutelle Rd.
9:26 p.m. Report of people in orchard, Chamberlain Rd.

If I can't see you, you don't want to see me.

The train ride from Oulu to Jyväskälä brought us out of the thick forests and into the lakes regions. There are more than 185,000 lakes in Finland, many with cottages and saunas at the water's edge. My father's parents came from two small towns, Kivijärvi and Viitasaari, each about an hour-and-a-half drive north.

Although most of Finland is has relatively flat terrain, there are a few hills. It was easier to put tunnels through the granite hills than to lay tracks and build bridges over the lakes and wetlands. (A fact which may or may not be related - both of my grandfathers worked in granite quarries when they first settled in New England in the early 20th century.) When the train goes through a tunnel, it compresses the air which, then, seeks the easiest places for release - in your ears.
A couple of  notes about 'green Europe':

• We flew on Finnair. With my coffee, I also received a small, plastic-wrapped packet containing sugar, a plastic spoon, and (I am not making this up) a small plastic bag, labels Waste. The Waste bag was inside a small plastic bag of its own. It was a self-generating waste production and disposal system.
  
  
• The train toilets (how can I say this delicately?) empty onto the tracks. It's a bit unnerving to look down and see the tracks below. We are very grateful that buses don't have this feature.

Our travel agent had pre-arranged taxi drivers to meet us at the train station. We were embarrassed to discover that the Jyväskälä train station is right across the street from the hotel. We loaded the suitcases into the trunk of the cab. The cab driver made a U-turn. We unloaded the suitcases from the cab.
A couple of notes on taxis in Finland:

• All of the cabs were new, luxury cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, or Audi. No aging Crown Vics here. We asked one driver why the cars were so new and nice. He said that tax and safety laws made it impractical not to have newer and safer cars, which often meant sturdy sedans such as Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, or Audi.
• A few years ago, four cab drivers were murdered in Helsinki. Since then, most cabs have cameras that record the passengers. 

Jyväskälä is a college town. Even in the summer, the city is full of young and wanna-be-young people.

The sidewalks in Jyväskälä (and in Oulu and Helsinki) designated lanes for bicycles and pedestrians.
When I first saw the sign, I said, "This lane for pedophiles."
The downtown streets are broad and many are for pedestrians and bicycles only. The middle of one street had 100 or more bicycles in and around sets of bike racks; few, if any, of the bicycles were locked.
In our whole time in Finland, we saw just a few police cars and no police officers patrolling the streets. We'd seen news reports about Romanian pickpockets, but never did we feel unsafe.
On our first afternoon, we walked through the city center and up a hill, the Harju ridge, to the University's sports stadium. The paths up the hill were steep in places, winding through old growth pines. From the top, we had a good view of the University and of the nearby business and industrial parks. That afternoon was also our warmest, with temperatures near 25C.
Back in our room, we discovered that we didn't have an English-language news channel. Other hotels had either CNN or BBC. There were channels in English (detective shows and other dramas from the UK and Oprah, Conan O'Brien, Friends, and The Simpsons) with Finnish subtitles. In addition, they had French, German, and Russian channels.
The newspapers carried a few familiar comics.

 

I'll leave the translation as an exercise for the reader.

On Tuesday, we walked to Alvar Aalto Museum, where we saw samples of his furniture, watched a short film (in English) about his life and work, had our coffee break, and bought some nice things in the museum shop.
Afterward, we continued our walk, this time along the short of Lake Jyväsjärvi. We were scheduled to take a cruise on the lake, but opted out because a) even though the sky was clear, the wind had picked up so the waters were choppy and b) I'm a bit superstitious about anything billed as "a three-hour tour."
We wandered the city for the rest of the day and had an early supper at an outdoor restaurant, giving the meal time to settle before we had sauna.
We decided that we'd go without bathing suits this time. Again, there were separate facilities for men and women. Sort of. There were separate changing, shower, and sauna rooms, but, in the back, there was a lounge with hot tubs, comfy chairs, and a TV. Without my glasses, I went through what I expected to be the sauna door. Fortunately for others more than me, no one was in the lounge area. On the way back to my proper place, I noticed that there was a basketful of bathing suits that one could wear to this semi-public place.
The sauna itself was ok. They had music, some kind of French Europop drek that had no business being in this sacred space.
The next morning, the cab driver met us at the hotel, made another U-turn, and delivered us to the train station for our return to Helsinki.

Why the American economy is walking in circles

You have to give the folks at Proctor and Gamble some credit for recognizing that we need simple solutions. They've come out with a no-frills laundry detergent called Tide Basic - "Big Value. Basic Clean." The Consumer Reports blog has a report on the new product, although they've not yet tested it.
In the meantime, however, ask yourself, "What is one of the cleanest places in your house?" If asked, I would respond, "Inside the washing machine, you silly duck."

So why, then, is Proctor and Gamble spending product development, manufacturing, and marketing money to bring out a product that, and I want to be perfectly clear about this, cleans the inside of a washing machine.
Next, they'll be telling us that we need to wash the inside of our dishwashers.

Oh, snap.

---

Update 8-July-2009:
Apparently, walking in circles isn't just an American economic trait. The British will now sell you pre-boiled hard-boiled eggs.
Too thick to boil an egg? Buy 'em preboiled

Midsummer weekend in Oulu

We left a quiet Rovaniemi on Saturday and took a short  train ride to an equally quiet Oulu. A city of 137,000, Oulu is a port city in the northwest. Although we could see cargo ships, cranes, and other signs of a working port, the waterfront area near our hotel was a broad expanse of restaurants, shops, and apartments with a large marketplace in the center.

The marketplace is guarded by Toripolliisi, a statue of a policeman.
Did I mention that this was Midsummer? Owners of the shops and restaurants had printed suljettu juhannuksena (closed for Midsummer) on white pieces of paper and placed those signs on the doors. We got very good at spotting the white sheets of paper, sometimes from a half-block away.

With more places closed, we got to walk a lot and see a very nice city. We visited Oulu's oldest church and received an informative tour from a young woman whose English was tinged, for no known reason, with an Australian accent. The church is also an access point for the city-wide wireless network.

In the small park near our hotel, we had ice cream cones. (Licorice ice cream is better than it sounds, but not a lot better.) Black-faced seagulls fussed loudly over the cone scraps that we tossed on the ground.
With most restaurants closed, we opted for the Mexican restaurant in our hotel. Hint: if you want good Mexican or southwest American food, Oulu is probably not your best choice.
On Sunday morning, we took a walk through the city's parks brings us along canals to the waterfront. The observatory at the Oulu Castle provides a wonderful view of the city and harbor.
There was a bit of activity in the marketplace. A four-piece band (trumpet, trombone, bass, guitar) played bluesy swing tunes. We tossed a few spare things into the hat when it came by. Sandra bartered for three small hand-painted plates.
The desk clerk at the hotel had recommended a restaurant on Pikisaari Island, about 1km away across a bridge over a harbor inlet. "It might not be open," she cautioned. Her hunch was correct. Nevertheless, after a bit more rambling, we found a place that was open. As with most restaurants, they had outdoor seating. We had a very good salmon dinner.
Sauna. There are, by most estimates, around two million saunas in a country of five million. Each hotel has saunas, separate facilities for men and women. (We could have rented a private sauna room in the Hotel Santa Claus for 150 things.)
Our Oulu hotel had an electric sauna and showers for washing. We wore bathing suits but weren't surprised when others did not. The heat was good, 80-85C, and dry. After sauna, we were clean, relaxed, and refreshed.
We had good blackout curtains again in our room and so there was enough darkness to sleep well. By Monday morning, the city was coming alive. The city buses, cleverly called Citybussi, made their way through narrow and often cobblestoned streets.
By mid-morning, we were on our train to Jyväskälä. We'd started to accumulate some gifts and other memorabilia, so our suitcases were become heavier. It was becoming a bit of exercise to drag our possessions to and through the train and then lift them up to the racks over the seats. We'd deliberately packed our suitcase half-full at the start of our trip, knowing that we'd fill them before the trip was over. Allowing for space is one thing; handling the extra weight is another.
We passed through Muhos, the town were my mother's family came from.

---

Editor's note: the Finnish alphabet has a couple of characters that don't appear on U.S. English computer keyboards - ä and ö, as well as å, which is a carryover from Swedish. So, typing names such as Jyväskälä on a U.S. keyboard is challenging. We regularly checked email at the hotel business centers and discovered that the layout of Finnish keyboards was vexing for a while.

Chesterfield 4th of July

We spent the 4th of July with Adam, Jennie, Lily, and extend family in Chesterfield. The hilltowns gather together for a big parade, chicken barbecue, music, and other patriotic classics.

This link brings you to the a slideshow from the festivities.

Grocery shopping made easy

For a while now, Stop and Shop has offered hand-held gadgets that customers can use to scan items while shopping.

The idea is two-fold: 1) by scanning as you shop, you can check out quickly and 2.) as you wander aimlessly around the store because you forgot where they keep the graola bars,  this gadget will make a noise and remind you of an item that's on sale in this aisle.
So, you've got this thing that sometimes makes a sound like a cash register and sometimes like a bell and it's supposed to make the shopping experience better, faster, and fun.
And, of course, I use it every time I go shopping. I doubt that it saves time or money, but it's a gadget. I do my shopping, put my stuff in the shopping bags, and show up at the self-service register, ready to pay my money.
There's long-standing tradition in the computer industry that, if a product doesn't work well, then we fix it documentation, giving users extra instructions that let them do something that should have been easy.
When you use the touch screen at the self-service register, it ask if you want to pay with credit card, debit card, cash, goat pelts, or some other option. Given that you just made your selection on one screen, you might think that these interconnected computer systems might be able to remember your choice. Nah. The card scanner asks you again whether you're paying with credit card or debit card.
Rather than fixing the system, it's a lot easier to put up hand-written instructions:

After that, in case you don't know that you need to use the electronic pen to sign your credit card transaction, another sign helps you.

 

North to where the darkness stops

On Thursday, 18 June, we arrived at the Helsinki train station with plenty of time to worry about which train to catch. We were scheduled to take the 19:25 (7:25PM in 'merkin time) overnight train to Rovaniemi, some 700 km to the north.
The electronic display showed trains to Rovaniemi scheduled for an hour earlier and an hour later. With that wonderful concoction of panic and confusion that courses through the veins of most travelers, I inquired at the information desk and learned that the 19:25 train, "The Santa Claus Express," bound for Kemijärvi, would indeed stop in Rovaniemi.
While I was collecting this bit of reassurance, Sandra had been talking with a man and woman who were also taking the same train. The man had been, among other things, a tour guide for travel writers and spoke English well and often. His wife was quieter and also less confident of her command of our language. We sat with them in the dining car. They were a bit surprised that I ordered something so ordinary, lihapullat ja perunasose (meatballs with mashed potatoes), but this was comfort food from way back.
After dinner, we went back to our rooms and settled in for a long and pretty much sleepless night through the non-darkness.

We'd heard so much about trains in Europe, mostly good stuff. My father, who'd hopped onto freight trains and rode inside and on top of box cars across the U.S. during the Depression, would have thought our travel was regal. Our cabin had two bunks, a Buck-Rogers, Transformer-type bathroom that converted, with a gentle tug of the wall, into a shower stall, and even straps for skis. The Finns idea of an express train is that you only stop every 30 minutes. Oh, and the other part of the regal travel were the royal drunkards in the corridor and the cabins nearby.
We arrived in Rovaniemi only slightly more rested than we'd been on the flight from across the pond. A nice taxi driver brought us the short distance to our hotel, the Santa Claus Hotel.
If you really want to disappoint a child, bring them to the Santa Claus Hotel. Aside from the name and the proximity to the Arctic Circl, there's absolutely nothing in the hotel about Santa Claus - not a picture or a figurine or even a hat. They have a fine restaurant that serves a great breakfast buffet and plays American jazz standards, but no Santa.
After a bit of breakfast and a brief nap, it was time for our safari. Remember that safari is a Swahili word for journey and doesn't require jungles, tigers, or pith helmets. Instead, we boarded a long, open boat and headed up river for adventure.
There were a 11 of us in the boat - A husband and wife from Brazil, a husband and wife from Dehli, India, a 30-something daughter and her mother from New Delhi, a newlywed (we think) couple from New Zealand, Sandra and me, and the taciturn Finnish driver.

Our safari took us to a craft shop where a Lapp artist and her husband created delightfully designed items from wood, leather, and reindeer antlers. What was even more remarkable is that she didn't try to sell us anything. Several people likely would have bought several pieces, but she was too enthusiastic in her talk about her work that we didn't have time for shopping.
Another boat ride took us further up river where a Lapp gnome in a four-cornered hat talked excitedly about life in the north, reindeer, and lots more. We dined on what our friendly gnome told us was the neighbor's reindeer.
Back into the boat, back to town, onto a bus, and to Santa's office. Again, this is probably not a good place to take a kid whom you like. It's strange and has a lot of over-the-top drek in the gift shop. (Motto: if you can't find it here, you probably have good taste.")
On the bus, we received certificates that proved that we'd crossed the Arctic Circle. We arrived back in Rovaniemi at 5:30.
We'd been told that, in celebration of Midsummer, people would be lighting bonfires at 6PM. Across the river, a crowd gathered near a small community center.  At the river's edge, people had built a tall (4m) cone-shaped pyre. The scene felt like an Arctic Burning Man Festival.We could hear speeches and accordion music, leading up to the raising of the Finnish flag. Everyone cheered. Then, everyone left.
We stood on our side of the river for 20 minutes or so, but they were really gone. (We later learned that the fires wouldn't be lit until midnight.)
The travel brochures will tell you that Juhannus, St. John's Day, is a major holiday for Finland. They don't tell you, or if they do, you don't believe them, how much the country shuts down. Only one restaurant out of five was open. All shops in town were closed as they had been since Friday afternoon; many would stay shut until Tuesday.
(Not only does the country shut down for Midsummer holiday, the major newspaper in the country, Hesinkin Sanomat, decides that July is such a slow news time that it stops publishing its international edition for the month.)
After a good bit of wandering, we did find a nice place for supper and then a walk back to the hotel.
There were low clouds the whole time, so we didn't see the midnight sun. We also didn't see it because we couldn't stay up that late. We fell asleep at 11PM, got up the next morning, had breakfast, packed, and made our way to the train station for our trip south to Oulu.
---
Editor's note: Finns, at least the ones who raised me, are generally not happy unless they're complaining. As with the language and other characteristics of the Finland, it's difficult for me not to lapse back into that grumbling pattern.
We had a wonderful time. The people were warm, eager to share their country and customs with us, eager to learn about us, our lives and our travels. Our hotel accommodations were comfortable and pleasing.
It was also important for us to have some enforced quiet time to think about the many blessings and several challenges that we have at home. We enjoyed that quiet. We enjoyed walking a lot, seeing different things, learning about history that is still vivid to so many. The German army burned all but five houses in Rovaniemi during the war. We saw those old houses, but didn't understand, until we heard the history, how precious they were.
Precious, too, are the traditions of Midsummer and sauna and sisu and their strange, strange language. It was wonderful to among a people who cared about life and about history.

But when Santa Claus looks like this, you have to yourself, "Mitkä olivat ne ajattelua?"

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):
Editor's note: we were off the air for a couple of weeks. Crime in suburbia did continue in our absence, but we'll leave the nature of those crimes to your imagination. Meanwhile, here's the current report.

Holden

Monday, June 22

2:04 a.m. Mutual aid to Rutland PD for domestic in progress; disregard

10:50 a.m. Well being check on man sleeping in vehicle
5:58 p.m. 911 Caller irate that police disturbed residence and spoke with minor; dispatch promised to find out who went to residence
6:26 p.m. 911 Domestic disturbance on Towle Dr.; verbal argument only

Tuesday, June 23

7:45 a.m. Three kids reported hanging out in lot on Main St., caller would like them dispersed
7:53 a.m. 911 Mountain lion reported near Chaffins Recreation Association
8:04 a.m. Black bear reported on Anderson Ave.
8:40 a.m. 911 Report of black bear on Anderson Ave.;schools advised to use their discretion regarding students going outside

10:34 a.m. Mail box mowed down during the night on Quinapoxet St.
11:23 a.m. Young teen reported trying to buy tobacco products at Main Street business
1:30 a.m. Caller says teenage daughter reports police at door of residence on Highland St.; ok, investigation taking place
5:17 p.m. Elderly male reported hitchhiking
8:26 p.m. Teen opened door of vehicle in someone's driveway; said he was looking at cars for sale
9:10 p.m. Bear cub reported earlier in the day on Mason Rd.

Wednesday, June 24

10:33 a.m. Trees overhanging across from Jefferson Post Office
12:49 p.m. Water pump leaking on Reservoir St.
1:12 p.m. Numerous calls about traffic on Main St.
5:16 p.m. 911 Vehicle improperly passing on Main St.
6:05 p.m. Report of vehicles racing in area of Main St. and Hawthorne Rd.; no contact

9:03 p.m. 911 Caller reporting male passed out, then revived; passed out from watching scary movie

Thursday, June 25

7:00 a.m. Tree in road on Wyndhurst
5:30 p.m. Inquiry regarding a group of youths skateboarding in the street on Glenwood; youths advised to stay out of street
9:45 p.m. Caller reports someone possibly working construction at water tower making a lot of noise
10:38 p.m. Caller concerned about kids playing football in lot of restaurant on Main St.

Friday, June 26

9:15 a.m. Vehicle parked in church lot for days
10:54 a.m. 911 Caller says kids on cell phone almost hit her, she pulled them over and took phone; wants police officer
9:05 p.m. Report of pit bull on Putnam Rd.
10:35 p.m. Loud music on Dorothy Ave.
11:16 p.m. Loud music complaint on Dorothy Ave.; resident advised if another complaint is received, will be charged with disturbing the peace

Saturday, June 27

3:41 a.m. Group of individuals behind Papa Gino's; cutting through to Honey Farms

1:58 p.m. Youths riding bikes on Manning St.
2:21 p.m. Potential traffic issue on Wachusett St.
6:40 p.m. Multiple calls about power outage on Woodridge Rd.
8:10 p.m. Kids and mini-bike hindering traffic on Brentwood; parents spoken with, scooter parked for the night
9:04 p.m. Report of fireworks on Montana Dr.

Sunday, June 28

12:45 a.m. Report of barking dogs at residence on Shrewsbury St.
3:53 a.m. Individual walking in road on Shrewsbury St.
3:15 p.m. Elderly driver operating erratically near Gale Free Library
3:47 p.m. Uncontrollable teen on Wachusett St.
6:40 p.m. Loose Rotweiller on Fisher Rd.
6:42 p.m. Scooter lying in entrance of business on Main St.

Paxton

Monday, June 22

3:14 a.m. Repossession of vehicle, Grove St.
10:01 p.m. Two suspicious vehicles, Wildewood Dr.

Tuesday, June 23

7:32 a.m. Motorist struck deer, Turkey Hill Rd.
10:29 p.m. Golden retriever found, West St.

Wednesday, June 24

9:28 a.m. Request for assistance in shutting off water in home on Jefferson Dr.

Thursday, June 25

7:02 p.m. Report that child is missing. Later found hiding in the bushes, Pleasant St.
11:25 p.m. Complaint of loud music coming from car on Camp St.

Friday, June 26

4:40 p.m. Report of kids playing very close to road, Pleasant St./Lincoln Circle
9:17 p.m. Chipmunk in the bedroom, Burtenmar Cir.
11:55 p.m. Caller almost hit horse in the road, Grove St. Horse returned to owner

Saturday, June 27

11:36 a.m. Report of gunshots in area of Brigham Rd.
6:16 p.m. Person came to station with white Bichon found walking in area of Grove St. Owner notified

Sunday, June 28

7:36 p.m. Loose donkey in the roadway, Grove St.
8:16 p.m. Erratic operator all over the road, Pleasant St.

Princeton

Monday, June 22

6:04 a.m. Request for animal control officer, Allen Hill Rd.
2:17 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Mountain Rd.
2:53 p.m. Traffic control duty, Sterling Rd.
3:01 p.m. Larceny, Lovers Lane
3:45 p.m. Public service, Main St.

Tuesday, June 23

8:10 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Rte. 140 North
2:00 p.m. Assist other police department, Town Hall Dr.
4:30 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Ball Hill Rd
5:21 p.m. Assist other police department, Matthews Lane
6:24 p.m. Assist fire department, Rhodes Rd.

Wednesday, June 24

10:17 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Rte. 140 North
10:30 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Main St./Leominster Rd.
11:33 a.m. Assist other police department, Town Hall Dr.
1:10 p.m. Assist other police department, Matthews Lane

Thursday, June 25

11:28 a.m. Assist other police department, Matthews Lane
12:38 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Mountain Rd.

Friday, June 26

10:14 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Worcester Rd.
3:59 p.m. Traffic safety hazard, Brooks Station Rd.

Saturday, June 27

9:04 a.m. Fraud, Houghton Rd.
5:54 p.m. Disturbance, motor vehicle, Worcester Rd.

Sunday, June 28

7:38 a.m. Traffic safety hazard, Worcester Rd.

Rutland

Monday, June 22

1:20 p.m. Person into station to pick up license plates, Main St.
5:51 p.m. Person received suspicious e-mail requesting money, Main St.
5:52 p.m. Police make notification, Prescott St.

Tuesday, June 23

12:04 a.m. Loose cow on side of the road, Pommogussett Rd.
3:58 p.m. Person came to station to speak with officer about an incident at the park, Main St.
5:33 p.m. Person came to station to pick up license and plates, Main St.
9:50 p.m. Report of bear near swimming pool, Memorial Dr.

Wednesday, June 26

12:01 a.m. Complaint about neighbor making loud noise, Maple Ave.
12:42 a.m. Complaint about barking dog, Marjorie Lane
8:06 a.m. Cow in road, Pommogussett Rd.
1:06 p.m. Officer wanted to help deal with older person giving individual a hard time, Birchwood Rd.
9:36 p.m. Report of tree down, blocking road, Turkey Hill Rd.

Thursday, June 25

8:05 a.m. Report of no stop sign at intersection, Glenwood/ East Country Rd.

Friday, June 26

11:17 a.m. Bull in the road, Pommogussett Rd.
12:14 p.m. Report of large bear in neighborhood, Nancy Dr.

Saturday, June 27

3:08 p.m. Caller reporting tractor parts are missing, East County Rd.
9:15 p.m. Report of fireworks in area of Barre Paxton Rd.

Sunday, June 28

10:20 p.m. Caller wants to speak with officer about a letter found written on a napkin, Main St.

Sterling

Monday, June 22

5:38 a.m. Car hit a fox on Newell Hill Rd.
7:39 a.m. Caller reports hitting a deer, Clinton Rd.
9:41 a.m. Assist other agencies at town beach, Hall Ave.
10:15 a.m. Assist Holden Police, Legg Rd.

Tuesday, June 23

6:29 a.m. Suspicious person sitting on stone wall, Princeton Rd.
5:12 p.m. Caller wants to speak with officer regarding a car purchase, Leominster Rd.

Wednesday, June 24

9:48 p.m. Suspicious activity, large group of people gathered, Runaway Brook Rd.

Thursday, June 25

9:16 a.m. Disturbance, gun shots heard, Country Club Blvd.
10:20 a.m. Drug law violations, Roper Rd.
11:18 a.m. Raccoon in attic, Shady Lane
4:54 p.m. Two males selling magazine subscriptions, Maple St./Bird St.
5:00 p.m. Report of a cougar in back yard of home on Clinton Rd.
7:15 p.m. Caller reporting two men at her gate soliciting, School St.

9:29 p.m. Officer wanted to disperse individuals sitting in front of pizza restaurant, Main St.
10:17 p.m. Male pacing on side of street, Maple St.

Friday, June 26

8:55 a.m. Suspicious activity, Justice Hill Rd. Individuals from tree company
3:45 p.m. Caller looking for advice regarding a snapping turtle that lives in her yard, Meetinghouse Hill Rd.

Sunday, June 28

1:11 a.m. Loud party, Sandy Ridge Rd.
2:24 a.m. Loud party, Avery Lane

He's just sayin' ...

Limbaugh: Michael Jackson "flourished under Reagan," "languished under Clinton and Bush," "died under Obama" | Media Matters for America:

Via Fark.com

Where there was no darkness

[Tuesday 16 June-Wednesday, 17 June]
We flew out of Boston's Logan Airport at 9:30PM. Two or three hours later, somewhere over Greenland, I think, the sun came up. We didn't encounter darkness again until our ride home from Logan on Sunday, 28 June.
Particularly on cloudy days, this perpetual light is disorienting. Not only don't you know what time it is, you also don't know what direction you're facing. Throw in eight hours of air travel in coach and a seven-hour time difference and you have a couple of travelers expecting Dick Cheney to show up and administer advanced interrogation techniques.
Instead, we stood in Helsinki's Vantaa airport, waiting for a taxi driver who was supposed to meet us. Our trip through Customs was simple. There were two lines, one if we had anything to declare, the other if we had nothing to declare. We followed a steady stream of non-declarers out the door.
While waiting, we watched experienced travelers change SIM cards in their phones. Others just started making calls. This is the land of Nokia, the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world, so it's with no small amount of pride that Finns use their cell phones a lot. Texting seemed to be less common than in the States, but, given the challenges of the Finnish language, it's understandable. (More about language in other notes.)
I have often said that my wife really had to love me to grab a name such as mine. I went through the same school system for 12 years and still the principal mispronounced my name at graduation. So, it was a giddy delight to hear the name pronounced correctly at every turn. The Finnish pronunciation is Huck-a-rye-nen, with the accent on the first syllable and with a rolled r. Hence, my father's nickname (and mine through high school) was Huck. My uncle, who moved to St. Louis after the war, was known as Hakk.
We enjoyed the cab rides. We learned from one that his house had a geothermal system, giving him free heat for just 30€/month. We had the same driver on three other occasions in Helsinki and learned of his plans to visit Washington and New York this week. He had been scheduled to travel to New York in 2001, in September, but those travel plans had been, as it's said, overcome by events.
Finland uses the Euro. The currency is very sensible. The paper bills are in different sizes for each denomination so that you can tell without looking how much paper money you have. There are coins for 2€, 1€, and smaller. Because we were constantly trying to the conversion math in our heads (1€ = ~$1.47 while we were there), we'd get tired and just call them things. ("How much should we tip the driver?" "Five things seems about right."
We arrived at our hotel in downtown Helsinki at about 4PM, which was like 9AM, without sleep. We'd be staying in Helsinki until Thursday evening, when we'd be taking an overnight train ride to Rovaniemi.

Even though the hotel staff had no trouble with our name, the welcome screen on the TV thought that the name was too long.(Also note that the names of the languages are in English. If I only spoke Russian, I wouldn't know what the word Russian is; I'd only know Русский.)
Helsinki is just a bit smaller than Boston, with a metropolitan area over 1 million people. A short walk from the hotel is a large shopping and business complex, including restaurants with outdoor dining, department stores, little shops, the train and bus stations, and a whole lot of stuff going on. We needed something to eat and wandered about, uncertain of what we'd find or even what we were looking at. We were also very weary and finally just picked a quiet place in a mall. It was called Memphis Erottaja (It sounds a lot sexier than it is. The name means The Memphis Difference.). They served burgers and other American fare. We had dessert at a Ben and Jerry's kiosk in the mall and then went back to the hotel for the night.
The room was nice, a simple Nordic design, with comfortable bedding and good black-out curtains to block the ever-present light. The bathroom and shower fixtures were a bit strange to those used to American Standard, but we figured out how to do what we needed to do. Sleep came quickly and we didn't get up until the next morning.

Remember all those times you said, "Rain, Rain, Go Away..."

Welcome to that Another Day that you told the rain to come again to.

You know that you've cross over some line when you find it easier to look a web site with a weather radar map than to look out the window to see if it's still raining.

In case you're thinking that you'd like to meet someone in Dudley,

it's best to keep looking:

From a banner ad on the Classmates.com site (seen while on my way to cancel my account).

Nothing's so far away as where you come from

My wife and I just returned from a 12-day trip to Finland and Iceland. The trip took us to Helsinki, Oulu, Jyväskylä, back to Helsinki, and then a two-day visit to Grindavík and Reykavik in Iceland. We had a terrific time. We learned about customs and cultures of these strange and wondeful lands and learned or re-learned several important things about ourselves as individuals and as a couple.
Both sets of my grandparents emigrated from Finland in the early 20th century.  They brought Finnish culture with them and also left it behind. My mother's mother (Äiti) returned a couple of times, the others not at all. My mother went to the old country with her mother in 1938 and, separately, my parents visited in later years.
My grandparents left a country that was a duchy of czarist Russia; we visited a nation driven by Nokia and Marimekko.
I grew up learning bits of colloquial Finnish that helped me with pronunciation, but, basically, I had the vocabulary of a five-year-old. (More about the Finnish language in another note.) Fortunately, English is spoken often and well in Finland. On several occasions, when we'd enter a restaurant and greet the server, they'd hand us an English-language menu. Most public signs and train announcements would be in Finnish, Swedish (the country's other official language), and English.
Over the next few days, as I sort through my notes, clippings, and pictures, I'll have a number of posts about various topics. (That sound you hear is your brain groaning at the thought of a series of blog entries filled with someone else's holiday pictures. Don't worry. I'll be respectful of your bandwidth, electronic and mental.)
In the middle of the night (Eastern European Summer Time), news broke about Michael Jackson's death. As we were packing to leave, we watched all of the stations - Finnish, English, French, and German - had gone with wall-to-wall coverage. We left it on a Finnish station that was reading text messages from viewers.

This is not my grandmother's Finland.