From Russia With Love

[Slingerland]

For my over 100yo 'Rooster' samovar I arranged all needed papers, and brought it from Russia last year. Now Toronto is its home!
 

Lily, this is a beautiful antique!  After reading all the comments above, I hope that someday I can find something like this for Marina.  And hopefully I'll know what I'm doing!

[Lily]

Slingerland, thank you! Here is a forum of antique samovar lovers. I have seen something close to mine in this thread:
http://www.samovar.org.ru/forum/6-2290-1

[OlgaH]

Lily, what a beautiful samovar!!

We inherited 19th century brass samovar by Ivan Lomov in Tula along with other antiques when we bought our new house. Such a wonderful present. ))

[Lily]

Thank you for your kind words Olga!  I love your post in the Garage sales thread, too!
 
Did you also had to arrange export papers for your 19-century treasure in order to bring it here?

[OlgaH]

Thank you for your kind words Olga!  I love your post in the Garage sales thread, too!
 
Did you also had to arrange export papers for your 19-century treasure in order to bring it here?

Lily, you are welcome and thank you!

Lily, in some way  we got lucky, we inherited the antique samovar already in the US from the previous owners.

I spent, I guess, two hours if not more on the forum you gave the link to. Good information there.

[Ooooops]

As far as my horse Satan, well, the name was appropriate.  I don’t think any more needs to be said about my horse.  (The bite marks are healing fine, thank you, and I don’t think the scars will show much.)

 


Cool plan!   I would definitely love it too!   Once we rode horses in New Zealand and they were ex-actors "actors" - part of "Lord of the Rings" cavalry.   

[Ooooops]

For my over 100yo 'Rooster' samovar I arranged all needed papers, and brought it from Russia last year. Now Toronto is its home!

Pretty cool samovar!   I haven't seen one like this before, "на курьих ножках".       


I had a chance to get the papers straightened out during following trips to Moscow, but got lazy plus we always travel light, combining few destinations taking planes, trains and automobiles, so I didn't feel like carrying this huge brass bucket around with me...   Oh well, one less dust collector in our already overcrowded with souvenirs home.   

[Slingerland]

 Wednesday morning… time to pack up and go back home.  Time to leave vacation… a wonderful, stress-free vacation… and go back to the work and the mother and the kids… Getting up was hard, neither of us wanted to go back.  But eventually we were up, showered, packed and loaded, and the 11:00 AM checkout time was upon us.
 
I had one more surprise for Marina.  Back in Rostov, she had started taking driving lessons, but wasn’t near done yet.  And no young relationship is truly tested until one partner is teaching something to the other.  So… time for Marina to drive!  Well… go-karts, anyway!
 
There is a go-kart track as the road leaves Eureka Springs, and when she saw the karts, Marina’s eyes bugged out.  The track was mostly empty, with just a couple of teenagers.  When I stopped, I saw nervousness and trepidation in her eyes, but I also saw a gleam that I’ve learned to like.
 
The first set of laps, we were in a two-seater cart.  I was driving, she was watching.  The second set of laps, we traded places.  She was VERY nervous.  Later she told me “You grow up driving, I did not” and I thought I understood her caution better.  (But she is cautious about a lot of things…)
 
She drove slowly at first, especially around the curves.  I knew the teens were snickering at her, but I kept her attention on the track and away from them.  But by the end of the session, she was feeling much more comfortable… she realized that nobody was going to die if she scraped the hay bales!
 
By now, the teens had buzzed us a few times, but they didn’t bump us (they rammed each other a lot though, catching Marina’s attention.)  On the third set of laps, Marina and I were in different karts. 
 
So picture this: four karts are on the track.  Marina started slow (but getting more comfortable), the teens are bumping and ramming each other, and I’m pretty much pacing Marina.  Boring right?  But at the end of the laps, Marina was driving as fast as me.  She came off the track laughing and wanted “to race” me.  So, one more set of laps, with a “private reward” for the winner.
 
We hit the track.  Given experience, I gave her the lead, but on the first curve I cut inside and passed her.  She tried to pass on the second curve, but couldn’t.  In my mind I was trying to be gracious, but with my experience there was NO WAY she was going to win the race.  But my mind was on the track, and I forgot something.
 
Since becoming involved with Marina, during our romantic times I sometimes forget that besides being exceptionally affectionate, feminine and beautiful, she is a damned good engineer.  To be honest, she’s much better at physics and higher math than I am.  And as an engineer, she saw an opportunity: going into the next curve, one of the teens drifted in front of me, causing me to slow and swing a little to the outside.  So Marina shoved down the gas pedal and…
 
BAM!  Marina hit my right rear bumper hard!  I spun around to the outside and Marina shot past, taking the lead.  And again, physics would give her the win.  Assuming the karts are of equal power, Marina weighs 30 pounds less than me, so her kart would be faster.  All she had to do was to be a road hog and block me from passing.
 
Which she did.  Enthusiastically and with humorous malice, laughing and waiving each time.  Marina won the race of course.
 
As far as real driving in Arkansas?  Let’s just say that I’m glad she’ll be taking lessons from a professional!

[Chicagoguy]

Slingerland - LMAO
Had almost same experience. My wife had never driven and we went to go cart track. She took off and I never caught up.

[mendeleyev]

Of all the adjustments, I can't think of too many that can threaten harmony like the issue of driving. For personal travel I drive in Russia but as rarely as possible and thankfully mass transit is excellent and plentiful for the most part. For family transportation I drive simply because I'm more experienced and a better driver and Mrs M likes for me to take the wheel when we are together in Russia. In the USA she likes to drive saying that American drivers are more "civilized" and all this while I catch up on saying prayers and making the sign of the cross ever few seconds.

The attitudes and driving habits between East and West are at first like night and day and in many cases one of the quickest ways to put a man and wife at odds is for him to be her driving instructor.   

[Slingerland]

 I haven’t been back to finish the report, so after taking some time to think, here it is.
 
Marina and I had been in vacation isolation for a few days, but on the way home, we heard reports of the storms and tornadoes in Oklahoma.  I’ve mentioned before how she is very concerned about stormy weather… maybe too much… and hearing the weather was moving towards Arkansas, she was very much in a hurry to get home.
 
At the house we unpacked and settled in for the evening.   After a long day I didn’t feel like cooking, so I ordered a pizza.  We snuggled up to watch a DVD, but when it was time for the news and weather, she was absolutely focused on the storm forecast.  I tried to downplay the forecast and help her relax, but she wasn’t going to.
 
During the night, a thunderstorm passed through Little Rock.  It wasn’t much as far as spring storms, but the wind spiked a few times, along with the crashes of thunder.  She was terrified.  She clung to me in a panic, and insisted we go downstairs “for safety.” 
 
Thursday morning the weather was clear for her flight out of Little Rock.  Later in the day a squall line went through the state, generating a tornado in the county next over.  Marina found out about it during a layover, and called me to make sure I was okay.
 
Since she’s been home, I’ve tried to talk to her… tried to downplay her worries… but the spring weather has her absolutely panicked.  We’ve actually had our first argument: she wants me to install an underground storm shelter.
 
I’m not sure where to go with this: she is absolutely terrified of stormy weather.  To be honest, it seems far past a phobia, maybe psychological.  When I try to ask her why she is so worried, she almost screams at me.  And at one time, she said she “would be crazy to get killed” in a storm. 
 
Other than the weather issue, I like where we’re going.  Summer weather is starting now (temps in the mid-90s) and I wonder how she’ll handle the oppressive heat for three months.  But I wonder if she can control her fear enough to make it here.

[Larry1]

Sorry to hear that about Marina's fears of the storms.  My guess is if you want her to move to the US to marry you then you will have to install the underground storm shelter.  You can explain storms there til you're blue in the face but I doubt you will be successful.  FSUW can have any of various sorts of fears about moving.  It's pretty much up to you to help overcome those fears if you want them to move.

[ML]

I recently saw a headline on Internet asking for guesses as to what weather phenomenon kills the most people.

Then, the article went on to discuss, in turn, typhons, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, cold weather, etc., etc.

At end, the answer was revealed.

Heat kills more people on average each year than any other weather event.

And it gets far less coverage than the other events.

[ML]

A Ukrainian man once told me that Ukraine was very lucky in that it didn't have much in the way of the natural disasters that happened to other areas of the world.

He didn't much like it when I reminded him that Europe and Asia meet at the Bosphorus which leads into Black Sea.  In addition, the North Anatolian Fault line ls nearby.

Huge earthquakes for Istanbul area are thought to be long overdue.
Result could be a tsunami on the Black Sea that would send huge waves sweeping over Odesa and other coastal cities and going far inland.

[Ooooops]

Well, comparing to extreme weather in US - ice storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc - most of Russia/Ukrain has pretty mild climate.   Yes, it can get cold/hot, but not on the scale of national disaster.


How much does it cost to build the underground shelter?   Can be pretty useful, you know - you can keep pickles and cans with stewed meat there!   

[facetrock]

  Years ago before all the cable news networks and the weather channel you would never hear about a tornado that touched down and wrecked a few houses. Maybe you would see a little blip about it in the back page of a newspaper. Now OMG if a funnel cloud is sighted its reported on the national news. Little wonder people think there is more of them. The Global Warming cult likes it though because they can blame it on that.
You sure don't hear much about global warming since all their computer model forecast turned out to be dead wrong the last five years. Global warming has to be the biggest cap and trade carbon tax con job ever perpetrated on the human race. It was always all about the money.

[Ooooops]

You sure don't hear much about global warming since all their computer model forecast turned out to be dead wrong the last five years. Global warming has to be the biggest cap and trade carbon tax con job ever perpetrated on the human race. It was always all about the money.

I do believe in global warming, but I also believe that people have very little to do with it - it's just a natural way of Earth's life span.   Nonetheless, less emissions is good for better air quality, otherwise - welcome to Beijing.   

[Anotherkiwi]

I do believe in global warming, but I also believe that people have very little to do with it - it's just a natural way of Earth's life span.   Nonetheless, less emissions is good for better air quality, otherwise - welcome to Beijing.   

...and Bangkok...

[Slingerland]

Thanks, everybody!  Installing the storm shelter is not feasible at my house due to the size of the yard, number of rocks, etc.   

[Boethius]

Research the number of storm deaths in your area in the last 50 years, and present her with the evidence.

[facetrock]

Are tornadoes getting more frequent?
The short answer is no, according to the National Weather Service, especially when it comes to more violent storms. "There has been little trend in the frequency of the stronger tornadoes over the past 55 years," the service notes. The longer answer is that more tornadoes are now reported than in years past, but that's probably due to an increase in the number of eyes scanning for tornadoes than the number of tornadoes. "Today, nearly all of the United States is reasonably well populated, or at least covered by NOAA's Doppler weather radars. Even if a tornado is not actually observed, modern damage assessments by NWS personnel can discern if a tornado caused the damage, and if so, how strong the tornado may have been," the Service explains. "This disparity between tornado records of the past and current records contributes a great deal of uncertainty regarding questions about the long-term behavior or patterns of tornado occurrence."

Are tornadoes killing more people than in the past?
The short answer, again, is no, the 2011 Joplin event notwithstanding. Although there are more people, and therefore a greater number of injured parties, in the United States in the regions where tornadoes strike, better forecasting and warning systems have greatly reduced the rate of fatalities per million people and the overall number of fatalities, as you can see in the following two charts. The fall was particularly dramatic before the tragedy in Missouri in 2011. (Note that the second chart shows the period from 1875-2000.)
 ok there

[Boethius]

Google is your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_tornadoes_and_tornado_outbreaks

[Boethius]

There's no safe place -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_tornadoes_and_tornado_outbreaks

[facetrock]

Going to start a new thread...Tornadoes in Odds and Ends

[Larry1]

Research the number of storm deaths in your area in the last 50 years, and present her with the evidence.

Present a FSUW who has strong fears with evidence?  I wish you luck with that. Given her reaction, I doubt this will succeed with this FSUW, even though her mathematical ability (and thus logical reasoning) is far superior to almost all others.

"Installing the storm shelter is not feasible at my house due to the size of the yard, number of rocks, etc. "

Then if you very much want her to come to be with you you might need to get another house.  Many FSUW have fears about moving to another country.  Marina's reaction, shouting, indicates she has strong fears.  It's not easy to overcome these fears.  Don't count on love to overcome them.