MikeL

Happy Birthday, DC! Tell your dad to behave.

Happy Birthday, Graeme!

Will it ever end? We have flash flood warnings in middle Tennessee again today...three inches of rain forecast and the ground is still saturated. Forecast is now four inches. 4:14 pm

Viv, I wish I was having a midlife crisis. Unfortunately, it's too late for me to do that. Enjoy every day; you can't add any years to your life by worrying. Growing old isn't all that it's cracked up to be, but it sure beats the alternative. (I know; that's not original.)

You might be interested in these articles: http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2010/05/04/for-musical-nashville-flood-losses-are-still-untold/ http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100505/NEWS01/5050368/Downtown-Nashville-assesses-damage-as-lost-business-starts-to-add-up

All of the major sports and entertainment venues in Nashville suffered some flood damage...Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Bridgestone Arena, LP Field, and the Grand Ole Opry House among others.

I think if Trevor and Thorsten did what we expect, the ice is broken and Trevor should be able to take care of his needs the remainder of the voyage without Joel's help. There are two other things to consider: (1) Swedes are widely traveled and (2) as you pointed out earlier, Trevor may very well run into Milo Trust while in Australia.

Oleander was my favorite growing up in Memphis. It's a shame that as near as Nashville where I live now, it can't survive the winter. Thanks for the picture, James.

Little things mean a lot. Enjoy them.

For the record, frogs are particular about who licks them. Also, if you use your tongue in expectation of a psychoactive effect, you would want to lick a toad, not a frog. Educating yourself on the difference would be advisable since some frogs are poisonous.

Riley, you are a very good author and it is now obvious that you a good person who is sensitive to your readers. I appreciate and admire your willingness to express an apology. I am sure your writing skills will enable you to rewrite chapter 13 and salvage your story. I assure you that I will continue to read it. I must admit that I did not read the warning in your head notes, but I don't believe it would have deterred me from reading the chapter nor would it have changed my reaction to what I read. Please don't be discouraged from writing by anyone's comments about the chapter. The reviews and ratings you have received make it clear that you are writing interesting stories and have a strong following. I remain your supporter, now more than ever. Mike

My knowledge of US schools is limited to the coeducational public school I attended and the coeducational private school where my wife taught. I would have to say the scene played out in this chapter is highly unlikely to occur in real life.

There's sagging and then there's sagging:

Mondays are sometimes like that. Life is good.

That's an interesting phenomenon about private schools. My wife taught in one for 20 years. Their teachers do make significantly less than public school teachers yet, with few exceptions, their students score significantly higher on every standardized test (SAT, ACT, and the NCLB nonsense). This is true of both middle class, church sponsored schools and the exclusive high society schools.

I don't believe there are any Cliff Notes available. I highly recommend that you read the story, just be prepared for chapter 13 to be totally different from the earlier chapters. It may not affect you the way it affected me. It really is a good story.

The discussion on the merits of single gender vs. coeducational schools is interesting, but, for the first time, Riley Jericho has written a chapter that I do not like. I don't think it adds anything to an otherwise exceptionally good story. I kept reading in hopes that Luke would find some way to come to Ryan's rescue...what a disappointment!

The closing of the Opryland Hotel is a bad thing for the 3,000+ people who work there. They have been promised at least six weeks pay, but it may be six months before the hotel reopens. Kudos to the hotel management for their decision to evacuate guests and employees despite assurances from officials that the levee system around the hotel was sufficient to prevent any flooding. For the record, the Cumberland River which flows through Nashville is a tributary of the Ohio (not the Tennessee) River. Dams and locks on the Cumberland are under control of the US Army Corps of Engineers...not the TVA. I think they did the best possible job saving the dams while releasing the least possible amount of water from the reservoirs. What they could not do...what I suspect no one can do...is predict what will happen when you get 16 inches of rain. There are too many small creeks which flow unabated into the Cumberland. While it was the Cumberland that ravaged downtown Nashville and Opryland, most of the residential flooding came from these small creeks which are considered picturesque in normal weather. In Nashville, we are taking care of our own...no looting, no screaming for the Federal government to do something for us immediately, just neighbors helping neighbors. This is the Volunteer State after all. We lost 31 people statewide in the flooding and the damage estimate in Nashville alone is $1.5 billion and that's private property only...none of the public buildings.

Mozilla also has SeaMonkey...pretty neat. http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

I really like chapter 4, CJ. I can see Jake gradually changing his opinion of Brett, but there's still one big complication...Jake's undeclared desire for Corey. Can he resolve his jealousy of Brett and Corey's relationship?

Hugs, who needs them? We need 4 hugs daily for survival; We need 8 hugs daily for maintenance; We need 12 hugs daily for growth! Hugs to all.

The death toll has risen to 31.

Happy Birthday, Patricky! Don't it make my brown eyes blue.

Another look at what happened...and what did not happen...in Nashville:

Among all the images of the flooding in Nashville, I thought this one from inside the Opryland Hotel was particularly ironic. The hotel will be closed for as long as six months for restoration.