I've gone from one extreme to another. This summer, Cleveland, like most of the country, suffered (and very well may still be suffering) from a nasty drought. When I left, everything was brown and parched. We mowed the lawn twice all summer.

But it's a totally different story here. It has rained at least a little almost every day, and today has been especially bad. As the Russians would say, rain has poured as if from buckets (как из ведра), and it has turned the whole city into a big mess of puddles, rivers, and mud mires. Clearly, stormwater management was not a big priority during the construction of my neighborhood; most streets just turn into big streams, and  heaven help the poor pedestrian who happens to be walking along the sidewalk when a bus roars by. Also, frequently there simply aren't sidewalks, and people have made their own dirt paths. These makeshift paths are something I rarely see in America; we expect that the government would pave a path that is so heavily used, and, actually, I doubt Americans would make such paths--we tend to follow rules and stick to the dedicated sidewalks. Not so in Russia.

Anyway, my advice for anyone going to Russia is to get a good umbrella and a pair of solid, waterproof boots. You'll thank me for it when it's 50F and pouring rain and it's only August.....