This guy's St. Pete photos reminded me, well, of St. Pete. How beautiful and how terrible it is, and how when you think back, there seems to be little 'in between' about it, just beautiful and terrible.

And so I started looking through my St. Pete pics, and here's the very first one that I took with a digital camera - Canon PowerShot G3 - on Aug. 17, 2003:



I remember how papa was upset about this photo - "Why are you photographing the ugly stuff?"

I didn't care then, I had what I thought was a good answer to that (whatever it was) - but it hurts to think about it now: I wish I had allowed papa to see much more of the beautiful stuff.

(I also remember a picture of a Kyiv bum sleeping in the grass, his shirt and one of his shoes off, if I remember it correctly, and how papa was upset about that picture, too. How I wish I hadn't taken it - or hadn't shown it to papa. Would it have averted at least some of what followed?)

Anyway, here's a pretty picture from the same day - for you, papa:



And they are both pictures of the "in between" thing that I have problems remembering about St. Pete.