Translation game (по следам обсуждения)

Last Monday some of you, my dear students, told me you want to do more translating from Russian into English. We'll do some in the lessons, but I thought it might be a good idea to let you regulate how much practice you want. So I introduce the Translation Game!

The rules are as follows. The first player writes a sentence in Russian (in bold).
Anyone else can write a message where he or she translates this sentence into English (in bold) and adds another sentence in Russian (in bold) so as to continue the story.
You can also add any comments you want to your messages.
I will come in from time to time to correct any mistakes and add the whole story to the first message.

Here is an example of what two messages can look like.
--- Example ---
Player 1.
Зима была холодная.

Player 2.
The winter was cold.
Не знаю, может, лучше frosty?
Снега было так много, что проехать к дому было невозможно.

--- End Of Example ---

And here comes the first sentence for you.

Франк был очень необычным человеком.

He never left his house without an umbrella, even during a severe drought.

Впрочем, в его краях засуха была редким явлением, обычно здесь было свежо, а по вечерам от реки поднимался туман.

Пожалуйста, не забывайте про форматировние: все предложения рассказа (и русские, и английские) должны быть выделены полужирным шрифтом. Обычным - только комментарии.