Still Kickin' in Derby City!

Derby Day in Louisville KY! The birds are singing and the young folks are rolling on the little cabin floor and all that. I grew up in Kentucky, even learned to run funny like a galloping horse. My parents worried that I was uncoordinated but I was just imagining the sound of my hoofbeats. Hard to do when you only can make two imaginary hoof sounds at a time. But I got really good--and fast. I could outrun anything. I actually chased down a sparrow in my back yard and caught it with my bare hands on the fly. I tried to show it to my mom but she thought I was holding a mouse. She screamed, "Let it go! Let it go!" Then she stared in amazement as the "mouse" flew away. I set up lawn chairs and bikes and buckets with boards across them, to create my own back yard steeplechases. My horse was always named Chica D'Oro, the name of Linda Craig's multitalented Palomino from my favorite children's books. Chica and I won many races and steeplechases, always beating my brothers on their imaginary horses (one was named Macaroni. Brothers!)

So that kind of upbringing could only mean that I go nuts every first Saturday in May. I now live in Derby City, and while the newspapers follow the celebrities and parties and events around town, I am reading about the horses. I usually root for the underdog, the equine equivelent of the math nerd, the one with his heart i nthe right place and the jockey with no entourage. Today my pick was Teuflesberg. I loved this one. From my hometown, with a female trainer, and bought for a song by racing standards. Not to mention the cool name, a reference to the "Devil's Mountain," the pile of debris from Hitler's destroyed city of Berlin which was piled up by the Allies after the war and turned into a listening post for spies during the Cold War. I'm a WWII historian so that tipped me to his favor. When the Derby started he was holding pretty well, a few off the lead, but faded to the back of the pack by race's end.

I am a fickle fan. I also root for the humble, and nothing pleased me more than seeing the winning jockey slapping hands with his buddies while the trainer who brought a fifth of the field went home without the grand prize. I was a bit low class, rolling around on my living room couch and laughing, shouting, Take yo rich butt home! Not a lot of po folks run in the Derby, but like I said, I prefer the humble with skills to the wealthy monopoly every time.

Sigh.

I will root for today's winner, Street Sense, in both the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes because I want to see a Triple Crown so badly it hurts. I was only two years old when we last had a Triple Crown winner, and I hope to see it again in my lifetime. But I always like a good underdog story.

Planoamy

Well, I thought the old creative juices had dried up, mais non! It was the changing of the season, from cold/gloomy to yardwork/company and I just got busy.

It's a beautiful Thursday and we are about to leave and run some errands but I just linked to my own blog from a friend's blog and realized how long it had been since I posted. Oi! I will think about something to write and start that up again.

Truly Moving Pictures

an exercise

The "all about you" meme. One word answer only!
1. Yourself: hyper
2. Your Spouse: surfing
3. Your Hair: fluffy
4. Your Mother: obstinate
5. Your Father: tired
6. Your Favorite Item: books
7. Your Dream Last Night: theatrical
8. Your Favorite Drink: diet
9. Your Dream Home: clean
10. The Room You Are In: computer
11. Your Pet: imaginary
12. Who You Are Now: inventive
13. Who You Want to be in Five Years: satisfied
14. What You Want to be in Ten Years: renowned
15. What You’re Not: cook
16. Your Best Friend: Sweetie
17. One of Your Wishlist Items: bookcases
18. Your Gender: female
19. The Last Thing You Did: Sonic
20. What You Are Wearing: jeans
21. Your Favorite Weather: spring
22. Your Favorite Book: history
23. The Last Thing You Ate: Sonic
24. Your Life: positive
25. Your Mood: inspired

Humility; or, What the Grump Saw

I wondered if you would like to hear a story I had in my head this morning? It almost sounded like a sermon as I was telling it to the girls at work so when I finished my story I threw my hands up and said, now let's have a song! They all laughed but they liked the story. Here goes.

This morning the first thing I thought when I woke up was, My throat hurts. I got mad at my brother-in-law, who caused it. Not directly, but the only sick person I've been around was my mother-in-law and her cold. And the reason we went to see her this week was because we were supposed to help my brother-in-law move, and he changed his mind but didn't tell us in time so we made unneeded trips across town and I caught her germs.
Then I got up and fixed breakfast. I microwaved a sausage biscuit from the freezer but it came out as hard as a rock. I got mad when I burned my tongue trying to bite into it, so I threw it in the trash and made a bowl of oatmeal.
I realized our thermal underwear was still in the washing machine and it was 22 degrees outside, so I hurried to sort the essentials and threw them into the dryer. When I brought the dried thermals into the bedroom my husband got up and put on a pair, only to wrinkle up his nose and say, these cuffs are still damp.
There was frost on my car so I went out in the cold and started it to warm. I came back in to get the key for my husband's truck (which is new and I have never driven) and went out to the driveway. I tried to fit the key in the lock about a dozen times, getting madder by the minute when my husband banged on the window and waved me back inside. "I didn't know it was locked," he said. "You have the wrong key."

By this point I was a bit ruffled. I got my last kiss from my husband who grumbled, You're in a bad mood today!" I sassed back, "On that note, have a good day!" and I went out the door without much else.
There were several accidents and slow downs on the interstate and I seemed to be going backward a few times. I was so hostile by the time I got to my exit that I didn't care much about how the day went after that. I sat in the stopped traffic, waiting to get down the exit ramp, and I had a moment to look around. What I saw was actually pretty interesting.

There were interstates and lanes of city traffic all rolling into downtown from north, south, east, and west. I thought, look at all these people heading to their jobs. That's a lot of people with a chance to earn some money.
There was a construction worker headed to his jobsite, walking along a sidewalk and carrying his insulated lunch box and his silver thermos. He was already wearing his hard hat and Carhartt jacket. I thought, he's going to be out in the cold today and I am going to my warm desk.
Then I started thinking back over the morning.
I woke up in a warm bed next to my wonderful husband.
I had the chance to eat breakfast--two breakfasts when the first didn't please me.
I had warm, clean clothes to wear.
I had a car that got me to work on time.
I had a job to go to, in a warm safe office with friends to chat with during the day.
And my throat wasn't even sore anymore--so I couldn't blame it on the mother-in-law who had welcomed me to the family with a smile, or the brother-in-law who always offers to help whenever we need a hand with projects around our house.

As the light changed and traffic started rolling again, I felt very humbled and proud to live in a country where the biggest problems of my day are opportunities beyond imagining for much of the world. I may not have a huge paycheck or a big house or even a fancy car, but I am rich in more ways than even I can know.

personality DNA