Busy two weeks...

On Tuesday, 17 January, we attended the monthly meeting of the Boyle County Genealogical Association, where I tried out my new (well, new to me but used) LCD projector.  I had bought the projector on eBay, and had to buy a special cable as well, which cost almost as much as the projector did.  But I presented a video and slide show on the cemetery cleanup workshop we did back in October 2011.  Everything worked quite well -- need to get a few bugs out of the projector because it didn't project ALL the picture, some on the right side was cut off.  But it worked fine otherwise.

On Saturday, 21 January, we attended the monthly meeting in Frankfort of the African American Genealogical Group of Kentucky.  I think I mentioned that I'm a contributing member (meaning that I contribute records but pay no dues and have no vote).  The meeting was a "meet and greet" in Frankfort, and we had a great time talking with many people, offering suggestions, and in general, just getting to know members of the group better.  I'm probably the most active member contributing records and files to the AAGGKY Yahoo group, but it's important to me to get African-American records published.

Dinner at "Rio Grande" Mexican restaurant was good, too!

On Tuesday, 24 January, we again drove to Frankfort, this time to a college basketball game.  I haven't attended a college game in person since January 1968, and we can't afford to see a UK game (plus I'd rather use the cost of tickets there to pay the electric bill).  So off we were to the Kentucky State University game against Tuskegee University.

Earlier that day, we had gone to see "Red Tails," a just-released movie about the Tuskegee Airmen.  We had planned on seeing the movie as part of my homework in my African-American Experience class.  And we had planned to attend a KSU game as part of that class as well, so to combine the movie AND a basketball game against Tuskegee was not co-incidental, but well planned on our part.

We had plenty of time between the movie in Danville, and the game in Frankfort, so for the second time in 4 days, we splurged on dinner.  This time it was at La Fiesta Grande, our FAVORITE Mexican restaurant in Frankfort -- they have a branch in Danville where we go for special events, though another Danville Mexican restaurant is our usual (and inexpensive) fare.

The game was close nearly all the way, though KSU never did take the lead, and it reminded me so much of high school basketball only with a smaller crowd.  Interestingly, the Lexington paper covers sports on about 90% of its pages, including every high school in the state and colleges in the southwest I've never heard of.  However, there was not ONE mention, even in the score listings, of KSU.  Why?  I don't know, but KSU is an historically black college.


The KSU band certainly delivered some spirited performances, but their rendition of the National Anthem was arguably the worst band performance I have ever heard.  A trumpet solo in the midst of the Anthem, tried to play it like a jazz tune, and the poor kid totally blew it.   Why can't people leave the National Anthem alone?  It's NOT a jazz, blues, or rock concert tune.

But what really concerned me was two groups of college women who were dancing to the music of the band.  I'm not a prude, but when the author of my textbook talks about the sexual objectification of women as being harmful to Black women, I think he was talking about these girls.  They were gyrating their hips back and forth, running their hands up and down their bodies, like the purely sexual objects one sees on music videos.  Frankly, MY daughter would never have been allowed to display herself like that in public, nor would she have wanted to!  And people wonder why rapes and teen or unwed pregnancy occur?  If I were a young man, I'd probably have been aroused -- and this was in public at a basketball game, for goodness' sake!  As an older man, I'm just disgusted.

OK, today, Barry is busy.  The sun is out (for the first time in days), the house is warming due to solar heat, and he's PLANTING LETTUCE!  Sunflowers got in their soil the other day, the portable greenhouses will be assembled today, and within a month, the greenhouses will be full.  Yeah, it's only January 28, but the average high for the month so far has been 11 degrees warmer than last year, only 2 days with a high colder than 32, coldest temp so far is 15, and compared to last year when we had snow actually on the ground from early December until mid-February, the snow this year has not yet lasted a day.  It's looked like November in Maine all winter here.