Tuesday, May 27 - Catching Up

Let's start from the beginning here. First, Rick and Laura's baby, Elizabeth Rose, was born May 22, at 9:23 AM. She weighed 7 lbs even, and was 20 1/4 inches long. I'm not posting pictures yet because of privacy, but believe me, we've taken LOADS already. We arrived in Paducah on the 21st, and did a few things to help out -- things that Rick couldn't do that needed doing, mostly. We got the car seat installed, ran errands, just did what we could do.

Maureen is now 10 weeks along, and other than morning sickness and back pain, things seem to be progressing nicely. We haven't started buying any baby "stuff" yet but that too will change. More details as she progresses with my first grandchild (though living with the cat is sometimes like living with a 2-year-old)!

My best friend from junior high and high school, and his wife have moved to Nashville. Well, Kathy has anyway -- for work; Kenn will be staying in Massachusetts and commuting once a month to Tennessee. We hope to get to see them when things settle down. After all, Nashville's only about 3 hours away.

We're trying to plan a getaway to the Great Smokies, Knoxville, Gatlinburg area, but there's so much going on around here (county fairs start next week, and the Great American Brass Band festival begins June 16) it's getting difficult to fit in. We'll probably rent a car -- Enterprise has a weekend special -- and save the wear and tear on either of our vehicles that way.

The cicadas are out. Barry got a GREAT photo of both the nymph and the adult -- the nymph shell is on the left and the adult is on the right. They look really scary, but are totally harmless. All they do at this stage is call for mates and reproduce, lay eggs, and crawl back in the ground to emerge in the year 2025 again! They are everywhere, their shells are everywhere, and the holes from which they emerged are everywhere! Just amazing what nature does.



The garden is growing very well; we've had lettuce (romaine, butter crunch, black seeded simpson), radishes (not bitter or hot at all, and the size of golf balls), beet greens (with little and some not so little beets on the ends), swiss chard (one "small" picking pictured here - the tub is about 1ft high x 1.5 ft wide x 2 ft long),



and spinach so far. Other plants are blossoming or fruiting now.

The tulip tree (state tree of Kentucky) has a couple of blossoms on it. The blossoms aren't very obvious or showy, but they sure as heck look like tulips!








The peach tree has 5 peaches, the strawberries will be ready to begin picking in another couple of days, and the black walnuts (pictured at the right) have begun to fruit as well.







Barry also got this great photo of a honeybee on the holly right on the side porch. Maureen, he's getting to be quite the photographer with the new Canon camera -- maybe HE can give YOU some lessons one of these days...







And of course, we still have those beautiful sky-blue-pink sunsets.









The cat (here waiting for his dinner) has adapted well. We've let him out a couple of times, under strict supervision of course, and once he gets his feel for the neighborhood, he'll be ok. The other day, he strolled down by the Salt River, and saw the cows in the field across the stream. We've planted catnip for him, so once that is up higher, and he notices it, he shouldn't stray too far!




The front garden is just about done. We've planted corn (3-4 types, don't remember), beans, okra, tomatoes (3 types), bell peppers, canteloupe (2 types), watermelon (2 types), and maybe a few more things I can't quite remember. If it all grows, we'll need to buy another freezer and do loads of canning as well! We also planted 9 raspberry canes and 2 plum trees. Now to just watch and wait...(Barry and cat looking out over the back garden).

Sunday, 4 May - The Derby, happy and sad

Well, yesterday was the Kentucky Derby. One had the feeling that it was a holiday, like the 4th of July. The anticipation of the race, like the anticipation of fireworks on the Fourth, was around all day. After all, the Kentucky Derby is THE big event in this state, drawing 150,000 people to Churchill Downs. People all over the world have Derby parties -- we heard of one going on in the Netherlands, where people were watching Lexington TV online. Channel 18 carried the events in Louisville live all day, and it was really interesting to catch it all, right here in Kentucky. Just to think, the Derby was going to happen only 40 straight-line miles from here!

We didn't get up to Lexington to place any bets at Keeneland, where there was a huge Derby party going on. It's a good thing -- to spend that money for gas just to go up and place some bets at the drive-through window, then come home, would have been a waste of time and money. Now if we had been going there for the day, that would have been a different story. Weather wasn't the best, so maybe next year.

However, we did pick some fresh Kentucky-grown spearmint for our mint juleps. We made the spearmint syrup (enough to go for several drinks), and got out the pewter cups which we only use on Derby day. All was in readiness.

Anyway, we asked Barry's son to place some bets for us at his local racetrack, which he did. The good news -- I won some money on "Denis of Cork" -- I bet on him because of his first name... I also won the exacta (pick the 1st and 2nd horse), with "Big Brown" and "Eight Belles". Happy Day! Look for Denis of Cork in the Preakness and the Belmont coming up. He'll have MY bet, that's for sure. He was dead last, 20th, in the back stretch, yet he finished third! Big Brown finished first from the 20th starting position -- hasn't happened in the Derby since 1929! If he can win from that position as convincingly as he did, may he will be the next Triple Crown winner!

Then, right after she finished second, Eight Belles broke both of her front ankles, and had to be put down right there on the track! The joy of winning was gone...what a tragedy to see a beautiful animal like Eight Belles now gone. Many of the women at Churchill Downs, and all over the world probably, were betting on the one girl in a field of 20 horses. And by golly she beat 18 of the best colts in the race! It's so sad -- her trainer and her jockey had the winning horse in the Kentucky Oaks on Friday. Eight Belles was supposed to run in the Oaks, but her owner or trainer chose to put her up against the boys -- and she did SO well.

It's not the old ABC sports motto, "The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat," but the juxtaposed emotions are the same. This Derby will not be forgotten for a long while.

Monday, 28 April - Contemplation

I've titled this blog entry, "Contemplation," because of the three photos I want to share. They all involve thought and they all evoke different feelings.

On Thursday, 24 April, Barry and I visited the traveling version of the Viet Nam Wall. If you're not familiar with it, it's a half-sized replica of "The Wall" in Washington, DC. It travels all over the US -- I went to Farmington, ME, to see it several years ago, and last week it came to Danville. The local newspaper ran a story about a local woman whose husband was killed in Viet Nam in 1970, visiting the wall to see his name. Just as in Washington, people reached out to touch the names on the wall, even though in this version, they are not carved into the shiny black granite, as they are in DC. People left memoranda, and someone from Mercer County High School (in Harrodsburg) left photos of two graduates. Many of the photos of "The Wall" show someone contemplating, and being reflected off the granite -- hence this photo of Barry.

My feelings about this picture are that, once again, we are involved in a war, far away from home, that is killing young Americans, wasting precious resources, continuing to fight so that those 4,000+ who have already been killed will not have died needlessly (so it's necessary to kill 4,000 more?--illogical) and we really don't know why. Is the war win-able? Was it necessary? When will it end? How will it end? How can we thank sincerely those who serve (and served) without supporting the war in which they served? To me, it's like Viet Nam all over again only it's in a desert instead of a jungle. The photo asks, "why?" yet it doesn't provide any answers.

The second photo, taken early in the morning on 26 April, shows the barn just over our property line, just before the sun was blocked out by rain clouds. Seldom have I seen a rainbow in the morning! And I guess the barn is where the pot of gold must be located! Or at least, something is in there. No matter how old we get, there is always something exciting about seeing a rainbow. The bright colors contrasting against a darkening gray sky causes us to look in awe at what is basically a lesson in light-bending physics.

But a rainbow is more than just light refracting on raindrops, being bent to a greater or lesser extent depending on its wavelength. That is such a droll explanation.

Throughout time, rainbows have signified hope in the future -- just take out Genesis and read about the Flood. Whether one is religious or not, doesn't matter. When this rainbow appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, it was a sight beyond the physics.

Unfortunately, within minutes, the sun was obscured, the rain began, and the rainbow disappeared. But there will be other rainbows, other days, and whenever we see one, we will be joyous.

Finally, I had to include a nice portrait of another of our "neigh"-bors. We have seen her several times, but I haven't been able to get a nice close-up of her. She's apparently being sold by the people next door, to a gal on the other side of our neighbor, so she may well be hanging around in the same location for awhile. I hope so, because she's a beautiful animal. Does anyone ride her? How old is she? What's her name? What is SHE thinking as she looks at my camera? So many questions, so few answers, and the contemplation of what animals see, hear, feel, think...if anything...

On Friday night, we went into Danville to see Over The Tavern, by Tom Dudzick. It's billed as a Catholic Neil Simon play, about a 12-year-old Polish boy in Buffalo, NY in 1959, who questions the authoritarianism of both his Church and his father, and seeks a "fun" religion. The play brought back SO many memories of "catechism" classes through which I suffered, growing up Catholic. Many of the questions Rudy asked, I also asked, beginning at about his age. The play was performed at our local community theater, the West T. Hill Community Theater, and four of the players were 7th, 8th or 9th graders. How they can memorize ALL those lines is a mystery to me, but they did a great job. They're doing Into The Woods (Sondheim) in July, and up in Harrodsburg next month, their community theater is doing Bye, Bye, Birdie. And this is all BEFORE the Pioneer Playhouse opens. Kentucky has more open-air theaters than any other state, and we need to visit them all!

My next blog entry -- after Wednesday -- should contain some really joyous news...hold your breath...

Monday, 21 Apr 2008 - Patriot's Day in Maine; gardening here

Just a couple of quickies tonight -- posting some photos we took off the camera.

Barry shot this one of a dogwood tree almost in full bloom. Note how he happened to get the Robin in the lower left to pose in mid-flight! The petals of the dogwood start off green, but as they open, they turn almost an incandescent white -- even at night you can see them. I think the petals are actually just specialized leaves -- like the poinsettia -- the red "petals" are actually leaves. We have three dogwoods, hoping that at least one of them would be a pink one, but the white are pretty anyway. Paducah (in western KY) has a "Dogwood Trail" where everyone in the neighborhood who has dogwoods (which IS everyone) lights them up at night, and people even take bus tours of the Trail just to see the trees. We're either too early or too late for them to be at their peak, but one of these days we'll have our OWN dogwood trail here in Alum Springs.

We took a ride down to Hustonville to our favorite 24 flavor soft serve ice cream place. On the way back home, we just naturally drove over to see the old Butchertown place. What a surprise on the way! The sides of the Butchertown Road are full of "Redbud" trees -- and since they grow down in the valley, we were able to see some of them 40 feet up the tree. The Redbud isn't a tree you look at -- you can actually see right through it, so its flowers appear to float on nothing -- but when you DO look at it, you really notice it. The roadsides were pink with them. This photo, taken through the front windshield, doesn't do the trees justice though. People pay a good price to plant these in their back yards, yet, they line the interstates and back roads, like pine trees in Maine. They look SO beautiful that way.

For those of you who have never seen a "knob", here's one of the best examples. These rounded, conical hills, are all that's left after erosion has taken most of the soil around them to fill in the river valleys. The stone on the cap is harder than surrounding stone, so it doesn't erode, making the cone-shaped hills which are typical of much of this area. The soil in the Knobs is generally poor except in the valleys, where the soil eroding from the hills has settled. Back in Butchertown, we were maybe 500 feet below the tops of two knobs, which meant that the sun didn't rise until 9AM and it would set by 5PM in the winter. Where we live now, the "Knob Region" begins just across the street, and the sun is up at 7AM and it stays light until well after 8PM. Take 4 or 5 of the knobs in a string, then imagine the road going around, through, over hills like these. No wonder the accident rate in Kentucky is so high!

Finally, we came home, and Barry watered the garden. I couldn't resist taking one more photo at sunset. Incidentally, the hill in the right background is a knob. The leaning tree is a cedar which almost touches the ground when the wind is strong and out of the west; the pink tree is a Korean cherry, and the small dark green shrub is a holly (female, with LOTS of flowers which I hope will mean LOTS of red holly berries this coming wither).

We've already had fresh lettuce twice, parsley once, and other herbs are growing to the point where we'll be able to begin harvesting a few leaves here and there shortly. We planted some red onions today, and the tomatoes, now on the side porch, may be ready to go in the ground in another week. Then, we start thinking about the warm crops -- which will be planted on the front side of the house

Wednesday, 16 April - Tree of Evil, plus Jake and Nick

We were out walking awhile ago out back, and we spotted a tree that was, to say the least, unusual. It looked like something out of Star Trek -- remember the episode where the crew beamed down to a R&R planet, and they were all assaulted by "feel happy" plants? Well, this tree could have been one of the stars of the Wizard of Oz, on the side of the Wicked Witch of the West, of course. Cowardly Lion would make himself scarce just seeing it, Tin Man's heart would beat so fast it would shatter, and Scarecrow would lose his mind. Dorothy would surely be grabbed by the 3" sharp thorns, and would never get to see Auntie Em again!

It is absolutely horrible to look at, and it is sure to cause nightmares to small children -- or retired old men for that matter.

After diligent research (yeah, right, we just googled "Kentucky tree thorn") and came up with some pictures and a few descriptions that fit our Tree of Evil to a "T".

It's called a "Honey Locust" and it's considered a noxious weed in parts of Australia. One website said this is one of the few trees that can be identified by "feel" especially when backing up! Civil War soldiers in Kentucky used the thorns as common pins to hold their clothing together if they lost a button.

Of course others could think of absolutely EVIL uses for this tree. All in all, though, the seed pods are edible, the seeds are 13% protein, and the "sauce", for lack of a better term, inside the pod is 40% carbohydrate.

But you ain't gonna catch ME hanging around this tree for ANY reason!














FINALLY, I got an email from former students. I wasn't sure they liked me any more, but today Jake and Nick emailed me. It was SO good to hear from them.

Tuesday, April 15 - Income Tax Day and our first "green stuff"

After a frost last night, and a possible one tonight, we may be out of the woods now. Temps yesterday were colder here than in Maine, but they'll be up to 70 by week's end. We picked our first lettuce -- granted, only 2 leaves to go on top of sirloin burgers (we ground some inexpensive steak). The first of the flowering trees have gone by, but there's always something else coming along.

BTW, if you haven't figured it out, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

The Bradford Pear is now all green, having lost all its white blossoms. They're everywhere around here -- some people have a couple of dozen of them lined up their driveways.

The forsythias are beautiful -- they don't get winter-killed as so many do in Maine. There's one down the road that looks like a bright yellow fireworks display! Ours is fairly small, but still quite nice looking. Maybe in a few years if we let it naturalize, it will become more spectacular. These were about the first flowering shrubs to bloom in Maine, and I always looked forward to seeing them. It surely meant that spring was on its way.


Many people also have flowering crab apples. We happen to have three -- two of one variety and one of a third. The two are deep red, and the other is pink. We're not sure of the actual genus or even the common name, but the nursery down the road can probably tell us.





One sign that summer is almost upon us in Maine is when the lilacs bloom. Well, ours aren't quite out yet, but in another 3-5 days, they probably will be. That's fully a month earlier than what we are used to seeing. NICE! We also have a white lilac, but it's mostly leaves now, with a few blossoms here and there hidden, so it's not going to be as attractive as the blue lilac. But it's nice too.



Finally, there's a tree here that has a very weird name. When we first saw it two years ago, I asked Laura, Barry's daughter-in-law, what the tree with the red buds was called. Her answer -- a Redbud Tree! I thought she was being wise. Nope. There are several varieties, and they grow apparently wild all along the roadsides. Some are up to 20-25 feet tall, and the really weird part is that the flowers can grow directly from the stem, not just on the branches. We have one here that technically isn't on our land, but we're the only ones who can see it, so we've sort of adopted it.

This photo shows flowers growing directly on the trunk. Never seen anything quite like this before.

Tomorrow, I finish painting the front porch, then I tackle the side porch. The previous owner put a primer coat, but didn't get to the finish coat, so I'm working on that. We'll mow for a fourth time as well. We didn't think we'd need the riding mower here with only an acre of land, but it's nearly all lawn, and it would take all day to mow with the other mower, which we do use for trim, and along the hill.

Barry, as usual, is a planting maniac. He's put in (or will tomorrow) about a dozen day lilies, ten calandulae, half a dozen hostas, who knows how many hollyhocks, and that's only what I can remember. He's happy as a pig in **** with nearly an acre of rock-free land to play with. PLUS, right now I'm feasting on a gingerbread cookie with cream-cheese frosting (a Betty Crocker gingerbread mix, baked into cookies!) -- and WOW are they good! We do limit ourselves to one a day though. I always tell him, "Thank you for cooking my eating" whenever he does ANYTHING in the kitchen. Gawd, he's a great cook! I can't wait until he begins to harvest the garden for the dinner table.

OK, got to go back to work on Boyle County cemetery records and census transcriptions. Who said retirement was going to be boring? And we have 2 movies to watch from the county Public Library.

Life is good!

Wednesday, 9 April - Spring business

OH my, I really haven't written in quite a while, have I? Well, we've been busy outside working, and by the time we come in after 8PM some nights, I'm just too pooped to write much. I need to get over that!

The back garden is in, but not much has come up. A few beets here and there, so far, but we're hoping for more. The strawberries are doing fine, as are the broccoli, lettuce, and cabbages we planted from seedlings. But most of the seeds aren't up yet. Maybe it's been too wet, or maybe it's the soil which, when it rains, becomes a brick-like cake. At least the onions have rooted and are sending up their green shoots. The birds didn't get any probably because the clay-muck solidified around them!

We had several breezy, dry, sunny days, so I was able to get out and sand and paint the rails on the side porch. The previous owner put a primer on but never got to the finishing coat, so I'm doing that. Next comes the deck itself, but I need some super-hardy deck paint for that, plus I'm out of the white exterior I used on the rails. The front porch is in pretty sad shape paint-wise, so that has a high priority as well. The carport needs touching up here and there too.

We've now mowed three times, and though we were wondering if we could continue to use the tractor here, it's a big help. We have an acre of lawn, roughly, and since it's flat, I don't feel like I need a seat belt on the mower!

Barry got in this afternoon from fertilizing most of the lawn and planting grass seed over the areas that were killed off by last year's drought. They have come back, but with light green weeds, so at least it's not brown, but a nice green lawn would look much better.

We've also researched black walnut trees -- seeing that we have two of them just over our property line. Any black walnuts that fall on our lawn are OURS! We'll need to husk, wash and dry them for several weeks, but next winter we two NUTS hould have all the walnuts we want!

I just wish I could name everything that Barry has planted here. No doubt, I have done so at one time or another in these blogs, but to remember everything all at once? Let's see -- peach tree (2), nectarine tree, blueberry bush (2), day lily (too many to count), lavender, chives, parsley, spearmint, oregano, rosemary(?), strawberries, spinach, lettuce, beets, swiss chard, white onions, yellow onions, garlic, asparagus, kiwi...and right now he's transplanting tomato seedlings into larger containers. Left to go are cantelope, watermelons, corn. There, I think I've named it all -- feel like Old Mother Hubbard who had so many plants she didn't know who they all were!

We're headed up to Keeneland (THE most beautiful race track in the world) Friday morning. In addition, we're going to the University of Kentucky Library, where they will download for me a copy of a map of Boyle and Mercer Counties done on 1876 that shows all the homeowners. That way I can tell who lived where here on our road, which in turn will help my genealogical research on all the inhabitants since the area was settled. Old genealogists never die, they just lose their relatives...

At Keeneland on Friday, we'll watch the Maker's Mile (sponsored by Maker's Mark Kentucky Bourbon. It's a G-1 horse race, which means it's in the same class as the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont and the Preakness. On Saturday comes the Bluegrass Stakes (CBS, 5:00 PM I think). Watch for us on TV! Some of the horses there will definitely be running in the Derby the first Saturday in May. We're staying over, partly because of the price of gas, but mostly because we'll be attending the Maker's Mark street party in downtown Lexington -- we're "official" Ambassadors - which simply means we spread the word about how good Maker's is!

Off topic -- did any of you catch the video of the two turkeys fighting on the Maine Turnpike exit at Biddeford? It was on Lexington news, and CNN of all places! Only in Maine, huh? Just "Google" "turkey" and "Maine Turnpike"!

There. That's about it -- except, Alison, what the heck is happening at Messalonskee HS? Please let me know but do NOT use school email!

Monday, March 31, 2008 - Update on Spring!

Update on Spring in the Bluegrass. It certainly is here now. The daytime temps over the next ten days will be in the 50-65 range, and nighttime temps won't get any lower than 35-40. Cold weather crops and early spring flowers should be doing just fine now. Herewith, a sampling from our back yard...

Daffodils - they grow wild here, and are almost past their prime. We have at least two types, one the traditional simple one, and the other that almost looks like a tulip when it buds.




Flowering Crab Apple -- I think; it looks like a Bradford Pear but the tree has a slightly taller and thinner shape and the blossoms are later.





Purple Lilac -- the buds are out about 1/2 inch, and will be blossomed well before the end of April. In Maine, we look for these around the end of May.





Holly -- maybe English Holly. These are the buds which, if fertilized, will become the bright red berries with which we are all familiar. We need to check with a nursery to see if we have mono- or di-oecious plants (one or two genders on the same plant), and if we have mono, we need to get a male plant -- at least we think this is a female...how to tell?

The Bradford Pear. They are everywhere down here, and the best specimens are absolutely stunning. Our two ain't too bad, considering that they're only about 7 years old.





The Bradford Pear from the side deck. This is the bigger of the two. You may notice the direction from which the wind blows. The branches on the right are pushed up and those on the left are stretched out. The wind blows from the west most of the time -- from right to left in the picture.


This little wildflower is all over. I think it's a type of anemone but I haven't gotten out the Kentucky Wildflowers book yet to identify it. Anyway, it's a welcome sign of spring, and is the first or second wildflower we've seen this Spring.



And finally I couldn't resist. The cattle are grazing on new green grass. They've been subsisting for several months now, but with the new grass, they actually LOOK happy!

Wednesday, 26 March - Planting

Unexciting but relaxing day today. This noon, we went to Wal-Mart and bought bags of humus/manure mix, cypress mulch, and sandbox sand for the garden. The soil here is so full of clay that when dry it bakes like brick, so it really needs extra organic material in it, hence the humus. Fertilizer (the manure) in the humus also will help greatly. The pH of the soil is generally what we need for what we're going to plant, or it can be adjusted easily, but the nutrition apparently is somewhat lacking. The sand is to mix with the clay for the carrot bed. I've always wanted to plant carrots in light, sandy soil to get nice long roots. Back in Maine the soil was so dense that the carrots were all short and stubby. Just ONCE I'd like to grow a 12" carrot!

On the way home, we stopped at the nursery just down the road. OH my, it's the largest nursery in the county, and we didn't get to see 1/4 of it. The plants are quite expensive, but the fruit trees are already several years old and have blossoms and buds, so they would fruit this year. I'm trying to convince Barry to buy another peach tree or maybe a plum so we can see how they do. He has ordered one of the type the nursery had but may cancel that order after seeing how the two trees he ordered earlier were delivered. They will actually grow, but right now they are 3' sticks.

When we got home from the nursery, Barry rototilled the front garden. I helped break up the sod and soil a bit with the Mantis tiller, but it's very hard work for that little machine. The Troy-Built tiller is made for the job, but the soil is simply so packed, Barry had difficulty, hence the assistance of the Mantis. That's the garden where we plan to plant the crops that will spread -- cantaloupes, watermelons, cucumbers, etc. It gets full sun all day long, so it should be great for those crops.

The strawberries and asparagus arrived today. Wouldn't you know, Barry was outside at 8:00 PM planting them. The strawberries are in, but the asparagus are simply staying in the "old whiskey barrel with dirt in it plant motel" until we can get those in the ground. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so maybe by Friday that can get accomplished.

Since it doesn't get really dark until after 8:15, I can see us working outside in the evening quite easily. Remember, we're in the extreme western part of the Eastern time zone, so sunrise and sunset are about an hour each later than in Maine -- the sun rose this morning about 7:15, for example. Also the hottest part of the day here isn't at 1PM, it's often at 3 or 4 PM, so being able to work out after dinner is a definite advantage.

Upcoming events here include going to Lexington 11-12 April for two major races, the Maker's Mile, and the Bluegrass Stakes. Rick is coming over from Paducah for the Bluegrass, which is one of the most important races prior to the Kentucky Derby, the first Saturday in May. We'll be going back up to Keeneland for their Derby Party. At some point, we want (if we can afford it) to get down to Knoxville, TN and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There's so much to do here, we just need to keep a schedule of upcoming events going.

OK, now to take a hot shower to get unstiff -- I can only imagine how much Barry is hurting now, tugging on that tiller -- but it's a good, satisfying kind of hurting.

Monday, 24 March 2008 - Busy, busy week!

Sunday, 16 Mar - Drove to Louisville airport to pick up former student teacher, Klaus, who was visiting on the way home. Klaus (his last name, by which he is known universally) was probably the best student teacher I have ever had. This year he's teaching in a private school in New Hampshire, and from our talk while he was here, he's making himself indispensable to the school. Way to go, Klaus! The more you can show the school officials how good you are for them, the better you will be, and the stronger your resume will be if/when you decide to look elsewhere.

On the way back from Louisville, we took the long way. First, we drove a mile or so to Churchill Downs and the site of the Kentucky Derby, then past Cardinals Stadium (University of Louisville).

Then it was on to Shelbyville and dinner at Claudia Sanders's Dinner House -- she was Colonel Sanders's (of KFC fame) widow, and the fried chicken there IS the Colonel's secret recipe, unchanged from when he had his restaurant in Corbin (where Barry and I have also eaten, though it was the usual KFC one can find in Lexington KY or Lexington MA, or Beijing for that matter).

The road then took us to Frankfort where we drove by the state capitol, and the cemetery where Daniel Boone is buried. Then on to Lexington, where we showed Klaus Rupp Arena (read U-K basketball here), downtown, Commonwealth Stadium (U-K football), then down through Nicholasville to home.

Monday, 17 Mar - Sightseeing around Danville with Klaus. First stop was to northern Casey County, where we showed Klaus the house we almost bought in Butchertown. Hasn't changed a bit. Then it was on to the Perryville Battlefield, Old Fort Harrod, and then back to Danville, through the Centre College campus, and past some beautiful old mansions to Constitution Square and Burke's Bakery. In under 48 hours, we hope Klaus got a feel for a good section of the Bluegrass.

Tuesday, 18 Mar - Took Klaus back to Louisville. No problem getting there, everything was on time, and we took our time. On the way up and home we ran into rain -- the flooding rains that have ravaged parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys -- but once we left Louisville, the rain stopped. Louisville got about 6 inches, we got maybe half an inch, enough for the Salt River to rise a bit, that's all.

Friday, 21 Mar - Drove to Paducah to spend Easter with Rick and Laura and her family. On the way over we were watchful of flooding, and we did see quite a bit. The Rolling Fork, normally about 50 feet wide where the Bluegrass Parkway crosses, was about half a mile wide, inundating fields as far downstream as we could see. Same with the Green River, though not as bad. When we got to Paducah, the water was very high, over flood stage, but still contained within the flood wall, at least downtown. There were areas that were blocked off, and the Tennessee River at Paducah was about 4 times its normal width and many feet above its normal height. That was truly spectacular -- and not in a good way!

Laura, you look beautiful! There's the glow that expectant mothers have, even with the morning sickness, back pains, and general discomfort. If men were the ones who had the babies, there would be NO overpopulation! Just remember, the "Baby's Room" here in Parksville, is ready to go for her first visit!

Saturday, 22 Mar - Basketball, Basketball, Basketball. The NCAA championships were on, and we watched so much basketball, we all got stiff from all the sitting! The University of Kentucky was knocked out in the first round, but Rick's alma mater, Western Kentucky University, made it through the first and second rounds, and is now in the "Sweet Sixteen" along with the University of Louisville.

Sunday, 23 Mar - Brunch at the Paducah Country Club and coming home from Paducah -- last 15 miles in a SNOWSTORM! That about says it all. Friday was beautifully warm. Saturday and Sunday weren't. Brunch was great -- thanks Buel and Nancy -- you are both such wonderful hosts, and we thank you for making us feel at home in Paducah. Unfortunately, we always eat too much of Buel's great cooking! Jack and Alan, it's always good to see you guys too.

It takes two hours to get to Paducah and four hours to get home. Of course, that's because of the time zone -- we gain an hour going west, and lose an hour coming back east.

For the last 15 or so miles, we ran into sleet, then snow. By the time we got home, after dark, it was like driving in blizzard conditions. The ground was white this morning, but by 10 AM all the snow had melted.

Many people around here can't WAIT until Spring -- Snow on Easter Sunday? That's extreme!

Monday, 24 March - Southern Illinois University School of Law finally has the sense to admit Rick. Due to problems at the law school Rick has been attending, he applied to SIU.

He got his acceptance letter today!

Now Rick, just let us know when we can help you move to Carbondale for the duration. You won't need a 27 foot Penske truck like the one you drove for us from Maine to Kentucky, but we'll be available to help in any way we can. Luckily, it's only 66 miles from Paducah, so you could actually come home mid-week, provided you save time for studying and reading! Just don't try to do it on I-24, OK?

Rick, did you hear the one about the lawyer who ...