2005 06 28 Southern Change Gonna Come at Last

2005/06/28

It was a face I’d seen a thousand times at every Derby I’d ever been to. I saw it, in my head, as the mask of the whiskey gentry–a pretentious mix of booze, failed dreams and a terminal identity crisis; the inevitable result of too much inbreeding in a closed and ignorant culture. - HST

The trip went well, aside from a one hour delay b/w boarding and take-off, but we had no connecting flights, so the stress was minimal. We arrived and in short order consumed great amounts of BBQ and deep-fried corn on the cob. The south is always the bastion of healthy consumption.

A trip to the half-price book store pretty much capped off the night. I actually located two books on my streamlined list. With the lack of book storage, I’ve severely reduced my book purchasing. The local library is decent, and I’ve found myself being much more critical about what I’ll read/buy.

Did I mention it was deadly hot and humid? After living in the midwest for the majority of my life, and surviving in Florida for two years, I can handle pretty much any weather. Hot and humid weather just sucks. For me I’ve learned that minimal food and massive amounts of water are the only way to survive the heat without one’s mood turning beastly foul.

The next day was spent browsing the local hipster area along Bardstown Rd. for books and music. Ear-Extacy is a mighty fine music store. The staff actually seem knowledgeable, which is a grand treat from the land of Borders/Best Buy.

That evening we hit the Louisville Bats game. I usually enjoy minor-league baseball games. The stadiums are decent and the cost is reasonable. The problem with any public event in the south, is the unbelievable number of young child bearing couples. From what I gather, unmarried by 21 is rare indeed. The crowd of screaming, crying, rapidily sunburning children made the game nearly unbearable.

We finished off the evening with a drive around some of the rich areas of Louisville. There is a lot of old money in this town, and tremendous amounts of beautiful brick homes. A couple of episodes of Northern Exposure later, and I was ready to crash. Northern Exposure always seems like my idea of heaven; people discussing actual topics (movies, books, philosophy) rather than reality TV. That’s why its called fiction, because it doesn’t really exist.

Sunday was pretty slow, a trip to a local brunch for a great deal of food consumption, a bit of hanging around and the back to the airport. Pretty nice weekend to get away. It doesn’t look like we’ll get a real vacation in this year, so we’re trying to make the most of a couple of short trips.