Archive for April 23rd, 2005

We survived the storm last night. There were reports of a tornado touchdown about 15 miles northeast of here. I took the kids down to the basement in a pretend drill of where the safest spot would be in case of a tornado. And also told them not to wait for mommy or daddy. My wife was watching the weather radar on the news while I kept a watch out looking for any cloud activity. It made me realize that we need a weather radio. So I ordered one online today. And with the storm passing, the cold front is now moving through. The beautiful 70F+ degree weather of last week is a distant memory as winter’s last gasp sets in for a day or two. As of bedtime tonight, it is 37F degrees. There was even some sleet tonight right before the “Thunder Over Louisville” or “Thunder” as it is referred to locally. It seems about 50 years ago, one of the Kentucky Derby folks thought it would be a good idea to kick off Derby week with some fireworks. Add a sparkler here, some big corporate sponsors there, and you have North America’s largest fireworks show. Who’da thought — I had never heard about until moving here. It seems that people travel from several different states to check out the show — Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, etc. I watched it one HDTV and, while the picture was beautiful, I’m sure it is more spectacular in person. I’m just not gonna fight 500-700 thousand people in almost freezing temps late at night with the kids to see them. They have a whole bridge flanked by a barge on each side belching fire into the night. It is definitely a fireworks extravaganza. At the end of 25 to 30 minutes your brain begins to numb to the displays and you almost want it over already. Kinda like the Vegas neon lights, but exploding. One of these years we will go. And Derby time is officially here. We’ve been told that things will start to get crazy. People here are fanatical about their Derby.

It will be interesting.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net