ODE TO NORTHERN KENTUCKY

 

THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE (during the flood of Jan. 2005)

Poo-Poo, his youngest daughter and myself made the journey to Newport to move him back home yesterday. The furniture and household things we have been accumulating over the past three months were packed into the U-Haul. Some of the furniture we placed close to the dumpster, officially putting it up for grabs. That was a stroke of genius for the grateful recipient helped us carry the remaining stuff into the U-Haul.

It took only two hours to clean the place out. Then they headed for home while I went on one last shopping spree. The sadness I felt was unexpected. We had arrived with Winter and were leaving with the beginning of Spring. I had grown  increasingly fond of my weekends there and was looking forward to the beauty and enjoyment that the warmer weather was sure to bring. Now we were leaving.

 My first stop was Trader Joe's where I  stocked up on Two Buck Chuck, scones, pineapple salsa, pizza dough, chocolate covered bing cherries.

Then I went to the Party Source  which opens at 11am on Sunday morning. I love to walk down the aisle of beer. So tempting and mind boggling. The cave is the cold vault full of icy beer. The flavor rum selection was fabulous. The array of fancy foods divine! I will most certainly miss the Party Source.

I ended up my shopping spree with a trip to Superior Candy and Nuts. Candy sold by the pound. This was the much anticipated stop every week end for my step daughter and I to get our $2.99 bag of treats. Everything from jaw breakers to salt water taffy, caramels to sweet tarts. I purchased the ceremonial last bags for each of us. I also purchased a pound of licorice assorts! The very difficult and  hard to find delights that I love maybe a bit too much. Last time I found them was in a shop in Galway.

I have become very attached to the area. I believe it had a lot to do with it being a major metropolis. I am going to miss it very much. Especially the cheap thrills....such as...

Driving into the valley of the Ohio river rounding the big hill on I-75, you come around and the city of Cincinnati is laid out in front of you like a crown jewel. At night time, this view will take you breath away with its beauty.

There are seven bridges that span the Ohio River into Kentucky. Each one has a demonstrative name attached. The Suspension Bridge, the Mac Bridge, the Purple People Bridge. I loved to photograph them and will miss their mystic and the  dreaminess that they always opened up in me.

I'll miss the walks I took. And finding the great sources for picture taking. From Covington you  cross the "little bridge" over the Licking River and it becomes Newport, which merges into Bellevue which in turn becomes Dayton (KY). Each small ( at one time a frontier town) city attached together like jewels on a necklace.
The Levee with the Newport Aquarium and the multitude of fancy restaurants and shops. The actual levee with the wonderful Riverfront area for walking, skipping rocks into the Ohio, the Veterans park, the floating restaurants on the river, the running track. The barges. The abandoned boats on the ground wrapped in blue vinyl blankets for the winter. The ducks.

I'll miss the bars that are everywhere and I did not have enough time to visit the ones I wanted. The Southgate House will be a source of fond memories   The public radio stations especially the one out of Batavia Ohio which played the most off the wall stuff! Polka music, old Big Band Sounds, Celtic music, and old Cowboy music! The DJ's were grandma's & grandpa's sharing their record collections! Sometimes sounding as if broadcasing from their basements! I will miss that very much.

I'll miss most of all the excitement and the anticipation. It was an area where anything could happen. Of  bursting color, sounds, smells and interesting people everywhere.

It was a good three months.

PHOTO FRIDAY: GHOSTLY

McCowens Ferry Rd.

Along the small two lane roads throughout our rural countryside you will encounter these ghostly reminders that when you least expect it something goes terribly wrong.

NOT DRNKING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

NEWPORT FEBRUARY 2005

I have given up alcohol for Lent. This is really going to be a big sacrifice because I love coconut rum.

Last week Poo-Poo ( he has asked me to no longer refer to him as Zorro, so now it is Poo-Poo, a story I may tell later) and I go out on the town in Newport. The attraction was Big Joe Duskin, a mainstay on the Cincinnati Blues circuit. A huge celebration for his 84th birthday was taking place at the Big Blue Fish, a restaurant on the Levee. He was the main act too!

The bar was packed ( I was late) yet we managed to find a spare chair in the back of the room, behind a row of tropical plants. I was only able to see the stage by kneeling on the chair. He was terrific. Still can rock the house! We stayed for only one set then decided to go to the Southgate House to see if Straw Boss was playing. Straw Boss is the Rockabilly band we had so much fun listening to New years Eve.

We had to cross the street. Six lanes of traffic. Frantic traffic heading towards the Ohio River one direction or the Newport Levee in the other direction . We look up towards the traffic light, which is about 20 yards away. The light is red. The cars are stopped. Engines are revving. Inching forward like predatory animals.

"We can make it " Poo-Poo yells as he begins to dart across the street.

I glance at the traffic to gage whether I should risk it when I misjudge the curb and step off into empty space. I drop like a sack of potatoes. Flop to my knees! The pavement is racing towards my face. My reflexes are swift and I was able to get my hands out in front before slamming face first into oblivion.

I was aware that I was sprawled on the ground in front of a quickly approaching wall of impatient NASCAR wannabees! Poo-Poo helped haul me to my feet. He was cognizant of the fact that one moment I was there and the next I had disappeared!. "Walk it off! Walk it off!" he instructs me as if I am a football player and helps me regain my balance.

I am really stunned and in semi-shock. I could only think I WAS ABSOLUTELY SOBER! This is too dangerous for me, an Irish colleen! I need alcohol in my system or the earth is rotating off its axis!

I'm certain those in traffic, sitting in the bus stop, and walking on the sidewalk, everyone who witnessed the spectacle thought I was intoxicated. A drunk falling in the street. How crazy is that!

Poo-Poo and I have laughed and laughed about it since. It was pretty funny.

My right wrist is slightly sprained ....jeez. But, two weeks into Lent and I still am holding strong.

WHY I LOVE NEWPORT KENTUCKY

ACTUALLY COVINGTON!!!!!

I have been having a lot of trouble with my Homepage lately.  I have not been able to open it to add pictures and then transfer them to the Blog.  Going through FTP space is time consuming and takes up way too much time! 

Especially to load on the page.  And I have DSL! I can only imagine how frustrating it is with dial up.   So, I'm trying out new things while AOL gets things fixed...(will they ever?) I'm loading the picture on another screen name, faking out my "experimental" journal to think I am posting from Homepages...copy it...then come back over here.  Wonder if it will work?  

I took this picture in front of the Economy Meat Market in Covington.  It is right across the street from the "Boom Boom Room" (what I refer to strip clubs in general) that advertised "The most beautiful girls in Kentucky".  I thought it amusing.

The guy came outside when he noticed me taking pictures.  I have never asked someone I had not met if  I could take their picture!  But he was so cute in his white apron.  I told him I was entering a photo contest and would he mind?  Of course not!  It was so easy to ask him!    I need to ask people more often. 

A very interesting web site I found on Photo Friday that some of you all may be interested in.  Go check it out!  World Photo Day! Sounds like fun to me.

Anyway, this is just a nonsense post.  

PHOTO FRIDAY: RURAL

 

I am drawn to this beautiful mill on the Elkhorn Creek.  To arrive here you take the road less traveled till you come to a tiny one lane bridge. You will find nestled  next to the side of the road a small patch of gravel that welcomes you to pull off and admire the  beauty and serenity of the Weisenberger Mill.

I photograph it every chance I get.  Sometimes racing to the bridge knowing the mist is rising and the sun is begining to break over the eastern tree line.

It's a little bit of heaven on earth.  Tucked into the rural country side.

MUST I ALWAYS BE ALONE

 

 

ADDICTED TO LOVE       (part XIX)

I attended my 20th High School reunion during the summer months. I discovered one amazing thing. All the women looked great, perhaps better, still appearing youthful. I recognized every one. But the guys! Holy mackerel! Guess that is one of natures little jokes. The women age at a slower pace. This could be our excessive use of anti aging products. It seems the guys just don't care. But as we near our golden years, the guys look better. (Shelley Winters....Sean Connery....?)

I knew C.K. during those four years of hell known as high school. He was definitely one of the cool kid crowd. To be a gold member of that group, you came from Christ the King Grammar School. And he did. He was a college professor in a state far, far away. Taught economics of all things! He was recovering from a break up of a long term relationship and very vulnerable.It was not that I felt sorry for him, it was that I was so lonely! He is a terrific guy, funny, smart, stable, attentive and best of all his family owned a flower business in Lexington. I was awash in roses and beautiful exotic flowers for months.

All my platonic relationships come to the same conclusion. Give it up, or bust up. The good thing about most my romances of this sort, is that the guy usually is married within six months! C.K. found a stunningly beautiful woman from Brazil teaching Spanish at the college! I attended the wedding. I should have been the maid of honor.

Loneliness is an subtle destroyer. It creeps up on you slowly and with little warning you are yearning for something that seems so unattainable and become depressed. I went to the movies with Bridget, and a couple with two children were sitting several rows ahead of us. They settled down in their seats and he causally put his arm around her.

My heart was in my throat and I was fighting back the tears. Will I ever be touched by someone I love? How long must I wait for a kiss that blows my mind? Will I ever have someone throw their arm around me and touch their head to mine? Is it my fate to never have passion in my life...to share my life again?

I remember seeing a commercial on tv about a business called Match Makers. I made an appointment and signed up! She was so enthused to have me as a client! "They will eat you alive!" she told me.

This is how it went. Every month you were sent in the mail approximately 10 "matches" which included their name and address, phone number. That was it! No rhyme or reason to it. I think she just tossed the names up in the air and where ever they fell that was it...you were matched up.

I was contacted by a guy named Butch. I met him at a restaurant in Lexington. "Meet for lunch" she had advised me, "That way it is less awkward to get away."

Butch...what can I say about my first experience! He was drop dead gorgeous. I was thinking he was worth every penny of the exorbitant amount that car salesmen turned Match Maker coerced out of me.

He was fresh off a break up, on the rebound and very distracted. There was to be no second date. At least I got a nice lunch out of the deal. The only thing we had in common was that we both picked off the red onion rings from our salads and placed them on the side of the plate.

It was a good and bad start. I told myself to stop being so superficial and shallow. He was a jerk. Albeit a handsome jerk, but a jerk all the same. A drop dead gorgeous jerk, but a jerk.

I'd wait for the next batch of mail.

WHEN HARRY MET MARY

ADDICTED TO LOVE   (part XVIII)

Platonic relationships.

Remember the scene in the movie when Harry tells Sally there is no such thing, that the guy is always hoping, and just playing along. How many of us have been there? There is  always that shock when the gauntlet is thrown down. Or suggested that things need to change. I think Harry was  close to being right,  that it is genetically impossible for a man to accept the realities of a platonic friendship! For them,  it is an oxymoron. Yet on the other hand, it is quite possible for a woman to be very happy and content in just this scenario.

I know I was. I have had many such relationships in my spinsterhood...I mean maidenhood. I received my training as a Little Sister. My longest relationship has been with JBS. I met him while living with Cathy, he was a friend of her fiance. JBS lived in Florida and would come up for the Derby every year. I don't think I have ever met anyone I laugh with more than him. When Bridget was four years old we decided to go on a road trip to Somerset, Kentucky. We got lost. We were sitting on the side of the road, in the middle of the night, he looks at me and says, "Another fine mess you have gotten us into." I just cracked up!

Then there is Gregg. He was a childhood friend that I ran into upon returning home in the 1990's. We had numerous adventures over the years including the 1996 UK NCAA Championship happening in downtown Lexington, the 1997 UK NCAA runner-up incident in downtown Lexington, the Frankfort stories, the Kessler stories, the star gazing on the side of US 60 late one night, the Ty stories...it goes on forever. He has helped me move several times, he has held my hand several times, and he has let me cry on his shoulder many times.

The roll call is rather long and I think I might be embarrassed to actually list them all!  Each one made a difference in my life. Sometimes when life did not feel worth it, they would bring me out of the doldrums.

The truth of things is this, I have met some very wonderful guys in my life. Why I chose to fall for the moody, angry, dangerous types is the cross I had to carry for a long time.

One night I was entertaining two of my childhood pals, Gregg and Reginald. By entertaining I really mean they just dropped in and hung around watching tv because they had no where else better to be!

Reginald looks at me and says, "If Gregg won't marry you, I will!"

"These are my choices?" I asked in horror!

Gregg was offended and stomped off. "The offer stands" Reginald assured me.

Ain't love grand!