Rainy days and Mondays

It’s been a soggy weekend. Louisville on Derby Day received two inches of rain. Derby hats, as you can see, were severely threatened.

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On Sunday, roads were closed all over the state. Dams washed away, menacing innocent towns. There are slim rivers running down my basement walls.

Yesterday morning at Mass, Father abandoned the sprinkling rite, whereby we all are doused/blessed with Holy Water, he said, “for the obvious reasons.” Apparently, when it comes to water, we’d been blessed enough. About the time he made this announcement, I noticed a rather fast-moving stream barreling down one of the enormous pillars inside the church.

This was at 9 am. By 8 o’clock that night, the rain still poured down. My children cheerfully (and I use that term loosely) performed their Sunday evening duties, taking out the trash and placing the cans at the curb for Monday-morning collection. They looked damp yet rather cute. The photo’s not much to speak of; I was standing on the porch trying to keep the camera dry and at such times I apparently lose focus.

Isn’t the grass a lovely shade of green, though? All verdant and growing, thanks to the nearly four inches of rain. Rain that, on a less cosmic scale, has prevented me from getting out there and getting dirty by grubbing in the garden.

Here you see the tense scene on my window sill.

These poor things have been languishing in an inch of soil in egg crates, waiting for their permanent home in the back yard. There, abundant weeds choke out the azaleas and sundry other plants. This despite the fact that I dumped an entire trailer-load of dirt back there last summer ON TOP of a bunch of cardboard to kill the weeds and,  more importantly, the mint. Short of a flame-thrower, though, there’s not much you can do with mint, except make a metric buttload of juleps.

Anyway, the heavens opened Saturday morning at around 6 am and apparently liked staying good and open. My deck is drenched and sad; no sunny annuals in porch boxes yet.

But I suppose it’s still early. There’s plenty of time for the world to dry out, the pollen to fill the air — and when that happens  I really, really know it’s springtime in Kentucky.

It’s a mud world

Yesterday we here in Kentucky celebrated the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby. We also celebrated, if you can call it that, the non-stop rain which left the track muddy, the Derby hats limp and jockey Calvin Borel with his third Kentucky Derby win in four years — a new record.

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There’s Calvin on the right, living up to his nickname, “Bo-Rail,” for his affection for running his horse along the rail. It worked for him last year on Mine That Bird and in 2007 on Street Sense, when he won his first Derby as Queen Elizabeth watched from the grandstand.

“It’s the shortest way around,” he always says.

I grew up in Kentucky and I’ve never lived anywhere else, so the Derby is as ordinary to me as air. I’m not Horse People,  I’m not remotely connected to anything horsey, except by proximity, since I live in Lexington, and I’ve only been to the Derby twice. There are Kentuckians who don’t pay a whole lot of attention  to the annual horse race, which captures at least some of the world’s attention for a couple minutes on the first Saturday in May. And that’s OK too. But for me, it’s something completely ordinary to turn on the TV on Saturday afternoon on Derby Day and watch the coverage, or maybe attend a party (though I haven’t been to one in years).

But my interest stepped up a notch a couple years ago when Calvin Borel was brought to my attention. He’s from Louisiana, home state of my beloved, who falls into the group I mentioned above — they who pay only scant attention to the Run for the Roses. We were  both captivated by his self-effacing manner, his bald displays of emotion upon winning the holy grail of horseracing and his patented method for achieving the win. Now in one of those “I was country before country was cool” moments, I was a Calvin girl before Calvin was cool. I was drawn to him by the association with Tras’s homestate and well, look at him now.

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Here’s his wife getting a victory smooch and holding up three fingers for his third win … maybe it’s for the Triple Crown,  where Calvin’s headed next.

We all love a good story, and Calvin certainly is one. He’s like a cross between Rocky and Seabiscuit. Plucked from obscurity in 2007, trainer Carl Nafzger gave him his shot on Street Sense and look at him now. He owns the Derby.

See you at Pimlico for the Preakness in two weeks, Calvin. Maybe the rain will have stopped by then.

Do what you can

Today on the blog is a link to Doctors Without Borders, an organization helping with the devastation caused by this week’s earthquake in Haiti.

Matt DeHaven

Many of you know Matt DeHaven, the older brother of two of my oldest and best friends, Cathy and Steve. Matt was an emergency room physician and had hoped one day to become part of a Doctors Without Borders team providing medical assistance to people in need. Matt’s life was cut short by a devastating brain tumor and he died in December at the age of 50.

The DeHaven family dedicated their lives to helping others, from the missionary work of their physician- and hospital-administrator parents in India (where Steve and Cathy were born and Matt spent his early childhood years) to the careers chosen by their children. Today Cathy is a primary care physician and Steve is an informatics nurse (a specialty that combines nursing skills with computer expertise).

Please join the spirit of DeHaven family by offering what financial help you can to ease the suffering in Haiti. And after this disaster, remember that the need goes on and Doctors Without Borders’ work will continue.

Your gift today will support emergency medical care for the men, women, and children affected by the earthquake. Please give as generously as you can to this organization’s Haiti Earthquake Response and help them save lives.

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