Yes, it's going to be a day to keep a weather eye out for Louisville and especially those at Churchill Downs for this year's running of the Kentucky Derby. As I've said here before, Derby was always like a holiday in my family. No gifts to buy. No feelings to hurt. We would write down, cut out, and then the draw the names of the horses out of Dad's golf tams and then have a nice mint julep before My Old Kentucky Home was played...and sung. This year, yes, the weather is going to be a challenge. It's supposed to be hot - upper 80s - and/or exceedingly wet. Today's Kentucky Oaks (a Grade I race for fillies, it's referred to as the Run for the Lillies had to be postponed, the infield evacuated, people under cover, many went home, due to lightning and storms and rain)...and that does not happen very often, folks. It just doesn't; however Kentucky suffered Mother Nature's wrath in the past few months, and we have a healthy respect for her warnings. Tornadoes and juleps just don't go well together, now do they?
I'm going to leave tomorrow morning with my buddies Amy Owens and Lisa Osland, we'll be working for our dear friend and worldwide photography wonk, Z, who was my mentor at The Thoroughbred Record, taught me how to put a magazine together -- the old fashioned way -- and kept me busy with foreign research to keep me out of trouble. I was young. A loner. A rebel.
I didn't blog about every Derby contender this year, as 2012 has not permitted any room for leisurely things like covering the Derby horses. My brother died, and I wonder--where is he? I know that sounds stupid, but ... wtf is he? I just feel as if he ought to still exist. I cannot feature him being gone. I'm still in shock, I guess. I'm a grief counselor and do not even know the answer to that. At any rate, yes, I have been away from blogging for quite a while, working a strict 8 to 5 job and also have some weekly ukulele and writing gigs going on. My health has tapped me on the shoulder with a Louisville Slugger and more or less let me know I am not invincible..life is fragile, and precious -- just like yours and mine.
Oh yeah, I started this all about the Derby, didn't I? I'm gonna soak up the joy, try to not letting anyone rain on my Derby parade, and pick a winner or two, hopefully longshots before the day is over. I'll be taking pix and posting them on facebook, and video -- so check out kimmyville on facebook or twitter, and enjoy the day along with me, julep by julep.
Who will prevail in the most famous race in history? I really like Hansen, but think a longshot like Daddy Nose Best is going to win, just by the hair of a nostril -- if it doesn't rain all day, that is, and if the mud from today has drained off the Churchill dirt. If it's muddy, all bets are off; go to the mudders.
Let's hope it's a nice fast track, and there's plenty of traction for those powerful but fragile animals. Seems fragility is the word of the day, no?
I'll probably be at the starting gate, handing duct tape to one of Z's crew photographers and being a little sunburnt, a little rain addled, and more than a little happy to hear My Old Kentucky Home (which my entire ukulele lesson group knows now, I am proud to say).
Please watch the Kentucky Derby tomorrow...start a tradition of looking at the horses' names and make a lil choice; watch the sport of Kings at its best somewhere after 5 or 6pm. Kentucky is the egg mcmuffin of places to live during the week of the Kentucky Derby, and I'm not yolking around :)
peace,y'all, and
weep no more, my lady.
see you at Derby,
Kimmy
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