Category: Daily Life in the USA

Bicycle Gloves

I bicycled to work daily in Phnom Penh but cycling there was much different from what it is in Louisville. The cold is one big difference. I had a pair of leather gloves but on the really cold days here in Kentucky, after fifteen minutes my fingers were frozen. People at Nazareth Home and at St. Boniface Church heard me talking about how unpleasant it was, and then they started giving me gloves! But even gloves purpose-made for cycling didn’t work when the temps were below 35º or so. Then some of my brothers and sisters got me a Christmas present of heated bike gloves–and they work! Riding with them in cold weather is heavenly!

I tried all sorts of gloves to keep my fingers warm and tried putting a thinner pair of gloves inside heavy gloves but that didn’t work either. The large gloves on the right, with the blue lights on the cuff, are the ones that gave me relief. They have USB-charged batteries in those large cuffs.

False Alarm–deja vu

A couple weeks ago two fire trucks rushed to Nazareth Home for a false alarm that was never explained. Yesterday morning a fire engine appeared again, this time responding to an alarm triggered by some food scrap that had fallen onto the electrical burner in the building where I live. It started smoking when the stove was turned on and activated the smoke detector and automatic alarm that called the fire fighters. They were most gracious as they checked things out and then climbed back on the truck at the end of their shift for that day.

Snow: Unusually beautiful

Just three inches of snow fell last night but the effect has been stunning. Kentucky frequently gets a couple inches of snow but if it is not gone in two or three hours, it probably is only patchy after the first night and doesn’t last more than a day or two.

This present snow is a heavy, thick, sticky snow that has covered everything and is still sticking to the trees, wires, fences, houses, and everything exposed. Driving around the city reveals beautiful panoramas of winter bliss. After 40 years in temperate Asia with no snow, it’s a real joy for me.

Another learning…

It’s COLD bicycling in Louisville in November

Since I arrived in Louisville a few months ago, I’ve been lying low, going slow to get the feel of life in the US and what is expected of me as a retired priest. One particular area of interest is getting around since I will not be driving but depending on the e-bike my cousins bought for me. I’ve been checking what it’s like to ride in the rain here, what it’s like riding at night–and what it’s like riding in the cold.

Today the temperature was in the upper 20ºs when I left for a meeting. I had already found it’s not so bad riding in the cold except for my frozen fingers. The black gloves on the left were given me by my sister. They are great, just a tad too small but really pliable–and warm for the first twenty minutes. The red gloves are ski gloves I borrowed to test. They aren’t as pliable but they give me an extra ten minutes or so before my fingers are frozen. I’m going to have to keep working on this because it’s not even winter yet!

I’ve been here before….

50+ years ago I used to have my hair cut at the Tri-City Barber College in Louisville. Then I went to Asia for 42 years, and for the last 20+years in Cambodia I had my own barber school, a job training program for deaf youth.

Today I returned to Tri-City after the long absence. It’s in a different location and the staff I knew are no longer there. The same could be said for a lot of my hair: it’s no longer there. But I got a cut from Eli, a delightful young man, eager to please, and he only charged me $7!

U.S. Holiday Culture

One of the differences I notice between U.S. culture and the culture of India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and Cambodia where I have lived is the way they celebrate holidays and festivals. In the Asian countries and in the United States, holidays are important, but in the U.S. our public holidays tend to be rather alike. Of course we do have seasonal aspects like Easter bunnies and Halloween costumes and Christmas trees, but festive days in the U.S. seem to me to be more time off from our regular work routine when we do fun things and less a celebration of the original origin and focus for the holiday. In the Asian countries people don’t just string up store-bought decorations like everyone else has, but the family, the church, the community come together to remember and enact the reason for the holiday.

A lack of focus on basic meanings and values appears in the American ignoring of special holiday times. Any holiday is noted not for its original meaning and special time but as an opportunity to sell decorations and trimmings. On my bike ride in southern Indiana yesterday this home displayed decorations for both Halloween and Thanksgiving although the holidays are a month apart.
And to further make my point, a house two doors away has its Christmas decorations up–a month before Christmas! That isn’t remembering, celebrating the reasons for having special times on the year and our lives but just commercialization.

False Alarm at Nazareth Home

Tonight about 8:35 PM, the Nazareth Home fire alarm went off. It is LOUD! Protocol here is if you call in any alarm, go out to meet the first responders. I didn’t know what was going on but went out to meet the fire trucks which arrived in three or four minutes and then showed them where the fire annunciator panel is located. Nazareth Home has three buildings and the alarm was going on in all of them. It took ten or fifteen minutes to find the annunciator panel in the main building because it was a Saturday night and staff were gone and offices locked up but finally they found it and were able stop the alarm. The firemen were a delightful group and while waiting, we taught each other about the organization of the fire department and about life with deaf people in Cambodia. An interesting evening! But we still don’t know why the alarm went off!?

Working on it…

In March I injured my shoulder in a freak occurrence. I thought it was just a bruise or a sprain but when I went for a medical exam on arrival in Louisville, my new doctor said that if it was still hurting seven months after the injury—it was, I should try therapy. I have been going to KORT therapy now for 9 or 10 sessions. Today Betsy was trying some pressure on muscles they say need to be strengthened to take pressure off the hurting shoulder area. There is progress but I’m getting resigned to the fact that there is going to be some pain the rest of my life.