Category: Daily Life in the USA

Pegasus Wired

Louisville is famous as the home of the Kentucky Derby, one of the big annual events in US sports. Years ago the city made available to businesses full-size horse figures which a company was to decorate and then display outside their business location. It was a creative idea and the horses still proudly prance around the city. The Eye Care Institute where I receive treatment has this horse and yesterday I noticed that since the last time I was there, a solar power panel has been added to the back of the horse. Why it was added wasn’t immediately obvious but then I noticed several dark dots on the horse’s left flank and elsewhere. I’m guessing they must be lights of some sort, but adding an obtrusive solar panel seems to negate any aesthetic attraction the lights might have. I’ll have to go back there in the dark to see if my presumption is correct–and if the lights are a positive or negative.

The American way….

Today I was at Costco to get some items I need for my trip this week to Cambodia and I was struck by how polite and respectful most Americans are. People greeted me, waved me in line ahead of them, apologized for brushing my arm, paused their cart to let me go first. I am not used to that. Cambodian people are some of the most courteous people in the world but culturally they don’t express it the way we do here. There is seldom acknowledgement of the other person, no eye contact, no greeting spoken, no disarming smiles. They are wonderful people but they just don’t interact the way we do. Coming back to OUR way has been a really positive experience for me and an opportunity for reflection on who we are and how we meet each other.

My first spring back home

Cambodia only has two seasons, hot and wet and hot and dry. Different trees have fruits and flowers at different times but everything is always green, leaves don’t fall off trees like in parts of the U.S.

It’s my first spring time in the U.S. in 40 years and I’m really enjoying it! The cold weather seems to have finally (almost) disappeared and everything is in bloom!

Old Union Station

I have been amazed at the architecture I have rediscovered in Louisville since my return here, partly because it’s common place and I just took it for granted before, and partly because I’m now riding everywhere on a bicycle and see things more closely and from different angles.

Yesterday I went to get a city bus pass and the TARC offices are in the old Union Station where the L&N Railroad was based. It is a beautiful, distinctive building in downtown Louisville.