Louisville, Kentucky

There is definitely a whole lot of good-looking grass around Louisville. They call it the "bluegrass" region! I don't know whether it's blue, but it sure is green, and I for one thought that at dusk it looked blue in a particularly beautiful way. And there are beautiful horses all over the place. They call it "the land of beautiful horses and fast women." They probably shouldn't call it that. 

I've been to way too many bus stations across this odd land of our "united" states -- you know how many of them are actually nice places? Where you think to yourself, Hey, maybe I oughta stay here for a while? One. Yes, the one in Louisville. Buses in the US drive past all kinds of beautiful regions. But in Louisville, they actually stop there. 

Jefferson County, where Lousville is, has an estimated population of 710,000 humans. I mentioned the horses all over the place -- or at the very least, lining the Greyhound bus route. I also happen to know that it has been the home of several outstanding pit bulls who turned out to be perfectly wonderful nice doggies once they they were rescued from shelters or the streets and treated nice, overcoming the torture they'd received from some unfathomable people who'd fought them and then abandoned them. And then there was one who had just been mistreated too badly and stayed pretty crazy except around a couple of people. 

Louisville was the home of Muhammad Ali and Hunter S Thompson, and also of a guy who I considered a good friend of mine, although we only ever met on Facebook. He and his wife (another good friend) rescued the aforementioned pit bulls. He was also kind to people, offering his services as an attorney to people who had been arresting when protesting for good causes. He and his wife also took part in such protests.

And he also introduced me to the Louisville Can Opener. Google it, you'll thank me, and him. 

He loved pre-Raphaelite painting and realistic marble sculpture. I once tried to talk to him (on Facebook) about some non-representational art, Abstract Expressionism and such, and he wasn't going for it at all. I don't know if he was badly frightened by an Abstract Expressionist as a small child, or what. But that's okay. I learned a lot about the pre-Raphaelites from him. And about Catholicism. And Hermeticism, and Kabbalah, and Nordic Paganism.  And just generally about being a righteous dude.

Cancer took him much too soon, almost a year ago. He's in Catholic Heaven now, with some of the dogs he and his wife rescued (she's still at it, bless her kind heart), and in Valhalla -- they had to let him in, even thought he used his bravery in pacifistic pursuits. No way they were ever going to turn such a badass away -- and in the night sky.