In the county where I was raised, the big debutante event was the PACHA (Pattie A. Clay Hospital Auxiliary) Ball. The hospital is now a regional medical center, so it's now the PACA Ball. This was its 37th year... and first in which there were four "junior hosts" as well as nineteen "junior hostesses."

I was never a part of that scene, but seeing that news on the front page of Monday's paper cheered me up nonetheless.

Also, the $60K they were aiming to raise is going toward renovating PAC's third and fourth floors -- and speaking as someone who spent a significant part of March in PAC, those renovations are sorely needed. (Someday I'll post the picture of the bedpad one of the nurses' aides and I tried to tape over the !@#@!#@ intercom speaker in my mother's room. And I pulled a shoulder muscle sleeping overnight in a chair, and they're clearly shortstaffed, and there were various other aspects of the experience that were less than optimal - never mind the basic suckage of watching one's parent die. None of which was anyone's fault, but upgrading those floors will definitely be a Good Thing.)

_ _ _

One of the things the county didn't have when I was growing up was a public library. I was at the Richmond branch on Monday, and there were three happy things:

(1) free wireless. (I do most of my telecommuting from Berea cafes, but having options in Richmond is nice.)
(2) picked up Clyde Edgerton's In Memory of Junior for $1.
(3) the library loans out fishing rods. How cool is that?



_ _ _

(Now uploading this at Berea Coffee & Tea, "Kentucky's First Certified Green Coffee Shop." Very nice space.)