tracker7 | Entries tagged with louisville

Last week was a blur. Not because it went by really fast, but because it was just there. I had my first work-from-home day on Thursday to catch up on some training requirements, and that was nice.

Also nice - the weekend. This was the first really relaxing weekend I've had since mid-February. Had a couple of little errands to knock out in the mornings, and rejoined the OSE game on Sunday afternoon, but very little else demanded my time. So, I read, emptied out a couple more boxes, watched some TV, and recharged. It was good. No convention, no two-hour commutes, not much of anything that got in the way of having some good and much needed rest.

I've been at this job for two months now, and my opinion stays the same. I'm in the right agency, but the wrong position. I really don't have the heart for this, and the clients - most of them, anyway - deserve someone who's more committed to the task. I can do it until August, and that's when I'm either blitzing every promising opening within the agency or looking for a better ship to jump to.

Thunder Over Louisville is this coming weekend. Airplanes and fireworks and 600,000 people crowding the waterfront on both sides of the river and nope, not for me. I have some options - almost certainly going down to Shepherdsville in the evening, and very probably going to Harrodsburg around midday. I like airshows and fireworks and all that, but I don't want to be around the crowds, and I don't think I'll have a better view of the show than I did a few years ago, when I watched most of the airshow from a vacant floor midway up PNC Tower.

The move is done. Setup is ongoing. The commute in isn't bad, but going home sometimes tests me.

The apartment is pretty quiet. A Norfolk Southern line runs alongside the property, and the diesels and their horns are not exactly loud, but there's no escaping them. And, well, I am a railfan, so hearing the thoroughbreds do their thing is sometimes soothing.

The job. I'm working for the right agency, but I'm in the wrong position. I can ride it out until mid-August, when I'm eligible to apply for something else within the agency. There are some significant perks to working for a non-profit - student loan repayment and public service loan forgiveness are way up on the list. Of course, LMPHW offers those, too, and there's a part of me that would rather work for a municipal/county/state-level public health organization than a private agency. But that's a question for near-future me.

The Tuesday evening game group is growing, enough that there's talk of adding a second weekly game night. Haven't had that opportunity for a while! I ran a DCC game at the nerd bar last night, and that went really well, so if we do add a second night, I'll throw my hat in the ring.

This has been a week, y'all.

Alex's flight from PDX to DFW was delayed by nearly an hour, and he changed his flight to SDF, and there was some kind of medical incident on the SDF flight, so it was after midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning when we got out of the airport and to the AirB&B. And of course we sat up talking for a while and I got a little under five hours of sleep before heading to work.

The flight delays worked out for me - I got to play in Cody Pondsmith's demo game, and that was a good time.

GAMA Expo is very much an industry show. There are lots of games and products on display, but sales are measured in cases and the like, not individual pieces. Getting to see folks I know and respect was cool, and there were some looks at upcoming releases. This was the show's first year in Louisville - the first year not in Nevada in years - and people seemed happy with the change in venue - easier travel and a nicer facility were things I heard. On the other hand, lots of publishers said that sales weren't good, for whatever reason.

The long and short of it, I mostly enjoyed the experience, but it's certainly no GenCon. I made some new friends, got some freebies, stuff like that. Next up is Lexicon.

We got approved for the apartment, and I'm hoping to get the lease signed and moved in very soon. I'm tired of long commutes and hotels.

First day of the GAMA Expo is done. Chatted with folks here and there; while waiting for an event in the hotel lobby, I put up a little sign telling passersby that I live here and want them to think of me as their friendly local guide. That led to several conversations and exchanging contact cards, and that was really fun.

Got a few more cards at a mixer, a couple of designers looking for a publisher, and even if they're not making something Crafty's interested in, the company can probably point them in the right direction. And, to top off the evening, I crossed paths with Ken Hite outside the expo hotel and he described Louisville as a city that makes him feel good about attending GAMA again, so, choke on THAT, Nevada.

I'm far more tired than I should be at 9:20PM. I want to stay up and see the Crew Dragon launch, but that's not looking likely. This bed is looking amazing, and I think that's going to win out tonight. Catch y'all later.

I'm still, much a certain asteroid, not entirely stable, but I'm getting there.

Being back in Louisville has been pretty darn good. I'm working with good people. I'm spending time with friends. Playing games around an actual table again. It's pretty darn good. Meeting tomorrow to apply for an apartment, and assuming that works out, I'll be in a much better place, in more than a few ways.

The crowdfunding effort has seen some success, not as much as I had hoped for but more than I tell myself I deserve. Donna apologized for not having enough rewards points to spend on putting me up in a hotel again - she's too good for this world.

I was all set to mix some couch-surfing and hotel time next week, until talking with Alex F this evening about plans for next week's GAMA trade show. I guess, once again, I'm going to be a guest of Crafty Games! I'll be in the friend-of-the-company role on Sunday afternoon, and something more but not entirely official from Monday evening through the end of the show on Thursday. Alex's flight gets here late Monday evening, and I'm going to pick him up and take his generous offer to stay in the AirB&B for the duration of the show. Going to take a sick day on Friday and run around town with him until he flies back west that evening.

I'm excited about GTS. I've gotten comfortable with the GenCon experience; I expect GTS to be a whole other thing. Alex suggested going to the Sunday events and collecting freebies, and that's incentive enough for me. Some folks I've gotten to know at cons are going to be there, and seeing them will be nice.

Shotgunning resumes has led to some small progress. I have interviews coming up - two tomorrow, two Friday, one next week. None are bad options, and two are especially good. One is a substance abuse case management position that would probably move me to Danville or Nicholasville soon; the other is a prevention training gig that is very much in line with my MPH and would move me back to Lexington. I've said that I wouldn't go back there, but ... well, I do still have friends there, it's closer to home, and ... it's not here.

Booted a player from Cyberpunk Red over the weekend. Got tired of his in- and out-of-game antics, and didn't see it getting any better, so, seeya. Looking for a couple of new players, of course. And our Delta Green handler wants to get in some time as a player, so I'm taking over that one in a couple of weeks.

UofL lost to Florida State in the ACC championship. No surprise there, the Cards were underdogs. Next up is a mid-level bowl game between Christmas and New Year's Eve sometime. I think it's a nationally televised game instead of ESPN coverage, so I can watch Jeff Brohm close out his first year as our coach.

Cardinal football had an unexpectedly rough game against Virginia Thursday night. UofL had a 14-0 lead at the start of the second half, then Virginia put up 21 unanswered. Louisville came back in the fourth, with a final score of 31-24. It was ugly, but ultimately a good win. They're 9-1 now, and in a good place for an ACC championship slot. Next weekend is against Miami, and the regular season ends the weekend after that against UK.

Saw ex-housemate this week. He's out of the little house on Cannons, and hopefully free of that crazy woman, too. He had some last pictures of the property, and the landlords finally did something about the godawful vegetation and ancient rusty fencing along the property lines. They hired pros to clear it all out, finally getting that it would have been WAY outside the maintenance part of a lease. Not my problem anymore, but ... it was a good place to live, for the most part.

Dad's honor guard led a short Veterans Day observation this morning. Respectful. I attended at his request, and they invited me to a post-observance lunch. Nice chats.

In another world, I'd be one of those vets, but T7 at 25 let someone convince him to abandon a lifelong dream. She wasn't worth it, but I was messed up then. Differently than I am now, I mean.f

The con was something of a bust. Most attendees weren't able to get event tickets until Friday morning, the day before the con. Communication problems between the organizers and the host site led to the registration and vendor spaces being on the opposite end of campus from the gaming area. I had two players for my Saturday game, and didn't see any signups for the Sunday game, so, I cancelled and went home. If I'm going to be bored and unhappy, might as well do it in a favorite chair or my bed, even.

I think it could have been a lot better, if the organizers accepted the offers from people who manage large teams of GMs and support staff at a dozen cons throughout the year. Egos get in the way, as they tend to do. It's unfortunate, but what are you going to do?

On the positive side, it was good to see some friends again, and it was good to be back ... back home for a while. I've got to make a plan to get myself back up there, or at least closer, and then execute it. There's just nothing here for me, no matter how much effort I put into convincing myself otherwise.

The cold is sticking around. It's not Covid, at least.

I'm not having much luck keeping things here cheerful. I'm really not feeling much positivity. I do have an interview next week, so there's some hope. Good work would certainly help my mood.

Ex-housemate's probation restrictions have been lifted, and he's moving in a few weeks. I'm going up to Louisville in the morning to collect the last few things still at the little house on Cannons Lane. It was a good home for eight years and change, and all things considered, I wish I was still there.

I'm just not happy, and I'm having a hard time seeing things get better.

I decided to head up to Louisville Friday evening, rather than light out really early from Liberty. Spent the night in my former home in my old bedroom. Thought about it as I was nodding off to sleep - I slept about 3000 nights in that room. Former housemate still has my microwave and cable modem and router, and that's fine; I'll get them whenever he figures out what he's doing.

The house, and I shouldn't have been surprised, was a mess. I put in a lot of time cleaning the kitchen and bathroom before I moved out, and you can't tell I did anything. Sigh. Not really my problem anymore, but it irked me.

Got in a few hours at the Southern Indiana Railroad - good crowd and a lot of trains. Somewhere along the way, my snazzy Atlas Dash 8's front pilot snapped off, so that'll be a little repair project in a day or two.

I-64 East is closed from downtown to the 264 interchange, so I had to take a longer route to Miso's. Wasn't bad. Got to the store to see a decent crowd already there, more for a WH40K release than for Free RPG Day. My DCC game went well - eight players! Chatted with some folks, collected some freebies, had some pizza, then headed to Brian J's for L5R. Very good group and scenario and GM, but lawd hammercy was I not taken with the rules. I love the narrative dice system in Star Wars and Genesys, and I can see some shared design language, but it just didn't work for me.

Wrapped that up around 10PM and I headed home. Easy drive, but I didn't have much of a chance to get something to eat, and I was ravenous when I got home.

Slept pretty late Sunday morning, and woke up to a pleasant surprise - The Niece and Grandniece were here! We had lunch, watched a couple of movies, I played wit the little one, it was really nice. Stormy weather all day, and it was downright hazardous here and there. The Niece stuck around as long as she felt comfortable, but still got stopped by the storm around Lawrenceburg. Said visibility was about zero, so she played it safe. Got home later than expected, but she and the baby are safe.

Sunday was a good day. Drove up to Louisville in the early afternoon, met former housemate for a late lunch, then headed over to Kaiju for gaming. The last tickets to my game sold early Sunday morning, so I had a full table! And it was, as far as I can remember, the first time I had more women than men. We had a heck of a time, proper Alien body horror, character conflict and death.

Getting out of Louisville was a little bit of a trial thanks to my unfamiliarity with the Oak Street area, heavy weather, and road construction. The rain and wind backed off about the time I got to Simpsonville, with a brief return south of Danville. I had a great time, but gods, it was good to get home and into bed. Long day.

After four days of having to be socially "on" to a greater or lesser degree, I was looking forward to a quiet Monday to recharge, and I got it.

Yesterday saw a little expedition over to a restaurant in Lincoln County, a place that some folks on a railfan group I follow spoke highly of. The parking lot was full of Norfolk Southern vehicles when we got there, and I took that as a sign equivalent to a lot full of tractor-trailers. The food was really good, and I found out that the restaurant's owner is a woman who worked with my mom for several years.

Housemate gave me a lift to pick up my rental truck - another big ol' Ford chassis with a box on it - and while starting to load it, we got some news.

A 25-year-old man walked into Old National Bank at Main & Preston, went into a boardroom, and started shooting. Killed four people, shot four or five more, one of whom died a couple of days later. LMPD responded about three minutes after the first call came in - one of the first officers on the scene was shot, but if I'm reading things right, his partner killed the shooter with some stellar fucking marksmanship.

This stupid culture, the fetishization, the lack of mental health care. All of it. Dammit, five people dead, others injured.

I don't often have good words for LMPD, as an organization. I've dealt with some good officers in my time there, and had to put up with some absolute jackasses. The department is in need of a thorough overhaul. But Monday morning, some officers did work. And I'm heartbroken over the officer who was shot. He was new to the force - very new. Graduated from the academy on March 31. Ten days later, he's responding to a nightmare scenario, and doing what he's trained to - what he's supposed to - and he takes a 5.56mm round to the head. He's alive, but I can't imagine he'll ever see anything like a recovery. 26 years old, had been a firefighter, looks like a family history of public service.

I don't pray, but if I did, Officer Nickolas Wilt would be getting all I could send.

Still waiting on the labels from Noble Knight, and I'm getting a little impatient. I would very much like to get these boxes shipped out.

Went out to dinner with the Phelps' Thursday evening. They're some of the first friends I made after moving here, and some of the best people I've ever known. We had a great couple of hours reminiscing and catching up and just enjoying pizza and friendship.

Another friend made at gaming tables messaged me last night. Hadn't heard from Will in a while. He's doing well, and it was good to chat with him for a while.

I'm still packing and sorting and all the other stuff. I pick up the truck at 10 tomorrow morning, and should be loaded up and on the way to Liberty before sunset. I have the truck until Wednesday morning, so my plan is something like a partial unload at the house Monday evening, putting everything else in storage that night or early Tuesday morning, and cleaning out and returning the truck Tuesday. Dad's going to drive me back to Louisville Tuesday or Wednesday to pick up my Escape and any last items from the house. And then a day or two, at least, setting things up in what was Mom's suite at the house.

This may not have been the best or smartest thing, but it's the choice I made, and this afternoon, it sure feels like the right one.

Didn't get much for the books at HPB, but I cleared out a couple of boxes of stuff, and that's more important. Haven't heard back from Noble Knight yet.

Godsdammit. Just found out that we've lost another game store. Heroes Comics & Games is done, and it's not an April Fools' joke. I'd wondered about things there, but wanted to be optimistic. So much for DCC Day and my planned continued demo games.

Sigh. Didn't have the words for this in my last entry. Had some bad news waiting when I got home from the retreat. A friend died last week, just a few years older than me. Pete had suffered a stroke back around 2018, and according to his brother he'd been hospitalized for some time as a result of a series of strokes. I won't say that we were especially close; we ran in some overlapping circles and were in some games together over the years. Pete was a good dude, though. When last I saw him, in the New Albany hospital after his first stroke, he couldn't speak, but he could smile and write a little bit. He moved back to Lexington after that, and I lost touch. Life got in the way.

While sorting books, I found a birthday card from my grandmother. It was for my 21st, so just a few months after we had lost Papaw. At the time, the family expected Mamaw to grieve herself to death, but she fooled us all, hanging on for nine more - mostly good - years. The card triggered some sweet happy memories. Mamaw was the best.

Heavy weather here this week. Powerful thunderstorms and very high winds. Nothing like what Alabama and Mississippi got hit with, or Iowa, too, thank goodness. It was awfully loud last night, enough that I couldn't sleep through the storm. LG&E's maps showed only a few outages, so things were better than a couple of weeks ago.

This has sure been a week.

Ivy had to go back to hospital. Thought at first that it was a staph infection, but it was something else and Dad can't remember what it was, but anyway my niece and grandniece are back home now.

The local nerd community got a real shock Tuesday morning. The Louisville Game Shop is closing for good at the end of the month. I'm not too proud to say that the news just broke my heart. TLGS has been my game store of choice since Colin opened up 18 years ago - even when I lived 80 miles away. It's the best game store in Louisville, far and away, and, to be honest, I think it's the best in the state. I've ran demos there, played someone else's games there, lost a few tournaments there, and made good friends there. I understand why Colin and Clay are closing their doors, but I don't have to like it.

So, now, what to do? There are other stores in town, but they aren't the LGS. Heroes seems to be deteriorating and there was some drama between the owner and some customers that I wasn't privy to. There's Miso's, but it's really a toy/collectibles shop with some gaming stuff on the side. And nobody else is doing Bits & Mortar.

In the House of Representatives, the Republicans have a slight majority, but there are enough rebels and vandals and the like among their number to keep a Speaker of the House elected. It's a little bit funny and more than a little bit pathetic. Elect a bunch of clowns, expect a circus, I guess.

In Monday night's NFL game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a serious injury. Clean play, he defended against a Bengals receiver, and the hit ... It stopped his heart. Just a confluence of factors. He was taken to UC Hospital, which has an incredible trauma center. He was intubated for a while, but that's over now, he's speaking to family and teammates, and his docs don't think there's any permanent neurological damage.

Weather in the Ohio Valley can be interesting. About four hours ago, I went out to run some errands, and it was ungodly hot - 98F, indexed at 110F. Walking a single block in that heat was painful. Then the thunderstorm rolled in, and a little while ago, the air temp had dropped to 77F. Power outages around town, including on the street behind mine. I stepped outside during the end of the rain, and it felt good out there.

Finally paid a visit to the city's newest game store. Nice place, decent selection of minis games, but it is clearly a collectibles shop before anything else. A couple of the anniversary edition G.I Joe figures tempted me - maybe another time. They have a regular minis painting night on Wednesdays - won't go tonight, but I'll keep in mind for later.

Since renewing my Paramount+ sub (with a free month!), I've torn though half of the fourth season of ST: Discovery. Enjoyable enough Trek, and I'm coming around to the further-future setting. After this, Picard and Strange New Worlds, the latter being the main reason I renewed my account to begin with.

Still really enjoying The Expanse, too.

Friday's planned 2v2 X-Wing match became a 2v2v1 1500-point duke-a-roo when Pastor Scott made an appearance. I think we last saw him in the Before Time, and it was a great pleasant surprise to see him. Trash was talked, lots and lots of dice-rolling, and a good evening of play. And my team won, so, even better.

After my sixth Thunder Over Louisville, I'm just about over Thunder. The Derby Festival was determined to have some kind of event this year, and instead of one huge riverfront event with 600,000 people, there were to be five smaller airshows and fireworks displays visible from most of the city, and these locations were to be kept secret until just before the events. Didn't happen that way, of course. Some clever person looked into the city's fireworks permits and found the planned sites. So, two shows were cancelled because of concerns of large gatherings. One remaining show was at Bowman Field, pretty much in my backyard, so for a couple of hours Saturday night, my neighborhood and its small streets were packed with people, including one twit and her spawn who decided to park in my driveway. I showed my ass, I guess, but they moved.

The cop who killed George Floyd was found guilty on all three charges this afternoon - second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. I expected the manslaughter charge to stick, if anything, but the prosecution made a heck of a case. Barring a heck of an appeal, a murderer is going away for a long time.

When I talk about the peace and quiet down at the farm, it's more often than not a relative thing. My house sits between an auxiliary Interstate (264) and the oldest operating commercial airfield in North America. My neighborhood is bounded by a couple of fairly busy city roads. Quiet here means light traffic, just a low background hum punctuated by occasional aircraft sounds.

At the farm, Dad always has the TV on. Just for the noise, I guess, because he's only paying attention to the thing about a quarter of the time.

I got down there around 3:30 Friday afternoon. To my disappointment, Mom&Dad had already left, but, hey, at least the dog was happy to see me. I let him in the house, fed him, and we both decided that, hey, let's take a nap. No TV, no furnace fan, just ... incredible quiet. Enough quiet that I was startled awake when the refrigerator compressor kicked on. It was glorious.

We had a couple of good walks, short and over easy terrain because I didn't want to tax his leg - arthritis, we hope and not anything more serious. He has his breed's neurosis, but he hasn't shown signs of the overgrown heart they sometimes suffer from. Such a good boy.

Easy drive back to Louisville. Laundry's started, I'm watching some Farscape. It's been a nice weekend.

Curfew was extended until tonight. Downtown saw some action - the Unitarian church on 4th street declared itself a sanctuary, so LMPD set up shop outside to arrest anyone daring to leave the site, even if they were going home, allowed under the curfew order. One of those arrested and charged with a 4th-degree felony was a state representative, Attica Scott. Her star is definitely ascending, and if there isn't heavy fallout over this arrest, I will be more than a little bit surprised.

Got my new First Order Xi-class shuttle from TLGS on Friday. Some supply issues, according to Clay, but I got my ship and that's what matters. Colin was at the shop when I stopped by; he was at the church when LMPD started showing up, and he had enough warning to hop on his bike and GTFO before the siege began. There's no telling when I'll get to break in this little ship - I flew it in playtesting, but with a proxy model, of course. I have several pilots from the card pack to work through, and the entirety of the Republic ships I've bought so far. Whatever. There's something like time.

An old GenCon and Spycraft buddy had an opening in his online (of course) Mutants & Masterminds game, and I got to play! Built a sorcerer, at Alan's request, and it was a heck of a lot of fun. It's going to be a weekly game, so that's got my RPG time sorted out. We're past the halfway point with Delta Green, including the side trek this week and next, and one of my players is already interested in taking over GM duties, so holy cow I may be spending more time as a player than a GM for a while.

I started reading Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East series last week. I've never read Saberhagen, and so far, that's my loss. It's a fantasy tale in a way-the-hell-post-apocalyptic Earth, and already I'm seeing the influences this had on D&D.

I bought an iPhone SE Sunday. Sticking with the 6's form factor, avoiding the phablet for as long as I can. It is, compared to the 6, screaming fast, with a remarkably better camera and display. It lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack, so there's one small piece of technology that'll live with the iMac from now on. Just need to get a case for it, and I'll try that when I go out for a small resupply run in a few hours.

No formal word yet on the grand jury decision, but just about everyone's money is on no charges being filed in Breonna Taylor's killing. The city closed a batch of downtown intersections last night and this morning and forbade on-street parking in a roughly 25-block area. Jersey barriers, dump trucks, chain-link fence, all of it. The tower was emptier than whatever is passing for normal today; I think our 11AM head count saw 31 tenants total. People were being a little smart, I guess. Kentucky Trial Court Review predicts the announcement tomorrow afternoon, based on comments from some of the group's attorney members. If so, that'll make for plenty of trouble. Our contingencies are in place, and I don't really expect any violence to come our way - it'll go southwest of our building, based on previous behavior.

Sunday afternoon's DCC game was a hell of a lot of fun. Three players, so a dozen 0-level characters, and we saw, I think, five deaths. It's been years since I gamed with Steve, and never with Josh, and to be honest, it was good to just shoot the breeze with them for a while. We're going to do it again next month, maybe DCC maybe not.

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

A Company of Men

Jupiter

Redemption Song

Born With a Hammer in My Hand

Sleep Now in the Fire

China Girl

Wrecking Ball

Southern Cross

Bright Lights

Positive Charge

Mad About You

The Wind Cries Mary

If All I Was

You Could Make a Killing

I Get a Kick Out of You

New Shoes

Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing

I-Yensch, You-Yensch

So Lonely

Dear Prudence

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January 2026

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