186. I've Been Away.

I've been out a few days and posting has been nil. Truthfully, I overplanned Saturday and paid for it Sunday and yesterday. Friday at work, I noticed a sore throat coming on but as usual did nothing to keep it from fully arriving. Hence, the absence of a few days of entries and the presence of a sore throat.

Friday evening and Saturday morning I attended the visitation and funeral, respectively, of an old friend - a fellow Bingo caller I've known for twenty years. Norbert Wiesemann, 79, had services at the Bosse Funeral Home on Ellison Avenue, and was buried the next morning after a Mass at Saint Therese's in Germantown on E. Kentucky Street at Schiller Avenue. Both were typical old fashioned Catholic affairs, with a service Friday night from the men of the Saint Martin's Brotherhood, a religious fraternity with a Beer license, presently located Winter Avenue. I've downed more than a few beers there over the years, prior to my more or less qutting alcohol, which was eleven years ago this week, more or less being key words in that sentence.

Prayers were offered asking Saint Martin to intercede for Norb, and for all who have died, awaiting til the Second Coming for a bodily resurrection and eternity in Paradise. Three Our Fathers followed by three Hail Marys closed the ceremony. Over the years, I have attended so many of these exact same types of services and they are always moving for me. I am hopeful upon my earthly demise, there will be some group of people on the night before my funeral, offering up prayers to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, to Saints Anthony, Jude, and Michael, and to God, for the repose of my soul in Peace.

Saturday morning Mass was at Saint Therese, an older church in need of repair, and currently in talks of merger with Saint Elizabeth's and Holy Family, which is my home church. The three parishes presently constitute a Cluster, a word of recent vintage in the Archdiocese of Louisville, clustered churches usually leading to merged churches. Norb's Mass was celebrated by Father Gray, in his nasally monotonic voice, but centered on all the years of volunteering Norb did, a well-known fact in the Germantown and Paristown neighborhoods. As I said, Norb was a Bingo caller and his signature number was B-11. I've mentioned this once before several entries back. B-EE-OH-EE-LEVEN! Rest In Peace Norb.

From a religious celebration in Germantown (which is what a Catholic Funeral Mass is) I went up to Frankfort for a meeting of the Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee, a body of which I am a member. During the meeting we received a phone call from Governor Howard Dean, the national Party chair. I'm of the belief it was a recorded call, given there were a few unnatural pauses, where applause might have filled in the silence, if the committee had been given over to the need for applause. On two occasions we did, but on the two we didn't, the silence was obvious. But, it was nice to know that Dean and the DNC have located Kentucky on the map, which I know they have in a big way, given the national party's participation in this fall's election of Steve Beshear as our next governor. Thanks to Lisa Johnson and Queenie Averette, I had some sore throat lozenges to ease the pain growing in my head.

From Frankfort, I cruised around that part of the state for several hours ending up with some friends in Lexington, which Saturday night hosted 70,857 watching the Governor's Cup Football Rivalry between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. It was the first matchup between the teams I had attended since the opening of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on September 5, 1998. Kentucky won that game 68-34. This past Saturday, in a Battle of the Defenseless, Kentucky won again, this time 40-34. The game was a back-and-forth affair, concluding with Andre' Woodson's throw of a 57-yard touchdown pass to Steve Johnson with 28 seconds left, upsetting the then- 9th-ranked Cardinals. Suffice it to say, Lexington rocked well into the night and I am too old for such shenanigans. The two teams next meet in Louisville on August 31, 2008.

Sunday and Monday I slept.