Murder in Glitterball City

Back in June of 2022, my sister and I had a brief stay in Louisville, Kentucky and I enjoyed that visit. While I was there, I stopped by the visitor's center and picked up a book titled A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville written by local author David Domine. The book focused on the true murder of a man whose body was found buried in the basement of a gay couple's home in Old Louisville. I was not familiar with the case before I read the book and found it both sad and interesting. I recently stumbled on a documentary on HBO based on the book called Murder in Glitterball City and just finished watching it last night. I love a good true crime documentary, but this one really had me shaking my head. Even though I had read Domine's book about the case, seeing the actual people involved and watching parts of the trials of the suspects in the documentary really made me angry. The couple both pointed fingers at each other about who was responsible for the murder of the guy in their basement. I think both of those dudes were guilty of murder. Only one is currently serving life in prison while the other is walking free after getting lesser charges and a shorter sentence. Neither guy seemed particularly upset about the man who was killed and they both lived for six months in a house with a dead body buried in the basement. Who does that? Some people are truly evil. 

What I learned from reading the book, seeing the documentary, and during my visit back in 2022 that, coincidentially, was during Pride week is that Louisville has a thriving gay community. That surprised me but, again, I really didn't know much about the city (and still don't) even though I set two of my recent short stories, Ray's Friend and Not Sweet Enough, there. But I plan to return to Louisville someday to see more of the city. It's definitely a place I'm interested in knowing more about.

Freezing February

Janky January has turned into Freezing February in these parts. (Actually, January was pretty cold at the end of the month too!) This winter in Chicagoland is proving to be more severe than expected. Given that the past few years have yielded pretty mild winters around here, this year is payback, I guess. My car wouldn't start a couple of weeks ago and I had to call AAA to get a jump. The driver told me I didn't need a new battery...yet. My father encouraged me to start my car every day even if I didn't drive it just to warm it up and get the juices flowing. Yeah. Okay. I work from home on my day job and there are days when I don't even leave my home. Running my car is an afterthought. 

I had a brief trip to Florida last week for my day job. It was warm there until it wasn't! Temps dropped during my visit. When I got to town on a Sunday, it was warm. I saw people wearing shorts and tank tops. By Monday night while I was out, the chill had set in and when I left on Wednesday, high temps were in the 50s (and that's cold for Florida). Florida is an interestin place that I'm okay visiting on occasion, but not the kind of place I'd like to live. Yes, it normally has nice weather and no state personal income taxes, but it also has a lot of critters, a lousy governor, and a political climate that doesn't agree with me. I have family members who moved there and love it. More power to them, but it's just not for me. The more I think about where I'm going to spend my remaining years (either after I retire or before then), I often come to the conclusion that I want to live somewhere that has a change of seasons. Yes, freezing through February isn't great, but it's the price you pay to live somewhere that's agreeable in other ways.