A Great Day for a Parade?

It's the first Sunday of December. And that means it's the day of our home-town parade. I'm not a big parade fan. But folks around here seem to enjoy them. Either they are part of the crowd that lines the streets to catch candy and watch for people they know. Or they are actually on one of the many floats, in one of the many vehicles, or walking the route with their group.

According to the National Weather Service, it's 57 degrees out there. But you'd hardly know it. The wind is blowing at about 14mph. And then there's the cold, constant drizzle. It's gray and dreary and just wet out there. Has been all day.

I don't know if they were planning for fewer entries in the parade today or if the floats that entered simply backed out due to weather. But it was pretty sparse. The band was there, in uniform, playing in the rain. (That can't possibly be good for an instrument.) Several churches were there; their poster board signs no longer readable. The Summer Fest and County Fair queens were there, in their crowns and convertibles. (That's definitely not good for the interior of a convertible!) There were a couple of men running for office, looking for votes or simply visibility amongst their potential constituents. And then it was mostly just big trucks or sexy cars doing their advertising. Oh, yeah, and every vehicle in the county with a siren... can't forget them. Boy, are they loud!

Personally, I stood on my porch where it was dry. I could keep one eye on the parade and one eye on the Colts game. The Colts are winning, but the Jags are doing everything they can to make it interesting. I had a couple of invites to join the parade already in progress, but I adamantly declined.

My house is very, VERY close to the beginning of the parade route. The parade only lasted about 20 minutes. And within a few minutes of coming inside after the tail-end passed my driveway, there was rolling thunder and much harder rain. Those unfortunate parade participants.

Yeah, I'm just not a big parade fan. And this year's event didn't do much to sway my opinion.