Alma

Some cuties that watched the parade with me!

Alma is always a surprise, weather wise, and this weekend has been no exception. I've been going for the last 15-20 years, so you know that I've seen just about every sort of spring weather you can imagine--

One year, the day started out at approximately 60 degrees, which is PERFECT parade weather, if you're actually IN the parade. About 10 minutes before line-up, a cold front came through, and dropped the temp down to 40 degrees. Here we are in shirtsleeves! We froze that year..

Another year, it rained so hard that the drums filled up with an inch of water. Nothing sounds quite as nice as a waterlogged drum!

This year, however, temps were in the high 70's by the time the parade stepped off. I am SO glad that I wasn't in the parade! By the time the bagpipe bands got to where I was sitting (in the shade, spinning), they were so weary from the heat, that some sounded really bad. The only exception was the very first pipe band that had so many letters on their bass drum (an acronym for their name, I would guess) that I can't recall who they were, just that they did sound pretty good. I filled up 2 bobbins with plied yarn!

I watched the massed bands and cried again this year. I was so overcome that I decided that I would head back over to Ray's house and catch some z's. I didn't sleep at all the night before--hot and uncomfortable in some places and chilled in others--but unable to sleep due to excitement over the day and being in a different bed. I've always had that problem, and I have resolved that next year will be different. I will have to sleep at home on Friday night and go up early on Saturday morning. I can't do these "up for 36 hours" anymore. So exhausted, I fell into bed and I think I actually did sleep for a short bit (due to closing eyes and opening to find an hour had passed). I tried to catch some more sleep, but it was not to be, so I suited up and left again in time to watch the Grade II and Grade I bands compete. This was rather a misnomer "compete", since there was only 1 band in each grade. In actuality, I thought the Grade II band, pictured here from Chicago:
was a better band than the Grade I, and I suppose that there's not really much difference between the two, but I liked the Grade II medley better, and I believe that they could have beaten the Grade I band in direct competition, but that's just me.









This is the Grade I band-Peel Regional Police. They are really good, no doubt, but I didn't feel they deserved first place for their performance this day--they basically won by default, which means you can play as if it doesn't really matter (which it doesn't when there's no one to compete with you). I hope their scores reflected the poor performance.

I didn't get a lot of pictures (I know, I know, I did promise), but I was so sleepy! I had so much trouble finding a nice shady spot and a good vantage point for pics, that I just decided it probably wasn't much good trying! I did get some, but not nearly as many as in past years. And when I got home, I just threw off my clothing and fell into bed, and slept from 8pm to 11pm, woke up long enough to determine that my hubby still wasn't home, and fell into fitful sleep until he did get home (about midnight). Where was he all that time? Having his birthday at his mom's house, playing cards. Today is my birthday celebration with him, since I couldn't be with him yesterday--and I'm taking him to the Outback Steakhouse later.

I finished the lapghan for my hubby's cousin. It's beautiful. With the left over yarn, I'm thinking of making a shrug for her, using essentially the same pattern. I'll have to see how that goes. In the meanwhile, I have this laceweight mohair to make into a pretty wimple from knitty.com called Ice Queen (direct link in the right margin...way...down...there.)

Not much time left in the day, since I got too much sun (even in the shade) yesterday, and ended up sleeping another 3 hours, feeling sick, so laid back down again in the air-conditioning. When I got up, I began the process of unpacking and putting stuff away from yesterday. I sorted out a huge lot of knitting needles from my aunt-in-law's mother in law's stash. Figure that one out! This lady did a lot of sock knitting, I believe--she has a ton of size 3 double points, and a lot of acrylic sport weight that I inherited. It's all wound into cakes and put in my knitting drawer.

Well, off to package the afghan, put away the knitting needles and knit up Ice Queen. It's been a short day due to all my sleeping, but as long as I stay in the cooler room, I should be okay.