Day 1145 - Ground Hog Day

Well, now I can say I've ridden on a Mardi Gras float. Although this little adventure was never on my bucket list, it is an experience I'll never forget. The first couple of hours were kind of interesting. The last four hours reminded me of that old Kingston Trio song about a man named Charlie who was trapped forever riding the M.T.A. Apparently hundreds of thousands of people absolutely love these parades, but I'm not so sure. Riding a float with twelve Dalmatians  through an endless tunnel of rowdy drunks while enduring a sound system dishing out The Village People singing YMCA over and over again at 110 decibels is a lot more like my own private version of hell.

Although I thought the parade would never, ever end, there were brief moments when it all made sense. There is an intoxicating power in the knowledge that you can make huge crowds of people scream and fight over the baubles and trinkets you are throwing out the windows to them. Of course, you have to remember that the crowd can turn ugly very quickly when you run out of things to throw. When we ran out of our bangles and baubles, people started throwing their beer at us.

Dot and Dash were absolutely exhausted when the day was finally over. So was I. Maybe the next time we take them somewhere we should try for something a bit more sedate. A walk along the beach would be nice. Today was more like a walk on the wild side. I'm definitely glad our float didn't run out of gas and leave us at the mercy of that crowd. Not really my cup of tea.

Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow this morning, so I guess we'll have an early Spring. Early Spring sounds good to me. Since I forgot to take my warm coat on this little adventure, I've been cold all weekend. I've been having trouble maintaining my resolve to eat more vegetables too. The food is quite good here, but in a place where Alligator Bites wind up on the appetizer menu, vegetables are just an afterthought. I did have an apple for dinner, but it wasn't on purpose. There just happened to be one in the room. After today's marathon, we were just too tired to go out to dinner. The dogs are already asleep. I will be soon.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day