Saturday, August 7

Up around 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises so Hubbie and I could take a vehicle downtown to leave on a parking lot facing the river festival parade route. He drove the truck, and I drove the van.

The parking lot was nearly full, thanks to a marathon in progress down Main Street. Fortunately, though, there was one strategically located space open...great vantage point for viewing the parade from the van.

Back home, we had breakfast, and I finished getting ready for the day. Earlier, I worried that Mother would not be able to lift herself into the truck for the ride downtown around 9:30, but she tried it and was fine.

It was a very pleasant morning for a parade...temp in the high 80s...with a bit of a cool breeze. The parade lasted about an hour and featured the usual contingent of blaring emergency vehicles, beauty queens, and politicians. Our state governor graced us today, as did congressman up for re-election. Campaign staff worked the crowd, handing out fans, bottles of water, canned soft drinks, and even Popsicles (Mother would have like one of these cold treats, but we weren't close enough to get one).

A large float, sponsored by a local bank, featured a giant head and shoulders inflatable Shrek figure and other Shrek movie paraphrenalia. Our area's Miss (our state) winner and her court rode on it. Striking float, but didn't seem quite right for royalty. Maybe I missed the point.

The theme of the parade was River Monster, in honor of a supposed monster spotted in the river at a nearby town in the 1930s. Several businesses mounted "Nessie" type monsters on their vehicles, the best of which was created around the van of our local newspaper. The head of the monster moved, the jaws chomped, and at intervals, it opened its mouth and sprayed water on the crowd.

One red vehicle had a red calliope with brass whistles mounted in the back that played circus/carousel/riverboat music that delighted the crowd.

Happily, we were positioned just right to see high school steppersfrom two schools perform their routines. One group used stylized American flags in a patriotic music routine.

The local Humane Society paraded several dogs that were up for adoption at half price today. In this slow economy, it's harder and harder to find homes for these animals.

A large group marched or rode in a truck bed holding bright orange signs encouraging citizens to vote for a tax that will fund a community center/sports complex. Folks cheered them as they passed. Later, a much smaller group of Tea Party supporters carried signs in opposition to the tax. One person cheered them. This gives me hope that the proposal will pass.

Orange "vote yes" signs are everywhere in people's yards, and the local newspaper has published several long articles and advertisements outlining the proposal and answering questions about it. Thursday's paper featured a full page ad promoting the proposal, including photos of groups in favor of it. Hubbie and I are featured in the community theater photo.

Around 11 a.m., a group of African American horseback riders signaled the end of the parade.

Back home after lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands. First, we went to a town about fifteen minutes away to our favorite watermelon farmer. Bought two melons, plus a container of peaches. We've really been eating a lot of peaches and have already almost eaten all we bought while we were at the grape festival.

From there, we went to the WDCS for groceries and incidentals. Our WDCS is remodeling, so currrently the deli is closed, which means that we had to go to a grocery store for deli turkey. There has been such a run on the grocery store deli, though, that their meat supply is running low. But we did get a pound of two different kinds of turkey...hickory smoked and honey cured.

It's hard to find anything at the WDCS right now, since everything is being moved to new locations. The shoe department that used to be at the back of the store is now right up front. The photo department is where the order pickup had been.

One good thing about the remodeling is that the store has replaced all it's old wobbly carts with new ones. Won't be long, though, before these carts are abused into wobbliness, too.

While we were gone, Mother napped at our house. She woke up at 4 a.m., so she was pretty drowsy all day.

For supper, we had leftover beef stroganoff. Afterward, Mother and I toured the garden. She noticed several bell peppers ready to pick, as well as a few tomatoes. There is also some sort of vine growing in the garden, with a melon-looking fruit hanging from it. We don't know what it is, but it is probaby a gourd. In the zinnia garden, a butternut squash vine is growing with two squashes on it.

After I accompanied Mother home, Hubbie and settled in to watch TV. Tonight, we saw a Lifetime Movie Network movie called, "An American Affair." This is a 1997 film starring Corbin Berson. A district attorney has affairs with two friends. One gets pregnant, and though he doesn't want to, he marries her. She loses the baby. He has sex with the friend, against her will, while she is in a drunken state. In the meantime, he is busy blackmailing a cop to get him to frame a senator's son to further his own career. Throw in paranormal activities, and a shooting, and lots of strange stuff happens.