Things exploded.
People screamed.
Vehicles blared.
Horses ran willy-nilly, heedless of innocent passers-by.
The insanity was contagious.
People grouped and milled about in confusion, looking for purpose in the endless seas of faces....
.....
Okay, fine, it was a somewhat normal parade day. But everything I said was true. Mwahahaha...
(There's a song by that name. Hee hee. Now if only I knew what musical that was from... *ponders*)
Fortunately there was no letting loose of rain until I got home. But that's another story.
So I left home around 11:20, having been told that the parade started at 1 PM. I rode all the way to the other end of town, past all the floats and vehicles (something around 3/4 to 1 mile one way), got my number for my place in the parade, and had to ride about a third of a mile back the way I came to get to my 'slot', as it were. By this point it was only about ten minutes to 12, so I took Colletta's bridle off and let her graze. This is the third time she's been in the parade, so even when cars backfire and the marching band was warming up with their flags she ignored it all.
(If I had ridden Violet, on the other hand...well, the likelihood that I would be writing this from a hospital bed would have increased dramatically. XD)
The woman's name was Anita, and her horse is a 16.2 hand (i.e. almost 65 inches at the withers) Standardbred named Captain. He originally was a racing horse, the pacing kind.
An interesting tidbit, for the non-horse readers: a Standardbred pacing is faster than a normal horse galloping. And if you have ever seen a Standardbred racing outfit, you can see why it'd be a terrifying prospect.
(Sulkies are frightening in their flimsiness. That is all.)
The parade itself was a lot of fun--there were a lot of people who recognized me (mostly kids XD), which I always think is kind of funny. I'm not sure why, but it IS funny to have people yell "HI!" when you're obliviously going along. I dunno.
So Colletta was insanely calm for the entire parade, even when the car two feet in front of her nose revved his engine annoyingly. I am SO glad she's such a good horse...
After the parade we went home, I gave her some much-earned grain, and then I took an hour-long nap. XD I guess after that I was on a 'low' or something and really depressed...I'm not bipolar or anything, but yesterday was a day of mood swings.
*shakes head* Emotions. Gotta love 'em.
Said fireworks are usually set off next to the high school, which is right across the street from church. I munched a bit on the assorted junk food (mm, hot dogs and chips XD) before Will and his various friends decided to go walking around town. I actually got several pictures of them, but...I dunno, I don't like posting pictures of people because I usually don't get very GOOD pictures of people. Sigh. Oh well, they're on Facebook where my friends can see them and that's all that matters. XD
Then I went home and talked with Will about funny/mean texts to send to a person who shall not be named, and while I didn't send any it felt good to imagine his reactions to said texts. (They were quite mean...along the lines of doing something unspeakable to a vehicle or the like. And quite liberating, too.) Then I went to bed and my internal alarm clock woke me up at 6:30 and I was not amused. XD
Your run-on hostess,
The Fox