Ready for the Parade

On July 5 I wrote that when I was done at Blue Dot I went via streets on my bike to Walgreens and then to the house. I ended up doing some work for friend and her sister - our hostess. I then took the Madison cargo bike to Webster street for sand and later to park for groceries. I also went to to hardware stores to get an umbrella stand. When I returned I had an hour before I had to go back to Main Street for a quiet pick up - that turned out to be great.

The hose was back by the time I had returned. My friend’s sister at that point I was making a meal too. We made a made a ton of noise sitting at their little table. A short while later we sat outside to eat and I remember quietly wandering around the garden.

I ended up helping my friend upstairs then but I essentially was in charge of winding down the house. I got some time in by myself and it was great. We hung out in the kitchen until late. She was making cakes and snacks with her sister.

Next morning I woke up first and quietly went downstairs with my hostess. By eight I returned upstairs. My friend got up then. After that we got ready for the parade as a bunch of people showed up. They all left with the different cargo bikes in the shed. I had to help everyone and left last. One of the stragglers was really slow so we were really late to the parade.

There was a guy with a “boat,” a lion tamer, a strong man. There was a pair of bears in tutus. One family had a four person bike and another had dressed her Madison up as an elephant. I had dressed my hostess’ bike as a circus tent.

It was barely noon when we got to the end of the parade and my friend led a few people to the house. I tried to get the bikes organized in the shed.

People slowly trickled in then. There were only a few people not staying at the house initially and we all sat in the back drinking beer with the host. A couple of people had gone to the beach with but we learned that it was windy. Between five and nine a lot of people showed up and I didn’t remember who they all work. Even some friends from SF came.

There was a bounce house next-door and the neighbor had to keep clearing it out because it became dangerous. I quietly went on a walk for about two blocks. There was grilled meat, a buffet cake and the hostess had made ice cream.

Some of the SF people successfully took the ferry back but I found out later that it hadn’t been a great experience. A lot of people started leaving around seven and eight. We started winding down and the fireworks started soon after I had finished.

When we came back inside a couple of people sat with us for a bit but we all got ready for bed.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.