CHRISTMAS PARADE

It’s more than enough sometimes to fight the effects of Gleevec. Fighting the effects of cold weather makes the battle even less fun. It’s just a fact that cold weather and I do not get along too well. It seems to me that this time of year ought to have a little chill in the air but I’m not too happy when it does. It seems that days which are cold all day long for a few days are better than the days that are cold in evening and night and then warm up in the daytime. I like the warmth but it’s the temperature drop which gets me. I resolved to get out in it a little more than I did last year in which I was a bit of a cold weather hermit. Anything below 60 degrees is rather cold weather to my arm. I’ve been getting out in it but the hermit is calling to me. It’s been a tough couple of days. To make matters worse is that Lindsay and her parents are here.

I usually pass Lindsay around to share the love of our thirteen-month-old granddaughter. However, this weekend I’ve passed her around quickly to give my arm a break. I also haven’t been picking her up as much. I don’t like that but it’s a matter of self preservation at this point. I was in bed quite a bit today (Saturday) through the day. Again, that is not desirable especially when Lindsay is here.

Tonight (Saturday) marks the last event our daughter will be doing with her band. It is the Pensacola Christmas Parade. However, our daughter will still be at work when the parade begins. Eileen and I will pick our daughter up from her work at Kohl’s and drive her as close to the parade starting point as possible. Her band is at the end of the parade so we hope to get there in time for her to do her drum major thing. Then Eileen and I will park wherever we can find parking and hope to see her march in the parade. It will be on the cold side tonight, in the low fifties. This will not only be our daughter’s last band event but it will be my last excursion into the cold for a while.

…we just got back from the parade. Our daughter got there before her band began its trek in the parade. We caught up with our son, daughter-in-law, and Lindsay. We were at a great spot where we were blocked from the wind and among the people. I felt like I was overdressed for a while. The people in the parade threw massive amounts of candy, beads, and stuffed animals. Plenty of stuff came our way. In fact, during the parade our sons were tossing items to little kids in the back of the crowd. We did save back a stuffed animal for our daughter who was in the parade and some items for Lindsay. We had a great time. This is a big parade as you can imagine since our daughter’s band didn’t even begin until the parade was in progress for over an hour. We’ll be back again next year!!