Strange Spring

Monday afternoon in this strange spring of 2020

The cat is curled up in my lap right now. She’s 17 years old and we recently discovered she is deaf. This might explain why, after years of being petrified of the vacuum, she now enjoys being vacuumed. The Barefooter is mowing the lawn — second mowing of the year — and the buzz of the electric machine is distinguishable to my ears but not by much. Like most people my age who blasted music through her earbuds at a younger juncture of life, I’ve got a bit of hearing loss, but the thrumming tinnitus has been non-stop for 3 weeks and counting. I’d developed a bad headache on Easter Sunday and while the pain abated after a week or so, I’m still “hearing underwater.” After my almost sleepless night of listening to the imaginary hum of airplanes and slow-moving locomotives, I’m envious of the cat’s ability to sleep when she is tired. (The inability to sleep was last night; now I can barely hold my eyes open!)

The annual Lilac Festival would normally be happening over these next few weeks; yesterday should have been the 12-km Bloomsday run. But nothing is normal during a pandemic. Bloomsday has been rescheduled from May 3rd to September 20th, but I don’t believe it will be possible for nearly 50,000 people to gather and run or walk, or even half that many. No one is willing to acknowledge how very much life has changed and will remain different for the foreseeable time.

Shoot, sniff, and leave(s)

KCINNOTX enjoying the lilacs

Arrowleaf Balsamroot in the park near my home — photo by KCINNOTX

Bitterroot, AKA rock roses (earring added for size comparison)

White Rock Roses (Bitterroot), photo by KCINNOTX

Bloomsday 2015

Fifty thousand people took part in a race today. Bloomsday is a 12-km course with some beautiful vistas and challenging hills, including Doomsday Hill.

I like to station myself near the bottom of Doomsday Hill to applaud the athletes and take pictures. Mile post 5 is at the top of this hill (off to the right of where the above photo ends). I’ve run up this hill (back in 1994) but I even in my best days of running I could not make it to the top without dismounting from my bicycle; it feels like the uphill climb goes on forever.

It is a race for all ages. During the time I was stationed near the bottom of the hill, I saw elite racers and some of the faster participants.

I cheered on racers for about 90 minutes, during which the serious runners mixed in with those who were running for the fun of it.  After all, 50,000 people does tend to bring on a party atmosphere.

Coconut bras and grass skirts didn’t slow these guys down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little guy and his grandfather made quite the spectator pair in their matching sunglass and Seahawks caps.

 

 

 

My guys were participants but I never caught sight of them.
EB said he passed the banana in the first mile, so by this point he had passed me several minutes before I snapped this picture.

 

 

 

Apparently EB, SuperDad, and SnakeMaster all passed by me unnoticed. We didn’t see each other, despite my looking for them. I’ve carefully looked through all of my pictures, but they aren’t there. Oh, well.

 

In the background, you can see the bridge filling up with runners as they cross the river and approach the bottom of Doomsday Hill.

The road does fill up with runners, nearly shoulder to shoulder when the walkers reach this point, but by then I was on my way to church.  As it turns out, so was EB…

EB managed to run Bloomsday and still get to the 10:30am worship service on time, wearing his newly earned t-shirt.

Happy Bloomsday!

Happy Bloomsday!

La-la-la Lilacs!
in purple, lavender, and pink,
Now it is Bloomsday.

 

 

 

Lilacs on Parade

Saturday night was the culminating event of the Lilac Festival:
The Spokane Lilac Festival 75th Diamond Anniversary Armed Forces Torchlight Parade.
Now there’s a mouthful!

princesses preparing to parade

There was royalty in the form of Lilac Princesses.

Pearl Harbor survivors

There was royalty in the form of a disappearing generation…

WWII and Korean War Veterans

former Prisoners of War

and of course, much recognition for our Armed Forces  past and present.
After all, it was Armed Forces Day here in the United States.

Salute

And then there was the very personal reason why we spent many hours downtown on Saturday evening:

Our very own drum major, who spent half of the parade marching backwards.

Surrounded by Lilacs

Please click on the lilacs to enlarge the picture. It’s worth it!

We are in the pinnacle week of the Lilac Festival here.

SnakeMaster plays the baritone at the Junior Lilac Parade.

The younger teen marched in his first parade four days ago and H-J will be leading his band this coming Saturday for the 75th  annual torchlight parade.

H-J at the all-city track meet on Saturday.

Marching through the weekend

Carnage in the Colosseum

Friday morning, it hit me that I’d double-booked SnakeMaster, asking him to be in 2 places at once: his Boy Scout troop was expecting him to be loading his gear and himself into a vehicle prior to 5:30pm, while his grandparents were coming to town and expecting him to show them around at his school Science and Social Studies Expo from 6:00 to 7:30pm. Oops! Since Grandma had given up something else important to her in order to be with us on Friday night, SM agreed that he would stay with us for the Expo and then we would drive him out to the campsite. At the time, we didn’t know that was committing us to a 2.5 hour round-trip commute, but least it was a lovely drive.

Aren’t 6th grade boys fun?!

No humans or animals were killed in the production of the Roman studies unit. Just so you know.

The next day was Armed Forces Day. Unless you are somehow connected to the U.S. military, you probably didn’t know that the 3rd Saturday of May is always Armed Forces Day.
Consider yourself educated. 😉

Here in town was the 74th anniversary of the annual Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade,  the largest parade of its kind in the USA. (That info is courtesy of the local news station — I didn’t make it up!)

We caught sight of the Queen, a number of princesses, and even some former presidents!

There were floats, marching bands — including the one in which Humorous-Juniorous is a member — and yes, plenty of purple for the Lilac Festival along with plenty of military presence. There is an Air Force base just outside of town, but all branches of service were represented.

There were veterans of the Vietnam war, Korean War, Gulf War, and the Global War on Terror (BWT). There were Gold Star families, World War II veterans, and survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Each color guard, each unit, each and every military group that walked in the parade was cause for everyone lined up on the streets to stand.
I know this is true because we didn’t go downtown until 45 minutes before the parade started, which put 6 rows of people in front of us. (Luckily, I’m tall.) Some folks had been there since 9am, staking out a front-row seat.

Most of my pictures turned out either too dark or else blurs of light from the floats like this one.