Windmill Fest 2022: No longer a parade, it's a competition
This has been a very long week in a lot of ways, and I'd been looking forward to today for some time. Then the morning sucked, in the process sucking the life out of me, and by the time I was to leave, I had no interest in doing anything.
(This actually wasn't part of the suckage, at least for me, but at the grocery store we got up to get checked out and the checker was saying to the bagger, why question why someone said to call 911? Just call 911! Clearly it's an emergency, 911 situation. Call 911, *then* ask questions! ...Uh, what? And no more than a minute later, over the loudspeaker, someone asked, if there is a doctor or a paramedic in the store, please come to aisle E. ...Whatever happened, it wasn't a joke, though the checker said to me as I was leaving, go over there and see what's going on! And our bagger was so distracted that she'd already bagged most of our groceries in both paper and plastic before realizing we had reusable bags. She almost started re-bagging everything but we told her not to worry about it. When we went outside, here was the fire truck pulling up, and as I put the cart in the corral, here came the ambulance. I had walked past someone while still in the store saying someone had fallen. I hope they're okay, but that's unpleasant. To think, earlier in the trip, we thought this moment would have been the worst of the day at the store--dad and I heard a crash, and within a minute, someone was asking for cleanup with a mop and bucket in front of the service desk. These were pretty much signs I should've stayed home, honestly. At least this week at the bank, my father didn't drop the canister for the bank drive-thru tube to where it landed under the car in the exact middle, so that he had to pull forward so I could get at it; he couldn't get out of the driver's side to check and we didn't know where it was. We cannot go anywhere, apparently.)
Mom had wanted to run a few errands before the pet parade at noon, which is a later time than it was pre-pandemic. The library was having a book sale, and she wanted to peruse the farmers market, but I needed to go to the bank so we couldn't run errands until 9 AM. I didn't want to chance getting stuck in a long line at the drive-thru with refrigerated and frozen foods in the car, so we went to the bank first (our normal routine if I have a deposit). Dad then offered to drop me off downtown, and eventually I found mom. I took a gander at all the stuff, but the market ends at noon, and it was after 11:30; some booths were sold out and dismantling themselves by the time I wandered by. Mom decided to get avocado toast (and kept pestering me about having some--look, honestly, I'm not hungry; please stop asking) and I went across the river and found us a seat under the tent near the stage.
Things have changed in the past few years. It's no longer known as the pet parade. It's now a pet competition. Allison, the park district worker who introduces the activity, even corrected herself at one point. The only difference from before is that there's no longer the physical parading that had been done in the past. It's pretty congested in the area now. They used to go over the pedestrian bridge, down River Street, over to Wilson Street, then back down Island Avenue to the Peg Bond Center, where the judges would announce the winners of the various competition. As mom and I saw firsthand, River Street was really crowded. Between tents and picnic benches and people milling around, there was little room for regular people to walk, much less a throng with various animals. (And, trust me, there were already animals hanging around the market. Some were there for the competition, some were just there.) There also weren't a lot of entries; in fact, it ended rather abruptly, and Allison and Foltos (the emcee) ended up talking a couple people standing nearby with dogs to join in; they obliged. They honestly looked like they were part of the competition due to where they were standing, which appeared to be the back of the line. Someone from DePaw Canine Campus even ran over to give them numbers and gift bags. In the past, the numbers were runner numbers left over from a race earlier in the day; today, they were on little sticks that the competitors could hold up. And it doesn't appear that they were given out in any particular order, as the first cajoled contestant had number 19, and the second had number 14. So, maybe 20 pets participated. Hard to tell.
They've discontinued Most Spots (and no, I did not see Otis this year). There were five remaining categories, including Best Jumper, Best Kisser, Best Costume, and Most Unusual Pet. I don't recall the last one, or perhaps they gave a wrong number, who knows. ...Wait, Best Trick is probably the last one. There were some characters among the competitors.
--Best Jumper went to this little girl and her tiny dog, like a little Yorkie, who jumped higher than his standing height. Pretty impressive. The gift basket she won looked bigger than the dog.
--At least one dog trying for Best Kisser got stage fright.
--Someone had a ferret where she was going to go for Best Kisser, but she said she'd just thrown the ferret in the cooling-off pool nearby and that upset the ferret, so the girl didn't think the ferret was happy. She was correct. No kisses were happening.
--An older couple with apparently a very tiny dog won Best Costume. Now that I think about it, I think they won last year with another elaborate getup. This year, they had the dog in this little spaceship. Mom and I were far enough back (three picnic tables) that a fair amount of people were blocking our view, and the dog was small enough that at first I couldn't even tell what king of animal was inside. It was pretty impressive, though I did feel sorry for the couple of kids whose pets had much simpler costumes. One other dog had a bow tie and that was it; someone else had a t-shirt and hat on their dog.
--I can't recall if this dog won, but one dog "sang" and "danced" as their talent.
--As per usual, there were mostly dogs, but aside from the ferret, there were a few lizards. However, the ones who won Most Unusual Pet were ringers (though they also ended up being the only animals I took pictures of). There was a giant turtle with a lizard on its back--not just on its back, but on a saddle on the turtle's back. Wait, what?! They ended up being part of the Frog Lady's show; she was scheduled after the pet parade, at 1:30 PM. I'm pretty sure they won, though; I mean, she must've signed them up and everything. I did hear two names called for that category as winners. Sorry, dog whose tongue is long and sticks out the side of her mouth.
Everything was over by 12:30. This is normally an hour-long activity, given the sheer numbers that usually participate. DePaw had gift bags for the first 50 contestants, so for there to be fewer than 20 was surprising. It's hard to say why that was, if there were specific reasons for that. The 'rona is still out and about, so that might have played a role. And, of course, a large community gathering may make people skittish right about now. That was addressed by Allison, who pointed out that some of Batavia's finest were there to help out. It helps that the police station is spitting distance away, but I noticed, as I came back from taking pictures of the turtle and lizard, that there was a cop standing right by our table, keeping an eye on things. I saw at least one other cop as we were leaving. Unnervingly, we kept hearing sirens the whole time, at least four different occasions while we were there. One was a fire truck going up to Riverain, the retirement home at the tip of the peninsula, but the rest were just going by on Wilson.
Mom had noticed that there wasn't a flea market set up this year. It seemed to me that a number of similar booths were out at the farmers market, so perhaps they were part of that? Dunno. But she was bummed; she likes to check out what people are selling. Mom does enjoy spending money, but she's also the one who goes to the farmers market and buys baked goods. She let me know that the library book sale was going on until 1 PM, so there was still time for me to head down there. We passed by the reading plaza, where they had a book scavenger hunt earlier in the day; there were all these orange signs throughout the plaza. And I'd seen something about yarn bombing the garden, and several light posts had yarn intertwined on them. One was fully bombed and looked like it had a gigantic scarf or sweater wrapped around it. The Mark Twain statue even had a yarn bootie on it as you entered the building. I was warned there were only 15 minutes left of the sale when I entered the room; I did not need that long. I was only looking for Harry Potter 1 in hardcover and didn't spot it. Mom browsed upstairs for a bit longer, but I went outside to wait for her; I just wasn't in the headspace for much today. We left as soon as she was done, and I spent much of the afternoon chilling in my room. A shame, since it was a beautiful, sunny day, not too hot, but I just needed to be alone.
(This actually wasn't part of the suckage, at least for me, but at the grocery store we got up to get checked out and the checker was saying to the bagger, why question why someone said to call 911? Just call 911! Clearly it's an emergency, 911 situation. Call 911, *then* ask questions! ...Uh, what? And no more than a minute later, over the loudspeaker, someone asked, if there is a doctor or a paramedic in the store, please come to aisle E. ...Whatever happened, it wasn't a joke, though the checker said to me as I was leaving, go over there and see what's going on! And our bagger was so distracted that she'd already bagged most of our groceries in both paper and plastic before realizing we had reusable bags. She almost started re-bagging everything but we told her not to worry about it. When we went outside, here was the fire truck pulling up, and as I put the cart in the corral, here came the ambulance. I had walked past someone while still in the store saying someone had fallen. I hope they're okay, but that's unpleasant. To think, earlier in the trip, we thought this moment would have been the worst of the day at the store--dad and I heard a crash, and within a minute, someone was asking for cleanup with a mop and bucket in front of the service desk. These were pretty much signs I should've stayed home, honestly. At least this week at the bank, my father didn't drop the canister for the bank drive-thru tube to where it landed under the car in the exact middle, so that he had to pull forward so I could get at it; he couldn't get out of the driver's side to check and we didn't know where it was. We cannot go anywhere, apparently.)
Mom had wanted to run a few errands before the pet parade at noon, which is a later time than it was pre-pandemic. The library was having a book sale, and she wanted to peruse the farmers market, but I needed to go to the bank so we couldn't run errands until 9 AM. I didn't want to chance getting stuck in a long line at the drive-thru with refrigerated and frozen foods in the car, so we went to the bank first (our normal routine if I have a deposit). Dad then offered to drop me off downtown, and eventually I found mom. I took a gander at all the stuff, but the market ends at noon, and it was after 11:30; some booths were sold out and dismantling themselves by the time I wandered by. Mom decided to get avocado toast (and kept pestering me about having some--look, honestly, I'm not hungry; please stop asking) and I went across the river and found us a seat under the tent near the stage.
Things have changed in the past few years. It's no longer known as the pet parade. It's now a pet competition. Allison, the park district worker who introduces the activity, even corrected herself at one point. The only difference from before is that there's no longer the physical parading that had been done in the past. It's pretty congested in the area now. They used to go over the pedestrian bridge, down River Street, over to Wilson Street, then back down Island Avenue to the Peg Bond Center, where the judges would announce the winners of the various competition. As mom and I saw firsthand, River Street was really crowded. Between tents and picnic benches and people milling around, there was little room for regular people to walk, much less a throng with various animals. (And, trust me, there were already animals hanging around the market. Some were there for the competition, some were just there.) There also weren't a lot of entries; in fact, it ended rather abruptly, and Allison and Foltos (the emcee) ended up talking a couple people standing nearby with dogs to join in; they obliged. They honestly looked like they were part of the competition due to where they were standing, which appeared to be the back of the line. Someone from DePaw Canine Campus even ran over to give them numbers and gift bags. In the past, the numbers were runner numbers left over from a race earlier in the day; today, they were on little sticks that the competitors could hold up. And it doesn't appear that they were given out in any particular order, as the first cajoled contestant had number 19, and the second had number 14. So, maybe 20 pets participated. Hard to tell.
They've discontinued Most Spots (and no, I did not see Otis this year). There were five remaining categories, including Best Jumper, Best Kisser, Best Costume, and Most Unusual Pet. I don't recall the last one, or perhaps they gave a wrong number, who knows. ...Wait, Best Trick is probably the last one. There were some characters among the competitors.
--Best Jumper went to this little girl and her tiny dog, like a little Yorkie, who jumped higher than his standing height. Pretty impressive. The gift basket she won looked bigger than the dog.
--At least one dog trying for Best Kisser got stage fright.
--Someone had a ferret where she was going to go for Best Kisser, but she said she'd just thrown the ferret in the cooling-off pool nearby and that upset the ferret, so the girl didn't think the ferret was happy. She was correct. No kisses were happening.
--An older couple with apparently a very tiny dog won Best Costume. Now that I think about it, I think they won last year with another elaborate getup. This year, they had the dog in this little spaceship. Mom and I were far enough back (three picnic tables) that a fair amount of people were blocking our view, and the dog was small enough that at first I couldn't even tell what king of animal was inside. It was pretty impressive, though I did feel sorry for the couple of kids whose pets had much simpler costumes. One other dog had a bow tie and that was it; someone else had a t-shirt and hat on their dog.
--I can't recall if this dog won, but one dog "sang" and "danced" as their talent.
--As per usual, there were mostly dogs, but aside from the ferret, there were a few lizards. However, the ones who won Most Unusual Pet were ringers (though they also ended up being the only animals I took pictures of). There was a giant turtle with a lizard on its back--not just on its back, but on a saddle on the turtle's back. Wait, what?! They ended up being part of the Frog Lady's show; she was scheduled after the pet parade, at 1:30 PM. I'm pretty sure they won, though; I mean, she must've signed them up and everything. I did hear two names called for that category as winners. Sorry, dog whose tongue is long and sticks out the side of her mouth.
Everything was over by 12:30. This is normally an hour-long activity, given the sheer numbers that usually participate. DePaw had gift bags for the first 50 contestants, so for there to be fewer than 20 was surprising. It's hard to say why that was, if there were specific reasons for that. The 'rona is still out and about, so that might have played a role. And, of course, a large community gathering may make people skittish right about now. That was addressed by Allison, who pointed out that some of Batavia's finest were there to help out. It helps that the police station is spitting distance away, but I noticed, as I came back from taking pictures of the turtle and lizard, that there was a cop standing right by our table, keeping an eye on things. I saw at least one other cop as we were leaving. Unnervingly, we kept hearing sirens the whole time, at least four different occasions while we were there. One was a fire truck going up to Riverain, the retirement home at the tip of the peninsula, but the rest were just going by on Wilson.
Mom had noticed that there wasn't a flea market set up this year. It seemed to me that a number of similar booths were out at the farmers market, so perhaps they were part of that? Dunno. But she was bummed; she likes to check out what people are selling. Mom does enjoy spending money, but she's also the one who goes to the farmers market and buys baked goods. She let me know that the library book sale was going on until 1 PM, so there was still time for me to head down there. We passed by the reading plaza, where they had a book scavenger hunt earlier in the day; there were all these orange signs throughout the plaza. And I'd seen something about yarn bombing the garden, and several light posts had yarn intertwined on them. One was fully bombed and looked like it had a gigantic scarf or sweater wrapped around it. The Mark Twain statue even had a yarn bootie on it as you entered the building. I was warned there were only 15 minutes left of the sale when I entered the room; I did not need that long. I was only looking for Harry Potter 1 in hardcover and didn't spot it. Mom browsed upstairs for a bit longer, but I went outside to wait for her; I just wasn't in the headspace for much today. We left as soon as she was done, and I spent much of the afternoon chilling in my room. A shame, since it was a beautiful, sunny day, not too hot, but I just needed to be alone.