Parade, both wonderful and weary
Our town's big 4th of July parade was held today on the 3rd this year and I ended up right at the front of our large and cheerful Tea Party entry holding one end of the big banner, great fun, lots of supportive people, flags, bouncy children, candy all over the road - but golly gee whillikers that's one loooong parade route. We were standing around for hours before then walking and walking til we thought our feet would fall off - THEN at the end of it, I went off into the maze of suburban streets nearby where I'd parked that morning in a cloud of joggers on a jogathon and couldn't find my car. I walked in circles for about an hour and a half, marching up and down convoluted streets all named alike before I finally gave up and went to a friendly looking family and asked if they had a map I could look at, so I could see it from above and tell where in the world there might be a little piece of road I was missing somehow. They took pity on my by then very footsore and bedraggled state and drove me around in circles in their car - and we still didn't find it.
At this point I was deciding it must have been stolen - it's not much of a car, but who knows in a parade crowd... They dropped me at Rosie's house where I settled down to camp on her porch until she and Icarus got back, and pondered how while the insurance might cover the car I was upset that I'd left starbells handmade favorite fleece cape in it and now that would be lost forever. About fifteen minutes later the same helpful people pulled up and gleefully said "WE FOUND IT!" - "No way!" I gaped, already resigned to never seeing it again. They took me straight to it - turned out we'd given up only two blocks too soon. I told them they deserved a medal, or at least a good chocolate cake for all the time they'd used up on my misadventure. "It's reward enough just to help someone out."
Things like this really do a lot to restore my faith in the good of the people of this world.
At this point I was deciding it must have been stolen - it's not much of a car, but who knows in a parade crowd... They dropped me at Rosie's house where I settled down to camp on her porch until she and Icarus got back, and pondered how while the insurance might cover the car I was upset that I'd left starbells handmade favorite fleece cape in it and now that would be lost forever. About fifteen minutes later the same helpful people pulled up and gleefully said "WE FOUND IT!" - "No way!" I gaped, already resigned to never seeing it again. They took me straight to it - turned out we'd given up only two blocks too soon. I told them they deserved a medal, or at least a good chocolate cake for all the time they'd used up on my misadventure. "It's reward enough just to help someone out."
Things like this really do a lot to restore my faith in the good of the people of this world.