The Scene: Garfield Place, Opening Day Parade, Ballpark

I arrived at 10:30 to find Rebecca, Atia, Joe, and others already in place.

There were some excellent signs.

Not one to hang around, I headed to the parade route and walked up Main, along Central, and up Race until the parade found me.

Some people along the route were a little upset by the sign. I had one fellow say I was spoiling their fun. Another fellow asked me "what is a lie," and one woman told me she had soldiers in Iraq and she didn't care what I thought. Lots of people thanked me for having the sign out there.

Mallory, Chabot, and Dewine all saw me. None of them came over to shake my hand or thank me. Other people did shake my hand, and a lot of people took pictures of the sign. I even ran into my electrician buddy Lee, out enjoying the day.

I saw probably about a third of the parade. What a hoot! When the war is over, I want to go and see the whole thing!

When I got back to Garfield about noon to feed my meter, there lots more people there. Kristin from IJPC (http://www.ijpc-cincinnati.org), who was keeping track of who went where, said people had already started going down to the Freedom Center and the ballpark, so after a brief rest, I headed that way too.

As I arrived near the ballpark I ran into Van, who had taken my picture a little while back on a cold day outside the queen city club.

We snapped each other again.

Along about 12:30 I headed back to the car to go back to work. The traffic was pretty gnarly, and there were still roads closed for the parade. I thought about trying to get across town to 471 south, but the police had 75 south shut down for the prez, so I went back to work the long way.

Just another day of war in Iraq.

Here's today's IJPC flyer:

More fun later,

Ray

Written April 3, 2006