Soggy Sunday

The good news is I'm pretty much done with work now until the end of Carnival season. The house is more or less in order. I think I might have all the groceries I need save for the odd beer run that's bound to come along. Parades resume tonight.  By rights, it ought to be time to start the party.

The bad news is I'm fighting off a nasty head cold and fever. I'm not sure if it's any comfort that I'm not alone in this.  According to an informal survey conducted by me on Twitter, seems like lots of folks are battling something similar. It's actually pretty common this time of year. The weather changes rapidly; hot then cold then hot then cold and wet. And everyone is outside milling around in it. It's bound to give anyone at least a sniffle or two.

Well, everyone but this kid.  He is indestructible.



Yes, he was tasting it.  He's now immune to just about anything for the rest of his life.

This was Sunday afternoon not long after the deluge had finally broken up after having dumped all over the Krewes of Carrollton and King Arthur with only a brave few in attendance. The King Arthur floats flew by as we watched from beneath our slickers and umbrellas.



So long, swift and soggy king.  Better luck next year.

But the clouds broke in time for Alla... or what was left of it.. to herk and jerk its way through soaked streets.



Alla (ALgiers, LA) is the latest of the westbank krewes to relocate to the uptown route.   Their theme was  "Alla goes to NOLA" because that was, in fact, what they had done.



They brought the Gretna police with them, though.



It's no big deal for the Grenta police to cross the bridge anyway since they don't have to worry about the Gretna police shooting at them when they reach the other side. 


The Alla floats depicted the typical roster of "iconic" New Orleans institutions and locales.

Here's a Tulane float.



Here's K&B



They've also got this signature "Allagator" float.



The rain did a lot to diminish Alla.  Most of their bands had dropped out by the time they started rolling.  The back half of the parade was pretty much just a line of floats more or less trying to get things over with.  Among the few hardy bands who marched anyway were John Ehret, Shaw, and Warren Easton.



When the Easton band passed by our spot they weren't playing anything but they had come up with a fun idea to chant, "Ah! My feet hurt!" as they marched.   Probably the best thing I've seen so far this year.

Besides the rain there were other problems. There were a couple of abnormally long delays during Alla which I later read were caused by people falling off of floats and injuring themselves.

New Orleans Fire Department superintendent Timothy McConnell, whose crew members perform a safety check on each float before it is allowed to roll from its staging area, reminded float riders that the safety harnesses are only effective when worn.

That's a good point. But having seen these safety harnesses up close, I'm not sure what if any help they would be at keeping an adult man who has fallen overboard from getting hurt.  Not saying people shouldn't wear them, of course. Just, if you are wearing one, also don't fall off of the float just to be extra safe.

Tonight's parades are Mystic Krewe of Druids.. who used to be "Krewe of Anceint Druids" but then decided they wanted to claim they were descended from a krewe that used to be the Mystic Krewe of Druids and so they changed it... followed by the Krewe of Nyx who used to be the people on the waiting list to be in Muses but decided to change that too.

On Sunday it used to be wet out there.  Let's hope tonight it's not wet anymore.