Parades

Since attending the holiday parade in December, Linus has liked to play parade. He insists on leading the way and distributes instruments to me as he sees fit. A few days ago I took him downtown for the Western Stock Show parade and now he tells us about steers, horses, and cowboys marching in our parades at home.

I was afraid we wouldn't get a good viewing spot and I'm no longer able to boost Linus up onto my shoulders. I needn't have worried; there wasn't much of a crowd where we went along the parade route. We met a nice woman from Colorado Springs who was there to photograph her husband riding by on horseback representing a group that worked security during the Democratic National Convention in August. She took the picture of Linus and me together. We don't have many pictures together, so each one is worth a lot to me.

The grand marshall was Baxter Black, a cowboy, poet, and humorist, known on NPR as the Cowboy Poet. When he rode by on a wagon pulled by horses, I yelled out to him, "Hooray, Cowboy Poet." I don't read his poetry or follow him in any particular way, but one doesn't get many chances to cheer for a poet. If Linus were older he would have been mortified. Tee, hee. Baxter Black did give me a big smile in return.

Matthew and Linus have been tending to me as I recover from having my wisdom teeth removed on Friday. I'm healing fine. When we remind him that my mouth is sore he tells us, "My mouth is sore too because I'm growing a new tooth." He has had the first of his two-year molars coming in for weeks now.