March. The Month of Parades.
It wasn’t like there wasn’t anything to write about this month. I’m just a slacker I guess. Perhaps I should get in the habit of multi tasking and write a little while I’m watching the Blackhawks play.
March is a pretty unpredictable month around here. Warm one day, freezing the next. We got a taste of the freezing weather on the 2nd day of the month when we went to the Tinley Park St. Patricks Parade. To say it was nippy would be an understatement, that’s for sure! Cold and windy but still a lot of fun. Tinley Park puts good parades together.
On the 14th, we went to another St. Patricks parade and this one was a small neighborhood parade, also in Tinley Park. It was in a subdivision and every family that participated had their own banner and did a couple of loops around the neighborhood and were cheered on by the rest of their neighbors. There was a fire truck and a police car to make some noise and it all ended up at the Gibbons house for the post parade party. They had a tent for the adults and a couple of those inflateable jumpy things for the kids. The weather was sunny and mild. Good day for a parade and it looked like everyone was having a blast. This was the first one and surely not the last!
The next day we went to the big parade. The Southside Irish Parade in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. Now this is an event! 120+ entrants on a mild Sunday afternoon. This parade started in 1979 as a small parade like the Tinley parade but just got huge! The past few years though, it has turned into an underage drink fest. It’s bad enough when the adults get tanked but when the high school kids start you just know it’s not going to end well. Lots of drunk kids and lots of drunk kids getting a free ride to the 111th street lockup courtesy of the Chicago Police Department. There were 54 arrests reported and I guess that’s not too bad in a twisted way when you consider the crowd estimate was 350,000.
We had a good time and came home with a little bit of a sunburn. This was Kierans first Southside parade and I’m glad we went. The organizers announced the next week that the parade was being cancelled. Too much stress on the neighborhood and they were going to come up with smaller events for next year. Can’t say that I blame them but I’m glad Kieran got to go to one. You can see more photos from the parade here.
On St. Patricks Day, I went to my parents house for dinner. St. Patrick must have been smiling on us. The weather was beautiful! Sunny and warm. The corned beef and cabbage were pretty good too! The homemade soda bread was the icing on the cake. My Mom makes the best soda bread….ever! T’was a great day.
Last week I got the urge to go out and shoot a sunset. I shoot like 2 sunsets a year and as usual, I waited until the last minute and got to the slough right at the beginning of the Blue Hour. The sky got real interesting and just as quickly, it got uninteresting. I’m thinking I got a little lucky with this shot. Sometimes things do work out.
The weather got cold again and we even got a few inches of snow Saturday night! We had planned on going to the Adler Planetarium for Earth Hour but it was pouring out and we ended up just sitting around the house with the lights out. Different, but fun!
This weekend I am going to photograph various dogs with the Easter Bunny at PAWS in Tinley Park. Every year they have an Easter Egg Hunt for dogs and afterwards, they can get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny. I don’t charge them and they keep the proceeds. I feel a little guilty for not being more involved with them and I don’t see myself ever charging them for a photo. Good people caring for great animals!
Well, that’s it for now. Until next time!