parade of lights

holland had its annual parade of lights (uesday) where folks
and cars are lit up (folks with lanterns) and cars with lights.
they all go down eighth st. and down through the market place (a new
thing now).

dennis and i rush down there, scooting over people and avoiding the cold
weather, trying to look for this 87-year-old woman on one of the
floats. we went back and forth and couldn't find her. she was on entry 22.
we went to entry 35 and then went back and found ourselves at entry 5.
we gave up. dennis had to snap some photos because the parade had started.

i went into panic mode. i always do at these events where there
are hundreds of people (maybe a thousand????) and then i try to interview
one or two and i don't get lucky. it's happened where i strike out and i'm
struggling to find some good quotes.

it's tough. i find that i need to feel out the situation or the person. bad vibe, then i don't talk to them. it happened with the first person i stood next to. walked away. the second, third and fourth individuals it worked and i had my stuff as the parade went by.

i never talked to the 87-year-old. dennis laer told me she didn't ride
the entire route. she was dropped off at warm friend (retiremetn home) in downtown. oh well, they don't always work.

one parade down, one to go on friday. my dreaded sinter claus on friday. there is a story behind this one from last year's sinter claus. but i will tell the not so funny tale friday night after this year's event. i'll weight them against each other. although, i don't see how this year's could be worse than last year, short of me being arrested.

note to self: take the sentinel id badge.