There were thousands of people getting ready for a big parade down Monona Drive this morning, not just the people from Monona but also from Madison, Sun Prairie, Stoughton, McFarland, Verona, you name it. People come from far and wide to see the Memorial Day parade in Monona, one of the biggest in Wisconsin, from what I’ve heard.

I used to get pretty jazzed about going to see the parade, even after I wasn’t part of a marching band, and especially when the boys were old enough to get really excited by a long, loud parade. Now that they’re all grown up and gone, there isn’t much to motivate me to go watch a parade, particularly on a hot, muggy day like today.

We have gone to watch it, many years ago, just to see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty much every Memorial Day parade I’ve seen before: fire trucks, marching bands, convertible sedans with their tops down and a pretty girl or the mayor or some veterans sitting on top of the back seat. It was fun to watch once, but I just haven’t felt the need to see it again.

So today I’m finishing up the yard work, mowing the spot in the back yard I didn’t have enough left in me to do yesterday and weed-eating around the garden and the shed. And sweating like a pig. A tall, skinny and very stinky pig. Oink.