Even though I've been deliberately glossing over most of the unpleasant stuff besides the weather... here's some "behind the scenes" of that series of photos at the fence, that I was calling the parade.
I lucked out and was standing close by when one guy up front at the fence turned around and walked away, so I stepped into his place. The other guy next to me tried for the same spot... it wasn't quite a full elbow check from him, but close. He didn't say anything, just glared. I ignored him. He went away.
On the other side of the fence was an official event photographer who had a real talent for standing
exactly between me and the girl. He had a stretch of forty feet of fence to work, and he spent about a third of his time in front of me. Maybe he liked me or something.
I grumbled something under my breath about the official photographer, and the geezer next to me took that as his cue to be my buddy. For twenty minutes he kept up this weird kind of whining, rambling monologue about the angles and the sun and the clouds and the official photographer and the guy pushing him and the drunks and the bugs... and I'm seriously hard of hearing, so I only was catching every other word. I just nodded, said "yeah", and kept taking pictures.
But the good times far outweighed the bad. I'm going back next year.
