Mardi Gras! Is Here! Babeeeeee! So Is My Birthday!

      . . . .  Am I, or am I, clever, having my birthday this year the same day as Fat Tuesday, when, despite the pandemic, all the world that celebrates Mardi Gras is celebrating with brilliant color, food and music? 

Having had zero expectations for this day, well!  It's a beautiful birthday, particularly because for this one day only here  (Thursday, big storm blows in), the weather became lovely.  Blue sky and bright, warm sun, when el V went out with me about 2 PM for a walk.  We went to the library, stopped at the Wine Hut and got two nice artisnal, organic Pinot Grigios from the Tyrol. When we got back to T Street, B joined us, and we sat together (double-masked) on a bench at the playground, basking in the sun.  A snow white wispy cloud scarf blew fast across the blue sky field. The sunlight bounced radiantly off a helium heart balloon in a tree, a Valentine’s Day escapee no doubt. We photographed it as a memento of the day.  

Because it is a beautiful day, and because it is my BD, though this is one of my regularly scheduled workout days, I took a holiday from working out. This is only the second time since the beginning of April I've missed one of the three I religiously schedule per week.  Walking in the sunshine with el V was the better choice. So many BD greetings from friends, including from the couple in France, who just got married on Saturday.  I am a fortunate being, you betcha, particularly having my birthday this year on Mardi Gras, so we could bang the music out of New Orleans's WWOZ all day.  Nothing better to have as your birthday sound track.

We have also listened to the first segment of Leyla McCalla’s Kanvale special radio production, with el V, along with Lauren Dubois, as primary commentators for the Haitian-New Orleans connections. He was recorded for his interjections back in May, 2020, but didn’t recall it at all, until after listening, he looked through his archives.  May.  Such a long time ago now, such a strange frightened time.  May 2020 seems longer ago now than Mays prior to 2020. However May 2020 taught me that winter does eventually end, and things can get better.  So it shall be in 2021 as well.