A parade

image_pdfimage_print

I’m not really big on winter parades unless I’m parked in front of a TV with a mug of something warm. I imagine going somewhere warm to see them would be OK too. Today I did get to see my hometown’s holiday parade of lights. Wagons, tractors, sleighs, horses, mules, donkeys, ponies, miniature horses (which are different from ponies — so I’ve been told) and reindeer. And lights, every thing being pulled and in some cases the things doing the pulling had lights.

Armed with a large Mocha, with extra Espresso, I braved the cool evening to watch for my youngest. She was on one of the wagons with most of her show choir. They sang Christmas carols for the parade. Unfortunately, they didn’t stop long enough for a complete song. That was disappointing, but somewhat expected.

After the parade, I did get to go and see the reindeer. Wonderful creatures, reindeer. Their wide hoofs and thick fur make them ideally suited for harsh winter weather. Interesting thing about reindeer, the females also have antlers. The two reindeer in the parade were females, as the males tend to be more aggressive. Not good when small children want to pet them. Very soft fur, and extremely nice animals. Except of wanting to move their heads to all sides (to see who was around them) they made no moves to hurt anyone. Getting whapped by their antlers could be painful, but they seemed to try to avoid that. The handlers made sure to keep a decent grip on the heads too. I really like these beasties.

9 thoughts on “A parade”

  1. Reindeer ARE interesting… the clicking sound their hooves make – and referred to in certain Christmas carols – is unrelated to the surface where their hooves are hitting. It’s the sound of a tendon snapping against a bone in their foot. And it’s fascinating that the female also has antlers. Is there a size difference between the antlers of the different genders?

  2. taylhis, not much size difference in the antlers as long as the deer are the same size. The males do tend to get much bigger, but there are small ones too.

    derek, it was a live parade (unless someone has it on youtube now), so I don’t believe there was any “Rick-rolling”.

    Won’t watch, I’ve been “Rick-rolled” once and that was one time too many.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *