S. got her bike new wheels and cables and brakes after it got stripped earlier this year, which means S. has a bike now. That means we can ride bikes together places–this is most excellent news! Tonight she came over in her cow suit with a skeleton suit for me, and we got to zip down the hill and to the left for the Lantern Parade in Patterson Park. I went to the parade last year by myself, but left early. Even a glimpse of it, though, made me feel better, like even though I wasn’t in New Orleans anymore, there were still people doing things like building a glowing rat thing, mounting it on a car surrounded by people wearing glowing hats trailed by all kinds of lit-ups stuff. And bands–just drums, but bands. This year I needed a reminder that I’d want such things, so this was just perfect. And then S. and I pedaled back home. I remember hearing about this cow suit and that she just keeps wearing it every year, and now here it is, a year, and yep–there’s the cow suit. It was a lovely ride on a lovely, warm night, but the winds are already starting to kick up. Here’s to a keeping safe when that hurricane blows through in the next day or two.