Thoughts on Parade

I've been to my share of parades in my life, but there is one thing that I most definitely hate about them now.

Firetrucks.

Now that I'm pretty much contractually obligated to attend the Octoberfest parade and the Christmas Parade in the county, I have never and will never take a photo of a firetruck.

Why, you ask?

Because for some reason none of the volunteer firefighters in this county have enough sense to know that maybe a dozen or more firetrucks with their sirens all blaring is a bit too much for a human's ears. And since I'll have my index fingers in my ears, I can't really operate the camera with my mouth. Well, I can't use the zoom anyway.

I don't want to be around one truck with it's siren going full blast, muchless 11 more just like it.

My ears aren't pounding like last Christmas, but every now and again I'll get a little pinch of pain since the Octoberfest parade just finished.

Last year at the Christmas parade they had just about every firetruck in the county out with sirens wailing and the pain went from my ears all the way into my neck on one side. And it's just ignorant.

And when it really comes down to it, it's just plain illegal. Literally. They aren't supposed to operate those sirens within a certain number of feet of people for an extended period of time because of the decibels those sirens can crank out.

It wouldn't bother me if they wanted to crank them for a second or so just to scare the crap out of the children every now and again. But running them wide open for an entire mile at walking speed is too much for the thousands of children and adults viewing the parade.

But for some reason they just love to hear it long and loud and I guess they think we are as stupid as they are and can't get enough of the pain.

So don't expect any photos from me of firetrucks in my newspaper. It simply won't happen until I can walk away without having to take an aspirin when I get home.