Canada needs more parades.

This past weekend was Canada Day long weekend and I can't believe that it is already July 4th! Happy 4th to all my American friends and family, by the way. I'm remembering exactly a year ago, the day after Mark and Dottie's wedding, we were gearing up to get to the Stonebank 4th of July parade, and holy bloody hell was it ever hot and humid! I don't know if I can remember ever being so hot! The pipsqueak was only 4 months old and had her legs and arms all bandaged up because the mommy hadn't yet figured out that she was terribly allergic to her carseat fabric. I remember worrying about how I was going to keep the poor girl cool...The parade was great, as it always was, and the company was excellent too, as it always was - well, except for the idiot who apparently took great offence to my attempt to nurse the pip in public, and later that day informed me that it was "really impolite to titty feed my (your) kid in public" Such an enlightened fellow. Drunk by 10 am is still no excuse to be an asshole. In any event, we had a good day and the parade was great - I will miss American parades, they know how to put those together. I can't believe that was only a year ago, so much has changed since then. The Canada day celebration this year was certainly different...You can't walk around with a beer in your hand, which was never a big deal for me and doesn't necessarily make for a better party,  but somehow it seemed less celebratory and more...I don't know...mundane? I'm not sure what it was. Perhaps it simply was the lack of a parade. Thats probably it. Canada needs more parades. And parades with a large contingency of Harley riders and inner city marching bands. Ok, so thats not likely to happen, and thats probably Ok, but maybe we need to cut loose a little more...throw a bunch of candy at the kids, drench the brave folks up front with garden hoses attached to floats, eat more potato salad...(no thanks, actually) you get my drift. I think what this all adds up to is that, I actually became more attached to my American home in the 6 years I was there than I realized. Perhaps I'm still adjusting to being a Canadian in Canada again. Perhaps things have changed since I've been away. Perhaps its really easy to idealize a place once you're removed from it. And perhaps I'm doing that again. Hmmm. Food for thought. In any case, I'm glad its summer, I'm glad Mark and Dottie are now expecting their first baby, and I'm glad to be back in Canada. Maybe I'll just leave it at that for today.