Happy Pride Day

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the annual Houston Pride Parade -- I'll be heading down to Monstrose later this afternoon to help get our Chevron float set up.

Thank heavens it's a night-time parade, so the temperatures may actually moderate from the 90's down to the lower 80's by the time the parade starts (but I don't hold out that much hope). Our best shot at cooler temps -- given that the streets will be radiating heat along with 100,000 + spectators -- is if the threatened thunderstorms bring no rain to the area, but clouds and a breeze.

In any case, it will be fun!

Update:

Breezy and threatening rain up until the parade... and what a parade. We finally got on the route about 9:30... the Chronicle estimated 200,000 people along the route and it certainly seemed that way. My only beef was the lackadaisical security and crowd control. Unlike previous years, it seemed like the police and parade organizers just didn't care if the crowds spilled out onto the street -- and in some cases it was hard to tell where the parade was and where the crowd started. (Some of us wondered if this was a none-too-subtle plot by the parade organizers to punish everyone that kept them from moving the parade to the sterile confines of downtown -- or if the split in the organizers kept them from having their A-game on.)

The "throw us a gas card" or "lower your prices" got to be a little old (about the second time) -- but overall, an enthusiastic and supportive crowd. I heard later that we did get booed a bit when we got down past Kats -- because we'd run out of throws... I guess next year, we'll husband our stuff a little better... nah!