Lost in Transportation

Yesterday was the 4th Street Lilac Festival. I didn't know what a lilac was, probably some sort of flower, probably lilac in colour (or color, depending on my target audience). But anyway, one of the guys from the footy team was having a barbeque and I had nothing better to do - working for myself means that I can designate almost whatever time of the week I want as "nothing better to do", as long as I don't do it too often. So Sunday afternoon was blocked out for Lilac festival.

A few of us had a small group run before that, which I plodded through, and even that's putting it favourably. Lilac Festival seems to mainly consist of a big crowded street market (with a few performances), and a bunch of beer gardens (all selling over-priced warm beer), and very few lilacs (whatever they are).

So in other words, Lilac Festival is like any other big commercial street party type event. It's widely viewed as the first "summer" event in Calgary. Actually, those were totally gratuitous quotation marks because it was hot and sunny, and I got a little bit "burned". Those weren't gratuitous, because Canada has an ozone layer, and it's possible to spend the day in the sun with only one application of SPF30 and not wake up the next day feeling like someone has applied acid to your face.