Saturday, February 17, 2007

Mardi Gras Update: I fought the cold and the cold won

Pokerboss was right. I couldn't go all weekend without blogging. The reason I have time to blog is that the cold weather has put a big dent in my Mardi Gras spirit. I fought the cold and the cold won.

I know my friends up north will think I'm a big sissy, but the temperature in Port Arthur last night was 33 degrees with 15 to 20 mph winds. That's too damn cold for me. We didn't even stay for Pat Green and it's hard to catch beads when you're huddled up behind the beer tent trying to suck some of the heat from their portable heaters through a small crack in their tent.

Here's an update from a post I did about my Mardi Gras plans:

  • Wednesday, 2/14 – Ray Wylie Hubbard at Courville’s: Wonderful food, wonderful show, wonderful friends
  • Thursday, 2/15 – 9 Station Drive and Cross Canadian Ragweed on Crockett Street in Beaumont: Temperature at 11:00 p.m. when Cross Canadian Ragweed would have taken the stage was going to be about 28 degrees. Bonnie and I blew it off.
  • Friday, 2/16 – Pat Green in Port Arthur: Too cold, left without beads or Pat Green.
  • Saturday, 2/17 – Satisfaction (Rolling Stones Tribute band) at 3:00 p.m. in Port Arthur
    Saturday, 2/17 – Robert Earl Keen in Port Arthur (or Jazz Innovators on Crockett Street…haven’t made up my mind on that one): Did I mention that Bonnie fell last night and hurt her elbow? I'll probably be skipping all of this stuff, too.
  • Sunday, 2/18 – Scott McGill at 5:00 p.m. on Crockett Street: I might be able to salvage Sunday by taking my niece downtown for the day.
  • Sunday, 2/18 – The Neville Brothers at the Beaumont Civic Center (I JUST GOT ME A FRONT ROW SEAT!): Canceled.

Since today might be a bust, I'm leaning toward watching portions of my DVD box sets that arrived last night: The Complete Monty Python Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset and Seven Samurai 3-Disc Remastered Edition.

I will fill my intermissions with trips upstairs to check out the New Orleans webcams and perhaps do a little online karaoke. Who says you can't have a party by yourself?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Bummer!!!
I am glad I didn't hop in the car and head down for it. I am bringing polarfleece and long underwear when I do come there!

What is with the Neville Bros? Isn't the Civic Center indoors?

I totally understand, I wimped out of the Jamaican sled dog team and the rally on Feb. 4, it was 17 below zero fahrenheit and I had a lot to do that day.

Sorry to hear about Bonnie's elbow, I hope it isn't too bad.

Anonymous said...

Cold weather sucks.

I'm still rocking the on-line karaoke, but at ksolo. I still can't get my stuff to jive with SingShot, which is a shame because I prefer that site.

Have fun!

Laurie said...

Susan - 17...BELOW ZERO!!!! I would die. I would just die. :)
In March, you shouldn't need fleece down here. I hope the weather is just gorgeous for you. Bonnie's fine. Her elbow is just a little poofy.

Leslie - I'm so glad you still like the karaoke. :)

Anonymous said...

I hope it warms up and you salvage a little fun, although it sounds to me like you do a fine job of figuring out a Plan B or a Plan C when Plan A for having fun runs off course. I've been watching the webcams too, looking for a glimpse of my younguns' (2 & 3 are there).

Oooo... poofy elbow sounds ominous to me.

Thanks for your sweet support over at my place, Laurie. I really appreciate it. I'm sort of just accepting that sometimes we're supposed to be sad and this is one of those times for me. *sigh*

cindybindy said...

I don't think you're a sissy. Any temperature in the 30's is pretty cold. Hope you have a good Mardi Gras holiday. We're out of school for Monday and Tuesday. Yeah, LA :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for asking about my elbow. I just want to go on record by saying I was not drunk. Otherwise I would have been warm. I have arthirits in my knee and my hip and when I bent over to get some beads off the ground I tumbled. Pretty damn sure it was not gracifully. One lady stood over me I put my hand up and said,"My knee went out." The old bitch left me there laying on the street. I'm still not too clear whe finally helped me up.I did take a good muscle relaxer today. One good thing was Laurie and I found some killer crawfish ettoufe and they topped with a small crab cake. It was awesom.

Babysis

Serena said...

That's a shame that the cold froze out your plans. Hopefully, you can still salvage some fun out of some of the events. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Jack said...

It occurs to me that the impediments to your enjoying a weekend of drinking and live music might be related to your Lenten vows. Has it occurred to you that there might be a reason those plan's haven't worked out? I think God's telling you that you have a whole lot of shopping to do between now and midnight Tuesday.

Laurie said...

Sophmom - Dang, I just missed the parade passing on the Parade Cam. Crap.

Baby Sis and Everyone Else - In case you're wondering why I didn't pick Bonnie up, I was hiding behind the aforementioned beer tent.

Serene Joy - Mais oui!

Jack - Why didn't I think of that?! Amazon, here I come.

Steve said...

It may not be just your friends up north. I was on Crockett Street for Ragweed and even Peg went with me Saturday to catch beads (over 5 lbs worth), see Satisfaction, and several other bands on various stages all leading up to a great show by Robert Earl Keen. I lost my voice hollering for beads and screaming along with REK, but boy was it fun. Of course, the first thing we did was look for you. I guess you know how that worked out. It's really a shame since so little actually happens around here. I'll put up some pictures and a review soon on MyMySpace. www.myspace.com/texaspokerboss

Laurie said...

Pokerboss - I'm glad you guys enjoyed it! I'll have to make up for it next year. I'll check your your Myspace.

Steve said...

Upon re-reading the original post, I realize that you said, "Wonderful food, wonderful show, wonderful friends," about the Ray Wylie Hubbard show at Courville's. I have to assume that by "wonderful friends" you meant Jack and Peg, because I'm trying hard to cultivate an image as an asshole. You wouldn't screw that up for me, would you?

Laurie said...

Asshole...I mean...Pokerboss - You read my posts twice?! Now, that's a good friend...I mean...asshole.

Grimm said...

Hell after the weather we have had these last few weeks, at 33 degrees I could do some nude sunbathing.

Take that for grotesque imagery!

Laurie said...

Grimm - I don't know about grotesque but it sounds a little nipply.