So, in one thoughtless moment, without even acknowledgment that I had served as chef de lobsters for over a decade, and leaving me bereft of any function other than just being Mr. Wonderful, I had been relegated to the dust bin, made redundant, generally caste off.

Well, I have thought further about how to achieve revenge next year….. just wait.

Happy Maggie

Niece Maggie has taken thousands of self-portraits. Here are two of her latest efforts.

Sad Maggie

We were a sponsor of this event through the gallery. And so we had our Hudson Pride flag out along with our usual BeLo3rd Open flag.

Karen was not available to take pictures and make movies, so you have to settle for my photographic efforts.

The parade was notable for its many groups of people with simple banners, paucity of floats, and almost complete avoidance of the usual herds of fire trucks and rescue vehicles. I admit to only being surprised at the large contingent from the Capital Area Pride Bowlers.

I particularly liked the crowd that gathered at the end of Warren and up onto Promenade Hill. Right size space and right size crowd. Still in Hudson instead of visually cut off down in Henry Hudson Park.

You should visit the website for the event, HudsonPride.com, and note the endless list of sponsors.

Leaving all of this web daring do aside, the restaurant remains a welcome addition to Hudson. It brings more life to the street. Soon, I will go for a meal. Swoon, next door continues to live up to its status as a legend. I hope that American Glory BBQ will turn out to be a legend too.

For the uninitiated it is important to know that this parade and associated hoopla is the major public event of the year. Warren St. is filled end to end. The parade lasts for over two hours and the whole event is capped off with fireworks that run on and on a la Boston’s Fourth Fourth of July boondoggles.

Here is a link to Karen’s movie on the Davis Orton Gallery website.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I am glad to see the first pedestrian right of way sign that I have ever seen here. These had become a common sight in Cambridge over the last decade and drivers for the most part had become accustomed to the indignity of having to stop.

Hudson, with its usually sparse traffic, offers plenty of opportunities for both pedestrians and cars to pretty much use the streets as they see fit. In fact, though I would never do this in NYC or less so in Boston, here I regularly cross the street in mid block with just a casual glance to the left for an oncoming car then, as I approach the mid point of the street, a right glance for cars coming from the opposite direction. But, now in the 300 block of Warren I will have to be back to minding my pedestrian manners.

As I was admiring the crosswalk I realized that neither side of the walk had ramps for handicapped access. Then, thinking about the sidewalks in Hudson in general, I realized that ramps at intersections and crosswalks are not to be found. How could it be that decades after legislation demanded access for handicapped people elsewhere, Hudson has not found opportunities to put them in just as part of normal maintenance?