Debauched madness

Here are some fly on the wall observations from the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade, which regrettably passes too close to my abode for me to avoid:



The teeming throngs congregate their vehicles upon every conceivable open space, even along the freeway shoulder.



Crowds converge upon the parade route.



Here comes the first float.



Spanish Town Road makes for a very constricted environment for both floats and crowds.



Upon witnessing this lawnmower wielding dancing retinue, I could only shake my head in utter confusion over what had just transpired.



With the parade over, the "afterparties" commenced, the drunken orgies constricting the orderly flow of street traffic without nary a thought.

Afterparties being a dickhead invention, I bipped downtown to witness the parade aftermath:



Third Street was noticeably crowded.



Devastation on a war-like scale was left in the wake of the parade's passing.



Junk strewn in the streets is apparently a Mardi Gras tradition wherever you go; this despite the near saturation level of city garbage receptacles placed throughout the parade route. With the sheer amount of beads scattered about, it proves that Carnival is not about the acquisition of the cheap trinkets, but the catching thereof without having to resort to "scavenging" once they hit ground.

(Within 24 hours, though, not a trace of this garbagey scene remained, thanks to our hardworking and underpaid DPW streetcleaners.)



The parking garage which was constructed at great expense by our solons to service overflow Carnival crowds was, ironically, closed to use to-day and thus completely empty.



Therefore, motorists resorted to parking anarchy as any relatively flat and open surface was quickly pressed into surface as parking tarmac.



Even hours after the parade's end, drunken revelry continued into the night for those without moral scruples in this new age of austerity. But for dickheads, life is one long party anyhow, so why bother.