Knights of Babylon

It's Carnival down here in New Orleans, Lithus' and my first. Back when I lived in Massachusetts, it got to the point that I avoided Salem in October. Just wouldn't go. I can see getting to that place with NOLA in February. Just get the hell out of Dodge and leave it to the tourists and the Krewes. But this first year? This first year, I'm nowhere close to that.

Lithus and I have been lucky enough to be doing things like going to the grcoery store and SURPRISE! There's a parade. Or coming back from a doctor's appointment and *poof* there's another parade. Although, I admit, when the brass band stopped outside our bedroom window at 8:30 one morning, my first words were indeed "What The Fuck is that????" and I was weak for a moment. But I pulled the blankets up over my head and went back to sleep, and all was well.

However, last night, we decided to actually attend a parade intentionally. We ended up just a few blocks from our place, at the Knights of Babylon parade. According to the Mardi Gras website, the Knight of Babylon are:

Founded in 1939, the Knights of Babylon have proudly kept their traditional float designs, which remain unchanged after more than 70 years. Each float in the Knights of Babylon parade is a chapter in the story being told. The krewe consists of more than 200 knights. Their king, or Sargon, takes his title from the legendary Babylonian ruler, and the current king's identity is never revealed to the public.

Which sounds incredibly formal for what looked like this:

Souvenir stalls get pulled up and down the street. They are as brightly colored as anything the parades have to offer.

The parade started off with Knight of Babylon's jester:

Then got rolling with the Marine Corps band. We all cheered until you could hardly hear them play. There was a delay right in front of us, so the guys on horns broke away and jammed on their own for a bit. They were being followed by a high school band and headed down. It was good natured and fun, but the high school band got schooled. Bless their hearts, they knew it, too.

And the parade starts back up again

From then on out, it was just floats and music and beads and revelry...

The Navy made an appearance, too

My favorite float

Yep, I managed to attend the parade based mostly on classic literature, with a specific focus on the Bard, himself. You can't tell me there isn't a certain amount of magic during Mardi Gras...

Then This Happened...

First, Lithus is fine. His instincts are good.

However! Last week, he saw something (he could tell you what and he told me, but I don't understand it enough to tell you) that made him ask J, the mechanic (a good guy, very qualified, very solid), to check out the tail boom attachment. J looked it over that night and said it was fine. The next morning, though, Lithus still felt uncomfortable, so checked it himself and couldn't find anything. So, he had J look inside again. Still nothing. But Lithus looked inside himself again. Yep. Tail boom attachment was broken. This is a nonsurvivable situation from the air. Had he gotten up, which he could have in spite of this, he would've died that day.

We pretend that what he does isn't dangerous. And the vast majority of the time, we succeed in forgetting. Then, something like this happens. It's good to be lucky. It's better to be skilled. It's best to be both.