I wimped out on this year's annual Wichita Falls Women's March & Impeachment Rally.
Well, more accurately, the marching part I wimped out on, the Impeachment Pre-March Rally, I made it through.
I successfully delivered my fellow marchers to the march initiation site.
I listened to the pre-march speeches, full of inspiring MLK and JFK quotes.
I did some crowd mingling.
But.
I was not adequately attired to keep warm enough. While the air was heated to somewhere near the 50 degree zone, a strong wind blew, activating that dreaded WIND CHILL FACTOR.
I shivered through the speeches and then when the march began I slithered back to my vehicle's warm interior. Mid-slither I stopped on the Sikes Lake Bridge and took the photo you see below of the march underway.
Upon exiting the parking lot I turned onto Midwestern Boulevard to drive by the marchers whilst honking my horn and waving. The marchers appreciate this sort of feedback.
Salutes involving a single finger, not so much....
Today, around noon, even though the temperature was way closer to 60 than 32, there was still ice on Sikes Lake.
And for some reason most of the Sikes Lake bird population was floating at the edge of the transition between thawed water and water still capped by ice.
The bird population of Sikes Lake seems to have soared since I last surveyed this particular aviary-like sanctuary location.
Many of the Sikes Lake birds were out of the water, hunkered down and not their usual skittish selves. The birds in the water, as well as those on land, were segregated, per their norm, by feather type. In the foreground in the lake we see the goose group, in the middle of the lake the flock of seagulls congregated, and then at the far end of the lake ducks gathered.
At that other side of the lake location, where the ducks gathered, there was a group of about 20 small ducks. I thought maybe they were duck chicks, or whatever one calls baby ducks. Ducklings? Anyway, there was no large adult size duck near the flock of little ducks. Is there a pygmy breed of ducks, like there are pygmy goats and miniature horses?
I only came across four other humans, amongst the birds, braving the still cold, breezy air, following the path around Sikes Lake.
I will be returning to Sikes Lake tomorrow. Sikes Lake is the launch location for the Wichita Falls Women's (and Men's) Impeachment March. I'm assuming tomorrow's will be a larger marching crowd than last year's, what with nice clear blue sky expected, along with semi-warm air. And it is likely more people will feel like participating this year, for obvious reasons.
I do not know how long tomorrow's march is going to take. I know that at the march's destination there will be some speechifying. Saturday night I am expecting to be at MSU to see the Texan who it is hoped will send Ted Cruz to the ashbin of history, Beto O'Rourke.
Yesterday I indicated today I was likely going to be participating in the Wichita Falls version of the Women's March phenomenon taking place all over America and the world today.
And so I did.
It takes about two minutes to get from my abode to the starting location for today's march, that being Sikes Lake.
I must have my clocks off by a few minutes because when Midwestern Boulevard and Sikes Lake came into view I could see the marching was already underway, with a lot people quickly parking and running to join.
It took what seemed like a mile for me to finally get to the front of the march to take the photo you see above of the "WOMENS MARCH OF THE FALLS" banner which lead the protest.
The above photo was taken near the start of the march. As you can see the weather was a bit inclement. A little rain dripped, a few umbrellas were unfurled, thunder boomed in the distance. But, by the time the march reached Kemp Boulevard the sky had brightened and ceased with the dripping and booming.
I did not know what to expect prior to experiencing today's Wichita Falls Women's March. Just a few participants passively walking along? No protest signs?
Well.
At the start the number of marchers extended for a couple blocks and continued to grow as we marched along. New marchers would park at businesses along the way and join in, or just stop and wave and cheer.
Yes, there was a political component to this march. I was not among those worried that Melania needs to be freed from her involuntary servitude. However, I do think Melania would be a folk hero for the ages if she escaped to freedom.
Wichita Falls knows how to hold a totally peaceful protest. We stopped for all street lights, causing temporary gaps in the marching line. During the traffic light stops the chanting seemed to grow louder, particularly when vehicles drove by with their horns honking, passengers waving with thumbs up.
I would estimate about 25% of the marchers were not women. Such as the grizzled geezer you see above holding a Women's March on the Falls sign.
Above is another instance of the march stopping at an intersection with the crowd bunching up and getting more demonstrative with their demonstrating.
On Kemp Boulevard, near where the marchers are marching above, we passed a car wash. Three men who worked at that car wash stood in front of their business and waved and hollered their support quite enthusiastically. I heard a lady say that that is where she would be taking her car to get washed from now on. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the three guys with their car wash name behind them. Suffice to say this car wash is near the Wendy's on Kemp.
Pink was a popular color today.
I was just a little distressed regarding the number of words I saw which were missing their much needed apostrophe. Often women or a woman missing that much needed apostrophe.
Looking back at the pictures I am thinking my estimation that about 25% of the protest marchers were male may be a bit off, well, maybe way off. Ten percent might be more accurate.
Like I said, there was a political component to the protest march. Obviously. Such as the above Hillary Clinton quote "Fear is always with Us, but We just don't have time for it. Not Now!"
There was a lot of horn honking support, which you can hear, along with chanting, in the YouTube video below. I shot this video on Kemp, near the aforementioned car wash staffed by good guys.
I only experienced two yahoo type moments during the march. One was a guy yelling out his window, shouting something like "you better not be protesting Trump". A women shouted back something like "this is not about Trump". At another point a yahoo drove by with his arm out his window while his hand made a threatening gesture involving his middle finger.
