Fireworks in broad daylight
What a concept! The visibility wasn’t great this morning because the pyrotechnics didn’t display well against the early-morning sky, but the rhythm of the detonations created a very pleasing aural event. The Web site for the marathon has been inaccessible practically all morning long. There are vehicles parked all over town in unusual places. I’m not planning to go anywhere or do anything today. It just isn’t worth the trouble, because big chunks of close-in Austin are hemmed in or inaccessible. Buses are detoured all over the place, and it doesn’t feel safe to be out on a bicycle or as a pedestrian. H-E-B on South Congress was a madhouse yesterday, with all sorts of items gone from the shelves and cases very early in the day, because people were intent on stocking up for today’s imprisonment. There will be surprising numbers of people in town next weekend, too, because of the re-dedication of Disch-Faulk field, so we’ll try to stock up again on Friday for all that.
Wow, when did Ms Grumpy move in? I don’t run the marathon, probably never will, but its 1-day in the year. I agree, I don’t understand the need for fireworks at 7am either.
But for South 1st, it seemed to go off fine. Traffic could drive south only, in a single restricted width lane and a few did. We grabbed chairs, parked ourselves outside La Reyna bakery, coffee, breakfast, watch for about an hour and went off cycling to San Marcos via South 5th. Yeah that makes me one of those holier than though keep fit types… but really the marathon is a day a year!
We were at HEB at around 3.30pm, I didn’t notice any empty shelves, it was emptier than normal for that time of day and we were able to shop quicker. Go figure… maybe the problem you saw was staff not people hoarding…
By the way, who won the marathon, I couldn’t be bothered to check the website…
Whence "grumpy"? I don’t mind the marathon at all. In fact, so far this has been the most peaceful day in a long time. The cut-down on traffic is wonderful and the occasional sounds of live music intermittently since 7 am have been wonderful, too. I’m sorry that the pyrotechnics didn’t begin, say, at 5:30 or at least at 6 am, so as to be more visible. At H-E-B it’s always tough to catch our personal most in-demand items; obviously yours aren’t ours, or so it would seem. We were there before 9 am on Saturday (yesterday)–included are certain H-E-B sausages, certain Night Hawk products, certain brands of certain things. The event does make it difficult for downtown church-goers, and a member of a friend’s household needed non-emergency medical care and couldn’t find a good way to get to a minor emergency clinic this morning; the afternoon, of course, is different. The marathon site’s accessible again and two results pages are linked from it. The finishers walking home seem tired and stiff, but happy. An Austinite is reported finishing first among the women.