St Patrick's Day - St Paul Paints Itself Green to Celebrate

Happy St Patrick's Day to all of you. May your road be smooth and filled with joy. I live in a city that has, or at least used to have, a heavily-Irish population, so St Patrick's Day is a BIG DEAL here in the Frozen Northlands where I live. We don't dye the river green, like they do in Chicago. But we do have a huge St Patrick's Day parade every year. It was truncated during Covid, but it pulls people from all over the area for most years. 

St Paul MN has a large Irish population - one of the larger 
population centers in the nation. And, of course, on St Patrick's 
Day, everyone who wants to be Irish, is Irish - LOL. We 
always have a large parade in Downtown St Paul, on 
down towards the Mississippi River. Even the street 
crossings are permanently colored green on the parade 
route. We take our celebrations seriously up here in the 
Frozen Northlands - LOL. 

This year, it's COLD. Very cold. So people will still come and still watch and still celebrate and pack the bars and pubs, but it won't be as freewheeling nor as enjoyable as in other years. I remember sitting at lunch sharing corned beef and cabbage with my mother-in-law (and yes, I realize that's only a traditional meal here in the USA, not in Ireland), when it was 64 Fahrenheit (17.7 C). Unfortunately, today it's 10 F (-12.2 C) so it's COLD. 

This photo is from last year's St Patrick's Day. It was still 
cold, but not AS cold as it is today. Notice there aren't 
huge snow piles along the streets? That's most certainly 
NOT the case this year. I hope everyone bundles up well. 

I allowed myself a sleep-in today. Not intentionally. I turned off my 3:00 am alarm intending to set it to 5:00 am instead, and then actually forgot to set it. But, I awakened shortly after 5:00 anyway, so it wasn't a horrible thing. I had a lovely hour of meditation and waking my brain, decided to get a quick blog post in, and I'll have a busy "day off" today with a variety of errands, etc. I really am not in the mood for a fish dinner, so I think I'll pick up some sushi for my dinner tonight instead. DH is going to pan-fry some whitefish for himself, so we're set. 

All of the photos I've shared today were from the 2022 
St Patrick's Day Parade here in St Paul, Minnesota. 
When we're cut on St Patrick's Day up here, we don't 
bleed red, we bleed green! LOL Have a joyous St 
Patrick's Day in your area and be safe. 

So, cutting this off here. Have an excellent St Patrick's Day, celebrate if you choose, watch out for that green beer, and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.