the honkfest parade route started in davis square, down elm street, down beech street, down mass ave, to harvard square. the weather was unexpectedly cold, about 20+ degrees (in the 60's) less than what it was yesterday. i positioned myself at the intersection of elm and beech, waiting for the procession to start. the marching bands were just a small part of the parade. what exactly was the message anyway? definitely some sort of protest, but it seemed like a parade for the sake of having one with no fixed agenda.

the procession took all but 30 minutes to go by. i got back on my motorcycle and went home, leaving my ride and running down to mass ave so i could see the parade for the second time as it marched towards harvard square.

people with street front apartments had the best views from their windows. mass ave going inbound to harvard square from porter square was completely blocked off for the procession. people who knew nothing about honkfest were drawn in as casual spectators. as far as i know, it's the only parade route that goes from davis square to harvard square (a distance of less than 2 miles), one of these rare occurrence of somerville-cambridge unity.

i then managed to walk ahead of the procession and wait for the parade to arrive in harvard square for my third viewing of the day. i was starting to wonder if anyone marching recognized me and thought it was weird seeing me everywhere. harvard square was crowded already because of octoberfest, but everyone seemed to be waiting for the parade to arrive, to bring in an influx of more people.

as the parade was winding down, i took the opportunity to get some food before the place got too crowded. i settled for some indian food from one of the food tents, chicken tikka marsala with a mango lassi ($6 + $2). i found a stone bench in winthrop park to sit down and eat. i didn't realize it was also the parade terminal, as band members and people on stilts swarmed around me. just by chance i saw alisa with her friend yvonne (they were meeting me) and called them over. i hung out with them briefly before i excused myself to go home and catch the red sox game. i knew the patriots game was already in progress, and i watched a few minutes on the flat screen tv in the display window of cardullo's. a couple walked by, the guy catching a glimpse of the tv. "we're going home," he said, very matter-of-factly.

i was happy the patriots were winning and more so when they once again scored 30+ points. the red sox game was a little more tense, alleviated somewhat when ortiz and ramirez hit back-to-back homeruns for a 2-0 lead in the 4th inning. but the angels didn't go away, and kept threatening to score. it wasn't until the 8th inning that i knew the game was over, when the red sox put on a hit parade and scored 7 more runs. after the red sox beat the angels to advance, the yankees game came on, which i watched in passing, hoping that the cleveland indians could knock off new york. things looked good in the beginning, when the indians scored 3 runs, but the yankees started to mount an offensive and managed to take the lead by the 5th inning, going on to win the game and stave off elimination. whoever the red sox meet next friday, all i know is curt schilling deserves the 2nd starting slot over matsuzaka.

my family came over in the evening bringing with them meat buns for dinner. after they left, there was nothing more to do than to wait for the local sunday night sport shows later in the evening.