car races, band concerts, and parks

Today I learned that last year, the San Jose Grand Prix track, which runs right through downtown San Jose and practically across some people's front lawns, wasn't wide enough to let any cars pass each other, so it was essentially a high-speed parade. The article I read said that a lot of downtown once-a-year tracks don't allow passing, and that people just go for the party atmosphere. Anyway, this year there were a couple scary places to pass, and I'd tell you something interesting about that, but I don't pay much attention to car racing.

So instead of attending what I'm sure was an exciting day of car racing, today I went to a well-attended band concert in the park. In order to be upwind of the crowd, I ended up at the opposite end of the park from the band, but it wasn't a very big park, so I could still hear. Besides getting to hear a medley of ten different old sitcom themes, there were all kinds of dogs and kids to watch. It was kind of fun, and yes, I know a band member. After the concert he said, "We didn't have any train wrecks!"

In other park-related news, the park near my parents' house has rubber sidewalks in the play areas. Instead of looking like granite or whatever like the ones in DC, you can see little chunks of rubber in them, and when the sun shines on them, they stink. I had to stand in the mulch. Also, the new play structures in the parks around here (they look a lot like this) have a lot of plastic in them, and it's not the good kind of plastic. "Auntie Christmas" (that's me, don't ask, and isn't that the cutest thing you ever heard?) had to climb down like an old lady instead of going down the slide like Patrick did.