Getting Ready for La Merce
Everything is almost ready for the big event. All over town everyone is practicing their Merce stuff. Below are two examples, a band with a smoking tuba player (not to say that the tuba player is really great, but rather, that he chain smoked whenever he wasn't playing), and a Spanish ukelele guy.

In the interest of ensuring that I'll be able to do my 5-day bike ride next week, I chose not to attend the falconry practice, the running-through-fire practice or the human tower practice.