Oh Mother Nature, you’re such a tease!  You gave us two bright and beautiful days and today you get an “E” for effort as we had to endure yet another all-day rain.  Once again I relied on the meteorologists on several stations who predicted  a weekend chock full of sunshine with showers LATE Sunday afternoon.  But that was not to be.  I got up early, finished breakfast and a few chores, then I pulled on my sweats and laced up my shoes in anticipation of a long walk.  I had my garbage bags and myself out the door by 8:15 sharp.  Too bad I just set out and huge raindrops plopped down and never let up.  Hopefully, the horrible weather didn’t hinder  the annual March of Dimes “March for Babies” which was held in two locations in Michigan plus all across America.  The event was advertised all week on the radio – some seven million people walk in this worthwhile event annually.  It is held the last Sunday of April and the goal is to get sponsors to support your miles and completed walk.  More than a billion dollars has been collected to date.  Forty years ago I walked in “Walk America”, the same March of Dimes walking event which has since been renamed.  The event started and finished at Belle Isle.  I walked with a group of high school buddies and we completed all ten plus miles.  I think I had ten blisters to prove it since my shoes were not sufficiently “broken in” and I literally limped to the finish line.  Bob Seger was the celebrity functioning as the leader of the pack and our group chatted him up through the course of the walk.  We were all from Lincoln Park and he too had lived in Lincoln Park for awhile.  If you like your Seger songs, you’ll remember his old hit “Back in ‘72” with the line which is a tribute to our fair city:  “But we got homesick for Lincoln Park (imagine that) and then we just couldn’t stay” … he often played at the old Park Theatre in the early 70s.  I don’t think he finished up the walk but we did and for our efforts we each received a certificate entitled “Order of the Battered Boot” which featured a picture of an old boot with the several toes hanging out. Good times.  I Googled the 2013 event thinking perhaps I’d participate in it if the route was still in Wyandotte.  But the closest venue for me was Wayne State University.  So while my walk was a wash-out, hopefully the bad weather didn’t deter or put a damper on the walkers striding to finish their miles to bring in much-needed dollars for this worthy cause.