Since I gave up beer for Lent, I stayed away from Five Points today. That would have been a wee bit too much temptation.

But I’ll bet they had a good crowd. This was the first sunny day they’d had since 2007 — and it was a lot warmer than that day.

Still, I’ll bet the people there today didn’t have as much fun as my brother-in-law did on actual St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2007.

My son got married that night, so it was a big day all around. We had quite a few relatives visiting, of course. Cooper — that’s my brother-in-law, Patrick Cooper Phelan — and I had run some errands in the morning (I had to pick up a tux), while another brother-in-law, Steve, took his young sons to the parade. As Steve and the boys were leaving, Cooper and I arrived at Five Points and took over for them.

We weren’t there for the parade. Anyway, we had an AWESOME time, every bit as good as the time Frank the Tank had in “Old School” except without the streaking. It was a bit cold for that. Afterwards I had multiple cups of coffee, then we were right as rain in plenty of time for the wedding that night at the botanical gardens, where we had another awesome time…

A great day all around. I’m still resting up from it.