The Fourth

Happy Fourth of July!  Tonight's fireworks displays did not disappoint.  So many people here in the neighborhood invest so much in these fireworks, and the skies were mostly clear tonight for a fantastic show of patriotism, with colorful explosions filling the horizon no matter where you look.  We were surrounded by blasts of light, the thunderous sounds popping and booming perpetually.  Our neighborhood sounded like a war zone.  

Maddie looks on at the rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air.

Our neighbors across the street always do a fireworks show for the surrounding houses, and it always dazzles.  Maddie made sure she was there for that one, with Mom and I watching on as well.  We were directly underneath these colorful explosions, the debris sounding like a rain shower as it hit the leaves on trees above us.  We cheered at each one, and then when it was over, we went over to the main strip of the neighborhood, where there was the usual spectacular show.

A rival display was just down the street though from that though, these huge fireworks bursting all around us with such enormity that people from all over just sat there in the grass of their lawns or along the sidewalk, large grins pasted on their faces, and the occasional scream from below:  "'Merica!"

Look at the little heart-shaped cloud puff in the middle!

It was a loud night.  Even at midnight, you could hear the eruptions booming off in the distance.  We watched an episode or two of "Suite Life of Zack and Cody," and then finished a romantic short story of a girl forced to work at Jabba's Palace and secretly longing to be with her roguish man who gets involved in intergalactic races.  We said our prayers after that, and got to sleep as the booms still went off in various places over the countryside.

The earlier part of the day was relaxing, a day off of sorts.  Regardless, I still wrote this skit for the weekend, as the show must go on.  Sunday we're revisiting some characters from "Inside Out," and that should be fun, when combined with our "Castaway Cove" theme.  The genesis of this all was the fact that our church is starting its "At the Movies" theme a weekend early.  We wanted to get some characters up there, and the recent movie has been so successful that we thought this would be fun.  And hey while we're at it, why not make it a skit too?

I did some walking this morning, and we ate a little early on, including some patriotic Cheerios that I found at the grocery store this weekend.  We were listening to our usual array of patriotic music, including some new vinyl records, or rather old ones that I found this year, each playing some classic American tunes. We also had the Voices of Liberty playing as always, plus the Phil Driscoll patriotic music that I like to pop in this year. 

At four, we went over to Ye-Ye and Nana's house, bringing food with us too.  Aunt Shain brought a lot of food there, the theme being "things on a stick."  There were a lot of kebobs, plus watermelon on a stick, and cake pops... on a stick.  I got some red, white and blue ice cream, and we had a nice few hours there talking about Ye-Ye and Nana's recent trip to Montana, plus Aunt Shain's visit to Enterprise, Alabama, home of the Boll Weevil Monument.  I've been there a long time ago, but based on her pictures of other boll weevil monuments and statues in the area, it seems as if the town has really embraced the boll weevil thing.  Which is delightfully weird!

Anyway, we left there as it was getting dark, and it was time to be back at home where it was safe.  We played some "Tropical Freeze" for a bit, but Maddie was anxious to not miss those fireworks from our neighbors across the street.  It's a tradition, one that she's enjoyed for a long time now.  

It's been a good day.  Happy Fourth of July!