Holiday Weekend

Happy 4^th of JULY plus one, we spent a quiet Fourth just hang round the house. Actually I spent sometime in the shop working on my on my sticks which was just perfect but hot. I was going to BBQ but the day was just too hot. Dianne and I did spend time in the morning in the yard figuring out the sprinkler system which Dianne did. My contribution was letting her know when the “sprinks” came on which they did. We had to do the walk around and unearth the sprinklers which had been grown over but we got the task accomplished. So instead of BBQing I got a couple of pounds of hamburger from the freezer and decided to make sloppy joes only to find I had not tomato sauce in the house! I could not believe I had let my essential ingredient for so many of the dishes I create be come depleted. Luckily, we did find a couple of cans of diced tomatoes—which will work but takes much more time and patience. I had pieces of peppers and onion which I diced and through in the thawing and frying meat and then I set the combination to “low” and a couple of hours we had dinner—not as tomatoey as I would have like but not bad.

Last year the neighbor on the corner cut down a huge, beautiful tree, for whatever reson I never found out, but what I discovered with the tree gone I can sit on my porch and watch our fair city’s fireworks. True, watching the display a mile or so away is not as impressive or enjoyable then being directly under launch site but much easier then having to deal with getting to the park and having to wait with everyone else for the evening to get dark enough to launch.; Then worst of all, having to deal with thousands of people trying to leave the park at the same time. The trade off of being home watching the display on your porch is worth not being at the launch site. Plus there is the excite of all the neighbors launching their own fire works. The family who lives across the street has kids who have finally evolved to teenagers, three of them and their friends and what must have been over $100.00 “ safe and sane” fireworks was entertaining, as they all tried to blow themselves up as best one can with sparklers, whistling petes, tanks and what ever cones and smoke bombs they can throw and kick at each other. Then there was neighbors further down the street who must have gone to Evanston for “illegalls” fireworks with a punch! Those which launch, explode and maim but which are exsciting and fun. We still have a drawer full of bottle rockets and Black cats which we never finishing exploding last year when the seniors, next door, starting to threaten local law enforcement if we did not cease and desist. The local news has been reporting all week of new fines and penalties for people caught with illegal fire works up to $1000.00 and six months. I decided against it. Maybe in two weeks when the 24^th of July is celebrated. We have a bunch.