Cool!

It's been crazy-busy around here, with no signs of slowing down!  It's just going to be awhile before I'll be visiting blogs, commenting, etc.  I sure miss bloggy land, but it's summer....  During the summer, I try to live every minute I can outside.  The rest of the year is pretty dreary.

Since most of the nation is basking in heat, here's a photo I took a couple of weeks ago on a trip I took to the mountains.  Hopefully it will help you feel coooooool. :-)

Early Curmudgeons?

So here I am, in my office at my keyboard.  It’s the evening of July 4th, and fireworks are going off everywhere.  I’m just not into it.  What is it about July 4^th that makes people say, “Yeah!  We’re ‘murrican!  Let’s get drunk and blow stuff up!”  Now, don’t get me wrong:  I occasionally like to see things get blown up, set on fire, or otherwise destroyed.  Say, watermelons or something.  But when it comes to Independence Day, it seems like common sense goes out the window.  So many people seem to use what is supposed to be a day of celebration as an excuse to behave poorly.

When I was a kid, July 4th was a lot of fun.  We got to play with sparklers and wave them around.  If we were really feeling naughty/clever, we could “write” bad words in the air with the sparkler.  We were also allowed to play with the “snakes” (little black tablets that, when lit, made moving tubes of ash).  When we got older, we were even allowed to light my favorite, ground bloom flowers (little spinning “flowers” of multicolored sparks).  An annual highlight was watching Mom or Dad light the carefully-chosen fountains.  It never seemed like enough; we would have been happy to watch the fireworks for hours.

Now, we live near a Native American reservation.  Reservations around here are known for selling illegal fireworks.  We’re not just talking about ½ sticks of dynamite, we’re talking about fireworks that launch into the air, making huge displays.  The fireworks that can be seen from any window in our house rivals professional shows.  Yes, there are that many of that quality.  It is what I imagine a war zone to be like, sans the combat, etc. (recurring, house-shaking explosions).   This is a fantastic, fun thing, right?  Well, if you enjoy them….

Maybe I’m becoming a curmudgeon before my time.  All day, I kept thinking about how I would get very little sleep due to the constant explosions, get up early to go to work and come home to a yard filled with other people’s fireworks debris.  Well, at least I’m not alone.  DH just came into my office and said, “I don’t really want to watch the fireworks.  Maybe I’m turning into a grump”.  Well, dear, then we’ll both turn into grumps together!

Here's a quick clip I took through my office window: