I'm hiding. Will be doing lots of ceremony up in the mountain to pray for our beleagured Land of the Free and the Brave......... Hope you all have a restorative and inspirational celebration!
Happy 4th of July to my JIP gang from the beach at Lake Erie! The little neighborhood where our lake house is will hold a bike parade where the kids decorate their bikes in red, white, and blue. They all line up at the park by the beach, the national anthem is played and then they ride up and down the streets. Later, the beach will be full of families and friends gathering to celebrate. No doubt a few bald eagles will fly over- so majestic! Then cook-outs and fireworks! 🇺🇸🦅🏖️God Bless the USA!
Let’s take this time to remember they didn’t name this Independence day for no reason. We are all calling ourselves Americans because we wanted to be independent from an authoritarian regime that thought they owned us.
Brooklyn has been pretty quiet. Usually fireworks begin the week before the Fourth; but last night was the first time this year I've heard them here in Flatbush: a bomb on our block a bit before midnight, and another at 1:30 AM, which confirms my suspicion that these local fireworks aren't patriotism but targeted aggression.
Some sources said there'd be a tall ships parade yesterday or today, but I'm resigned to realizing that that spectacle will be next year. There are few things more beautiful than barques and schooners. And when they're sailing beneath the Verrazano Bridge into New York Harbor by the hundreds, it's a real sight.
So happy Fourth, wherever you are. No matter what or who, we're a fortunate country.
When I was a teenager a Mexican navy ship made a call at the port of Corpus Christi, my hometown. All the kids mocked the very idea, as the Mexican War literally began on the Nueces River right outside my city, as the Mexicans claimed that was the border while we claimed the Rio Grande. The Mexicans seemed to forget the thorough ass kicking of the Texas Revolution and stupidly doubled down. You know the rest.
Sorry to hear you are getting the illegal stuff this year. We've had it for years day and nite for about two weeks and it's truly awful. I keep telling myself at least it's not real bombs, but the body reacts as tho it is which is why I hid up the mountain last nite and will tonite and tomorrow nite. There will be tons of people and traffic up there, but at least I'll be able to sleep when they all head home ( to set off more bombs)!
(Here in New York City, anything that's not Macy's or Coney Island or some scheduled licensed shindig is "illegal," but that's never stopped anyone, least of all locals on the loose.)
I went to the Nathan’s famous hot dog contest one Fourth which inspired my one act play Live Ate about a competitive eating match in front of a starving African, which won the Critic’s Choice Award at the Houston Fringe Festival. The Houston Chronicle gave me a write up, linked at my website www.poetken.com
Unappreciated firework explosions just reminded me of something:
Fifty years ago, not long before I met my husband, he was the assistant manager of a drive-in movie theater. It had those long, concrete-floor restrooms, with a row of stalls/urinals on one side, and sinks on the other, a door at each end.
It was a really slow night and Lenny had a left-over cherry bomb. He got the idea that it might be really funny to light it and roll it in to the men’s room while his boss, Pete, was in there - alone. He thought the firecracker would roll a couple of feet and stop. After the toss, he ran to the other side and waited to laugh at Pete when he came roaring out.
Unfortunately for Pete, the concrete floor was so uneven, the little cannon ball kept rolling - stopping immediately beneath the toilet he was using at the time. The toilet and floor received very minor damage, but Pete’s ego was shattered.
Fortunately, he recovered in time to serve as Lenny’s best man at our wedding three years later.
Oh my. Sounds like maybe Pete was actually quite lucky. That reminds me of the year my step mother's mother found some old black cat firecrackers when cleaning out the basement and thought it would be fun to see if they still worked. She blew off one of her middle fingers and had a stump there from that point on.
It's just me and my lovely here in the middle of Georgia today. Our daughter flew off to Houston to visit a long-time friend, and our granddaughter is in Yuma, Arizona, with her dad till next weekend. We haven't received any invites, so it will be beer brats on the smoker, homemade potato salad, and baked beans sometime this afternoon. To quote a deceased songwriter, "The beer I had for breakfast was so good, I had another for dessert." (Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Morning Coming Down).
Then, much to my lovely's dismay, I'll set off some fireworks on the driveway. One of the biggest surprises after moving to Middle Georgia in 2023 was the ubiquity of fireworks sales. Supermarkets, Walmart, and almost every parking lot, at least has a fireworks stand. In fact, they don't really need a reason to set them off! You can buy them all year long! Such a change from frumpy SoCal, and I'm LOVING it!
Greetings Robert from North Georgia. Welcome to this great state. Spending a quiet day with my wife seems like a great way to celebrate our many blessings.
Love that song! Tell your daughter to try El Tiempo Cantina in Houston. It’s my favorite of the many fine Mexican restaurants in Houston, owned by the Laurenzo family, whose matriarch was Mama Ninfa. I’m good friends with her son Gino. She won’t regret it. The specialty is grilled meats of all kinds, fajitas, chicken, quail, served on a metal brazier with all the usual sides.
Happy 4th everyone. This is my 1st 4th of July in this neighborhood. Don’t know what to expect. It will be wet and rainy but clearing later in the day. So I expect me and my pup will have a quiet day. Grateful for the USA. 🇺🇸
All great but the little dog on the 5th is so cool.
Interestingly, this year did not have the lead up of the explosions and firecrackers and swooshes for the week leading up to today. It’s been great.
We did have a mini derecho or microburst in our yard two evenings ago. A 60 ft blue spruce got uprooted and while thankfully it fell into the yard and not the fence, it did take out half ish of the 40 ft ash. And then on the other side, the 10 feet of the pine that lost its top about 15 years ago lost its top again. So much noise yesterday with chain saws and grinders.
Happy Independence Day from western Massachusetts! We’re set to have a perfect summer day, low humidity, temps in 70s. Daughter coming home. Brisket on the smoker, enough beer to tend it all day. 🙂 Life is good.
When I think it's a stretch to funnify a thing, I invariably hit the most coffee-out-the-nosers. Well done.
So I got up this morning and replaced the kinda tired Old Glory on the 20 ft pole in front of my house and swapped in the Commodore Perry Don't Give Up The Ship for the Appeal To Heaven. (Which had been heard!) God bless you and all of good will. Without reservation.
Happy 4th , everyone! As the late, great Sly Stone used to famously say, “BOOM, Shaka-laka-laka, BOOM!”
I'm hiding. Will be doing lots of ceremony up in the mountain to pray for our beleagured Land of the Free and the Brave......... Hope you all have a restorative and inspirational celebration!
May your prayers be answered!
Happy 4th of July wishes to all those JiP folks here and abroad.
So far we’ve been able to ‘keep our Republic’ through enemies foreign and domestic.
Here’s cheers for 249 years of holding it together, sometimes with bailing wire and duct tape, but holding it together nonetheless.
We may not have become exactly what the Founding Fathers had envisioned, but their genius is still evident today.
Sometimes I feel my entire life is held together with bailing wire and duct tape!
Never underestimate the power of duct tape!
Or Windex!
For sure!
They raised a smile. But honestly the US Ambassador gives a huge party at the US Embassy to celebrate. Any excuse for a party...
I do think 250th fever will come to the US as a bicentennial fever took hold.
One can hope!
I think it will reveal clearly who loves our country and who does not.
Happy 4th of July to my JIP gang from the beach at Lake Erie! The little neighborhood where our lake house is will hold a bike parade where the kids decorate their bikes in red, white, and blue. They all line up at the park by the beach, the national anthem is played and then they ride up and down the streets. Later, the beach will be full of families and friends gathering to celebrate. No doubt a few bald eagles will fly over- so majestic! Then cook-outs and fireworks! 🇺🇸🦅🏖️God Bless the USA!
Our congregation always has a pancake breakfast at a park on the 4th. I didn't expect to be up to going this morning, but I was. It was awesome!
Let’s take this time to remember they didn’t name this Independence day for no reason. We are all calling ourselves Americans because we wanted to be independent from an authoritarian regime that thought they owned us.
Use the duct tape but let’s keep it together!
Happy Independence Day from North Carolina everyone!
Oh....and remember to remind your family and friends that -
You don't hate the media enough.....you think you do, but you don't.
💯
Brooklyn has been pretty quiet. Usually fireworks begin the week before the Fourth; but last night was the first time this year I've heard them here in Flatbush: a bomb on our block a bit before midnight, and another at 1:30 AM, which confirms my suspicion that these local fireworks aren't patriotism but targeted aggression.
Some sources said there'd be a tall ships parade yesterday or today, but I'm resigned to realizing that that spectacle will be next year. There are few things more beautiful than barques and schooners. And when they're sailing beneath the Verrazano Bridge into New York Harbor by the hundreds, it's a real sight.
So happy Fourth, wherever you are. No matter what or who, we're a fortunate country.
Just keep the Mexican Navy from sailing in ...
They're scheduled to make a comeback, I'm glad to say, but -- fingers crossed -- with their transmission fixed.
How that ship accelerated backwards despite a harbor pilot's guidance and a tug is anyone's guess, at least for now.
"How that ship accelerated backwards despite a harbor pilot's guidance...."
In reverse? Perhaps it was the French Navy in retreat?
When I was a teenager a Mexican navy ship made a call at the port of Corpus Christi, my hometown. All the kids mocked the very idea, as the Mexican War literally began on the Nueces River right outside my city, as the Mexicans claimed that was the border while we claimed the Rio Grande. The Mexicans seemed to forget the thorough ass kicking of the Texas Revolution and stupidly doubled down. You know the rest.
Sorry to hear you are getting the illegal stuff this year. We've had it for years day and nite for about two weeks and it's truly awful. I keep telling myself at least it's not real bombs, but the body reacts as tho it is which is why I hid up the mountain last nite and will tonite and tomorrow nite. There will be tons of people and traffic up there, but at least I'll be able to sleep when they all head home ( to set off more bombs)!
"Hid up in the mountain"!
Wowee! Sounds serious.
(Here in New York City, anything that's not Macy's or Coney Island or some scheduled licensed shindig is "illegal," but that's never stopped anyone, least of all locals on the loose.)
I went to the Nathan’s famous hot dog contest one Fourth which inspired my one act play Live Ate about a competitive eating match in front of a starving African, which won the Critic’s Choice Award at the Houston Fringe Festival. The Houston Chronicle gave me a write up, linked at my website www.poetken.com
Unappreciated firework explosions just reminded me of something:
Fifty years ago, not long before I met my husband, he was the assistant manager of a drive-in movie theater. It had those long, concrete-floor restrooms, with a row of stalls/urinals on one side, and sinks on the other, a door at each end.
It was a really slow night and Lenny had a left-over cherry bomb. He got the idea that it might be really funny to light it and roll it in to the men’s room while his boss, Pete, was in there - alone. He thought the firecracker would roll a couple of feet and stop. After the toss, he ran to the other side and waited to laugh at Pete when he came roaring out.
Unfortunately for Pete, the concrete floor was so uneven, the little cannon ball kept rolling - stopping immediately beneath the toilet he was using at the time. The toilet and floor received very minor damage, but Pete’s ego was shattered.
Fortunately, he recovered in time to serve as Lenny’s best man at our wedding three years later.
Oh my. Sounds like maybe Pete was actually quite lucky. That reminds me of the year my step mother's mother found some old black cat firecrackers when cleaning out the basement and thought it would be fun to see if they still worked. She blew off one of her middle fingers and had a stump there from that point on.
I never met an adult male who had all his fingers until I was out of high school. It was just part of life.
Women usually, but not always, exercised more caution.
RMW there’s a fireworks stand literally at the entrance to the county road I live on. No relief today or New Years Eve for me
It's just me and my lovely here in the middle of Georgia today. Our daughter flew off to Houston to visit a long-time friend, and our granddaughter is in Yuma, Arizona, with her dad till next weekend. We haven't received any invites, so it will be beer brats on the smoker, homemade potato salad, and baked beans sometime this afternoon. To quote a deceased songwriter, "The beer I had for breakfast was so good, I had another for dessert." (Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Morning Coming Down).
Then, much to my lovely's dismay, I'll set off some fireworks on the driveway. One of the biggest surprises after moving to Middle Georgia in 2023 was the ubiquity of fireworks sales. Supermarkets, Walmart, and almost every parking lot, at least has a fireworks stand. In fact, they don't really need a reason to set them off! You can buy them all year long! Such a change from frumpy SoCal, and I'm LOVING it!
Greetings Robert from North Georgia. Welcome to this great state. Spending a quiet day with my wife seems like a great way to celebrate our many blessings.
I am surprised by the lack of American flags! I have only seen a few around town, and in a miltary town like Warner Robins, it just seems odd.
Love that song! Tell your daughter to try El Tiempo Cantina in Houston. It’s my favorite of the many fine Mexican restaurants in Houston, owned by the Laurenzo family, whose matriarch was Mama Ninfa. I’m good friends with her son Gino. She won’t regret it. The specialty is grilled meats of all kinds, fajitas, chicken, quail, served on a metal brazier with all the usual sides.
On that song, I absolutely HATE the Jonny Cash version, complete with orchestral accompaniment! It is so unlike Kristofferson's style.
Happy 4th everyone. This is my 1st 4th of July in this neighborhood. Don’t know what to expect. It will be wet and rainy but clearing later in the day. So I expect me and my pup will have a quiet day. Grateful for the USA. 🇺🇸
All great but the little dog on the 5th is so cool.
Interestingly, this year did not have the lead up of the explosions and firecrackers and swooshes for the week leading up to today. It’s been great.
We did have a mini derecho or microburst in our yard two evenings ago. A 60 ft blue spruce got uprooted and while thankfully it fell into the yard and not the fence, it did take out half ish of the 40 ft ash. And then on the other side, the 10 feet of the pine that lost its top about 15 years ago lost its top again. So much noise yesterday with chain saws and grinders.
Happy Independence Day all! 🇺🇸🎉🚨🎇
Sounds like some firewood just showed up!
Yes, but I need someone to show up to split it!
Uh, let me check my schedule… nah, looks like I’m busy for the foreseeable future. :) 20 years of splitting firewood was enough for me.
Yikes!
Happy 4th of July to all the JIP community !
Smiles here, Celia. Thanks!
The cat one! Definitely, the cat one!!!
Happy 4th everyone and a happy 249th birthday to our great nation 🇺🇸🎆🎇
Happy Independence Day from western Massachusetts! We’re set to have a perfect summer day, low humidity, temps in 70s. Daughter coming home. Brisket on the smoker, enough beer to tend it all day. 🙂 Life is good.
Cheers!
When I think it's a stretch to funnify a thing, I invariably hit the most coffee-out-the-nosers. Well done.
So I got up this morning and replaced the kinda tired Old Glory on the 20 ft pole in front of my house and swapped in the Commodore Perry Don't Give Up The Ship for the Appeal To Heaven. (Which had been heard!) God bless you and all of good will. Without reservation.