Happy 4th
Our 4th or July started with a 10k race over in Junction city. It was hot, muggy, sunny, unpleasant, and everything else you'd fear from a July race. Julie has run it for the past 3 years and it was always kinda nice. I joined in this year and it was yucky. Bleh. Everybody finished. I ran 5 at an easy pace this morning and I think it was faster than the race. Enough said.
After the run, we recuperated and headed over to my sister's place for 4th festivities and the first birthday party for my niece, Laura. Pam (sister) let me operate the bar-b-que and I got to use a really big spatula.
Okay, so this spatula had the word "meteor" printed down the handle. How are they going to go with "meteor" and not "meateor" or some other painful pun? I mean, it's a spatula. Spatula's are silly anyway. It's totally valid pun territory!
I also provided "adult" supervision for 5 kids that were trying to learn how to blow themselves up. e.g.
boy A: (Lights and throws a firecracker.)
niece A: (shocked) You're not supposed to do that! You have to set it down!!! Dad says... -- I don't know what she said after this, I stopped listening a threw a firecracker.
boy A: (Gestures at me.) Well he does it!
me: *giggles*
It's all a matter of knowing what to be afraid of though. I mean, you can throw firecrackers. These things all had those cannon fuses anyway, there weren't even gonna skip. Now, a bit later, one of them picked up a burning smoke bomb. I've seen a couple of those fail with a fiery explosion, so I put a stop to that. Punk safety was a problem too, I saw a couple eyeball burns *almost* happen...yikes. Speaking of which, everybody always gives the little exploding firecrackers so much respect. I've never seen anyone seriously injured by one. I've seen fear and burns, but no real problems.
Sparklers on the other hand, that's a different story. Everybody always talks about sparklers like they're kid-safe. I could freakin' weld with a sparkler. They cast off fragments hot enough to ignite anything nearby and 5 year-olds are supposed to run around waving them (much like scissors). Yes, I have sparkler fear.
After we left my sister's place, we headed home for a bit of our own fun. See illustration:
After a spot of wine and some night works, we headed up the ladder to check out the city and surrounding neighborhood. Our neighborhood rocks by the way. It's a total war zone on the fourth. People shoot things off around here for about a week. Which used to be a bit inconvenient back when the dog would freak out for a day after hearing one firecracker, but she's been doing much better this year. That means I can sit back and enjoy the symphony :)
(My heater's exhaust pipe was kind enough to take a picture of us on the roof.)
Here's a pretty blue one from the city.
And, a nice smoky red one:
I think next year I'll probably try to get the team to head over to the park. Most of the show is just under the tree line from our roof, and well, closer-louder-better, right? Heading up to the roof is still super fun though because you get 360 degrees of night works with all the neighbors contributing.
Happy 4th of July! Go USA!
PS: I almost forgot. I installed the 32-bit of Windows 7 and it's nice again. It's just the 64-bit version that's like running Linux. So, for your next computer, don't get more than 3 GB RAM, then use 32-bit Windows 7. It's odd though, my 64-bit Vista machine at work does just fine - probably time will work wonders on it.
After the run, we recuperated and headed over to my sister's place for 4th festivities and the first birthday party for my niece, Laura. Pam (sister) let me operate the bar-b-que and I got to use a really big spatula.
Okay, so this spatula had the word "meteor" printed down the handle. How are they going to go with "meteor" and not "meateor" or some other painful pun? I mean, it's a spatula. Spatula's are silly anyway. It's totally valid pun territory!
I also provided "adult" supervision for 5 kids that were trying to learn how to blow themselves up. e.g.
boy A: (Lights and throws a firecracker.)
niece A: (shocked) You're not supposed to do that! You have to set it down!!! Dad says... -- I don't know what she said after this, I stopped listening a threw a firecracker.
boy A: (Gestures at me.) Well he does it!
me: *giggles*
It's all a matter of knowing what to be afraid of though. I mean, you can throw firecrackers. These things all had those cannon fuses anyway, there weren't even gonna skip. Now, a bit later, one of them picked up a burning smoke bomb. I've seen a couple of those fail with a fiery explosion, so I put a stop to that. Punk safety was a problem too, I saw a couple eyeball burns *almost* happen...yikes. Speaking of which, everybody always gives the little exploding firecrackers so much respect. I've never seen anyone seriously injured by one. I've seen fear and burns, but no real problems.
Sparklers on the other hand, that's a different story. Everybody always talks about sparklers like they're kid-safe. I could freakin' weld with a sparkler. They cast off fragments hot enough to ignite anything nearby and 5 year-olds are supposed to run around waving them (much like scissors). Yes, I have sparkler fear.
After we left my sister's place, we headed home for a bit of our own fun. See illustration:
After a spot of wine and some night works, we headed up the ladder to check out the city and surrounding neighborhood. Our neighborhood rocks by the way. It's a total war zone on the fourth. People shoot things off around here for about a week. Which used to be a bit inconvenient back when the dog would freak out for a day after hearing one firecracker, but she's been doing much better this year. That means I can sit back and enjoy the symphony :)
(My heater's exhaust pipe was kind enough to take a picture of us on the roof.)
Here's a pretty blue one from the city.
And, a nice smoky red one:
I think next year I'll probably try to get the team to head over to the park. Most of the show is just under the tree line from our roof, and well, closer-louder-better, right? Heading up to the roof is still super fun though because you get 360 degrees of night works with all the neighbors contributing.
Happy 4th of July! Go USA!
PS: I almost forgot. I installed the 32-bit of Windows 7 and it's nice again. It's just the 64-bit version that's like running Linux. So, for your next computer, don't get more than 3 GB RAM, then use 32-bit Windows 7. It's odd though, my 64-bit Vista machine at work does just fine - probably time will work wonders on it.
Comments
Boo for hot Firecracker Day weather for racing!! I agree today's weather (on the 5th) was tolerable, but not yesterday's. When it is hot, cold watermelon and ice cream go better with Firecracker Day than racing. But congratulations on finshing in the heat!!