Doing a new thing this year. Rather than visit the brother in law and his family, we are driving about an hour away to visit my wife's best friend and her husband. The kids are going to see a giant city firework display and the adults will chit-chat I suppose.

So what is everyone doing?

I'll be working. In fact, I'll be working a lot more than I usually do.

That's my typical pattern for holidays, since most normal people would rather have the time off. During holidays, I normally work my regular job, then fill in at another place.

My schedule will be:

Saturday, July 1: 6 pm to 8 am
Sunday, July 2: 6 pm to 8 am
Monday, July 3: 8 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, July 4: 8 am to 5 pm

As you can see, I will actually be working from 6 pm Sunday night to 5 pm Monday night.

In the effort to remain physically fit, I will be doing 12 ounce curls most of the day with frequent short walks.

I am taking my children to see the Chugiak Parade, a small town parade that my Dad is the grandmarshal of- him being a retired Command Sergaent Major and a vet of the korean and vietnam wars- so, we will have four generations deep of vets for a family bar be que at my ma's!

Good times!

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm sure I won't remember it the next day.

hahahahaha.... Amen. I think I'm going to endulge in Home Depot's bbq sale here in Dallas and grab the grill that I've been drooling over for about year and a half... have some folks over and bother the neighbors. BTW- if y'all are interested the Depot has grills on sale and will give you free assembly and propane if you pick one up before 7/5.

July 4 has never been quite as exciting for me as other holidays. Teachers are off a couple of months in the summer, and July 4 was in the middle of extended down time. so, it didn't seem like a holiday. Now that I'm retired, holidays in general don't have as much meaning. Being retired is like a permanent vacation, so holidays are much like other days.

The coffee shop I frequent is closed tomorrow, so I'll have to go somewhere else. The friends I argue politics with won't be around. So, I can raed the paper and sip coffee.

I have a mother and daughter who clean my abode once or twice a month. Over six years, they have become friends in every sense of the word. We help each other out of binds and they are the only two people I exchange birthday and Christmas presents with. They also have a key, so they can get in and clean and if I am there, they merely move me from room to room so I'm not in the way.

The mother is sick, so the daughter is coming Wednesday afternoon, I want to have the laundry done and the books and CDs put up before she comes.

That's how I'll spend tomorrow. Cleaning before the cleaner arrives. Exciting, huh?

I'm going to read the Declaration of Independence, (while it's still legal to do so).

So what is everyone doing?

I purchased a used computer on eBay for a couple hundred bucks. It has been an interesting experience. I got some diagnostics from Microsoft that I was having memory problems. I just replaced the RAM with some memory chips that I purchased on eBay, and it passed the diagnostics...after the second attempt to install them. So, for the moment, I am trying to run several programs at once, and test whether it will break down as it has routinely in the past, or whether I have solved my problem.

For the actual Fourth, our daughter is away at summer camp, and some friends have invited us to drive upstate and see the fireworks where they used to live. We have to supply the Diet Coke. The bottles which were 76 cents a couple days ago are $1.28 today. Gas is close to $3.00 per gallon. We're grousing about prices... (And blaming them on Bush of course.)

Got an ad today for a bumper sticker, a red, white, and blue elephant with the message "Grand Oil Party." I bit and ordered one...

It is close to midnight, and someone is setting off firecrackers.

Well, we watched my town's big fireworks show. We then went home and had some fun with the sparklers, which my older boy loved, but younger one wasn't quite sure of.

As is customary, I'm wearing a black armband today - and will probably be doing a bit of weeping. Otherwise, I no longer feel that Independence Day is even worth observing, never mind celebrating. Celebrate what, for God's sake? That we now live under a corporate-owned autocracy fighting illegal wars for profit and pandering to a deranged minority of Christian heretics? That every founding ideal of this country has been irreparably bastardized, if not destroyed outright? Hip, hip, hooray.

Were Dick Cheney and a few others publicly executed for treason, I would happily - joyfully - set off a few fireworks. Until such time, I will remain in mourning for the United States of America.

I've always thought we should have a Leon Czolgoz day.

Mike and I spent the evening as guests aboard the Coast Guard's TARPON. We had the best seats in Savannah for the fireworks. Thanks to the Tybee Island USCG for having us.