Happy Fourth. I hope you have big plans that involve a barbecue, but not chemical burns, being outdoors, but not sunburns, and good times, but not … too good a time?
The juxtaposition-for-dramatic-and-ironic-contrast device ran empty on me there, apologies.
Not much to our Fourth. The city didn’t host a fireworks show this year. Not sure why. It can’t be too pandemic related, though, since they returned to their parade tradition this morning. (Last year they had a reverse parade and people apparently drove their cars around parked floats. You do what you can.)
The next small town up the road is hosting fireworks, and there are a few large church displays. Someone at one of the lakes is doing fireworks. It’s out there if you want it, plus a parade. There’s also a neighborhood parade, and we rode our bikes through that route just after they concluded this morning. We rode very fast, but did not catch them. That would have been amusing.
Perhaps our neighbor, who has wowed us all with pyrotechnic displays that surely equal a mortgage payment the last two years, will hurl flaming sulfur and blackpowder into the sky this evening.
Let’s check in on the cats, who would be fine with fewer things exploding within earshot.
Phoebe was enjoying a late afternoon in the sun on the dining room table that she is not supposed to be on.
But she’s so cute, and she doesn’t care about your rules, so what are you going to do?
You get her back by putting a taco toy on her head. That’s what you do.
Poseidon was playing … under … the tunnel?
At least he wasn’t on something he’s not supposed to be on. For a change. (Alert the media!)
And alert them because he’s ready for his closeup.
I mentioned we saw a rock ‘n’ roll show on Friday night. I’m going to stretch this out all week, so settle in. Here are a few clips from Toad the Wet Sprocket.
“All I Want” is a song about the fleeting feeling of epiphany. It comes and it goes, but when it goes, it goes very quickly. Yes, it’s a nostalgia-adjacent song that’s sang nostalgically. Peak Gen X irony, I’ll grant you.
A few years later, this song was released. And, pretty quickly Toad the Wet Sprocket found themselves at that point where they say “This song is a hit! … but it’s just not as big as your last one.”
I wonder, if they had any sense they’d be doing this 30-plus years later, if they would have stayed away from the Monty Python reference.
Tomorrow, I’ll share a Gin Blossoms clip, because Friday night had a distinct mid-90s feel to it.
We were also in Nashville for part of the weekend. Our friends Sally Ann and Spencer finally held their wedding reception. (They did a private wedding during peak Covid and Saturday they finally brought all of their people together. They had a party worth waiting for. We all got dressed up and had a fine time. Because we were in Nashville, I had barbecue for lunch Saturday and Sunday. Because we were returning to Bloomington, we brought enough barbecue back for two dinners.
We had one of those dinners tonight.
Most importantly, our friends had a lovely time, and they deserved it. It was nice to be a small part of their festivities. They hired a photographer for the evening, and I didn’t even pull my phone out of my pocket for any pictures. You don’t have to take my word for it, though.
We looked very sophisticated.
Our neighbor did not set off fireworks. It was a quiet Fourth, and that’s just fine, too.
