Time to kick back and enjoy freedom...so we slept late and then had lunch for breakfast.

LOL. I mean it: James made me a grilled cheese sandwich. I didn't have my oatmeal till late afternoon. We messed around on the computer, James rolled our boneless pork ribs over (they were marinating in soyaki sauce from Trader Joe's), and then a little after noon I put 1776 on. This time I amused myself, along with watching the story, with watching the reactions of the other actors to the ones speaking.

And of course James and I always hook fingers during "Yours, Yours, Yours, Yours." :-) Sentimental cusses we.

The hour after the movie ended seemed to fly, and then it was hustle, hustle, hustle to wash faces, get dressed, and pack up the brownie bites, key lime pie, and the pork ribs to go to Alice and Ken's house. The grill was already fired up and the guys were outside around it when we arrived, so James and the ribs remained outside while I went inside and placed the desserts on the table.

We had a great time. Juanita and Jessie, Juanita's mom and Ken's parents and sister and brother-in-law were there, and Aubrey's friend Isabel, Mel and Phyllis, John and Betty (with news of their new dog, a stray they found in a parking lot), and some neighbors of theirs who I wasn't familiar with. The pork ribs came out tender and juicy. We chatted and the girls goofed off, and we told stories about our pets. Poor Juanita had a terrible sunburn, though.

We left just as it was starting to get dark, came home, James took Willow out, and then we shot off our fireworks. James had bought a great deal of rockets, but they were almost more trouble than they were worth: some color and sparkly tails, but not a lot of boom for the buck. And you had to go chasing the little wooden tails not to leave trash behind. The Roman candles were great, and so were the fountains, and even these little things that spun around like tiny flying saucers and turning different colors. And then I had my sparklers.

Because we bought $40 worth of fireworks, we got a "finale" firework that looked like a big cereal bowl. James debated whether to set it off, so I surveyed the street for the rocket sticks and he used the hose to soak the other fireworks down.

And then he set it off. There were two godawful reports and then we had fireworks overhead! About eight of them, chrysanthemums and stars, just like real fireworks, only just about forty feet up! Cool!

Folks were shooting up things to the north and south of us, including some big Roman candles over in the church parking lot, and colors popping up behind the trees, plus lots of firecrackers. When we got in Willow was pathetically happy to see us. James had to cuddle her for a few minutes before she calmed down. I was recording the Boston Pops on the DVR and we restarted that. Of course they start in the middle of the flippin' "1812 Overture" anymore. Neil Diamond was the guest star, and then we had the singalong and finally the fireworks. WOW. I saw a report on WBZ's web page that they had a new fireworks company this year. They put on a terrific show, even with CBS's spotty coverage. There are new colors this year: aqua, a lime green, magenta as well as purple, and I even saw orange at one point. At at least one point, the design looks like Queen Anne's lace. And there are big umbrella ones that are one color on one side, and another color on the other. Also the cute hearts and smiley faces.

Once we were done watching that show, I shut off the DVR and the rebroadcast of A Capitol Fourth was about one third of the way through, so I left that on. Aretha, sweetie, where did you get that dress? It does not flatter you at all. But she was good, as always, and Barry Manilow was fab, as was the piano duet on "Rhapsody in Blue" (though I'm sorry, I can't hear that song anymore without thinking of Mackie Bloom), and they had a nice fireworks show sprawled behind the Washington Monument, with a nice band accompaniment.

And when that ended, WSB-TV was showing the Lenox Square celebration repeat broadcast and just getting to the fireworks...this was done as a long shot over the mall, facing up Peachtree Street, we thought, and as in the Washington, DC, fireworks, you could see other fireworks shows going on in the distance. In the Washington skyline, there must have been about six other shows going on back there! I couldn't tell which were which during the Atlanta show, but I would have guessed Chastain Park and Stone Mountain.

I'm used to watching fireworks on television. My dad avoided big holiday crowds the way women avoid mice, so we never saw live fireworks on the Fourth. We got our fill of them at all the church feasts. There was one pretty much every weekend of the summer: St. Mary's, St. Bartholemew's, St. Rocco's, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, etc. I think these were the last shows at which I saw ground fireworks. Does anyone still remember ground fireworks? They'd be on a platform, and be lit up in the shape of the flag, or the Statue of Liberty, or some other shape, or you might still have Catherine wheels that spun round and round as each firework on a spoke shot off, and St. Mary's always had one that was in the shape of the church.

We made our own ground fireworks tonight. LOL.

Labels: gatherings, holidays, television

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