Small Fish

You must be able to tell by now when I'm busy having fun. I don't blog. Unless I have time to tell you about how much fun I'm having.

Happy Independence Day! (A day late, but still being celebrated by many.)

We finally made it to Cicero, Indiana for the 4th of July fireworks. Bill also got to experience the Symphony on the Prairie. 

I hope that it's been a fun way to celebrate our Independence Day and that he got a small taste of what I grew up experiencing.

Growing up near Morse Reservoir meant that we had fireworks no matter what (a few summers ago was the first time since my parents have lived here that they had to cancel the fireworks because it was that dry). For this tiny town, the fireworks show is amazing. The town has about 3,000 people. The fireworks are huge and last a good twenty minutes. I haven't seen a show this good since Bill and I went to South Haven a few years ago.

In 2009, the town celebrated its 175th anniversary. They had a huge celebration with civil war reenactments, vendors, games, and live concerts in the park. From then on the vendors and reenactors have come back. It's not just a one-day celebration but it all lasts for three days. Also, the 4th is when the fireworks display is set off no matter what day of the week.

The UMC I grew up in has always held a fish fry around the 4th too.

It has always been a big deal in this small town.

When Bill and I were first dating, he was in the boating business (retail, not marina). Summers were not his down time in case you aren't a boater.

Two or three years ago I said something to Bill about Symphony on the Prairie and he reminded me that he had never been to a show. It was then that I declared we were going to go to Cicero for the 4th. Last year he was unable to make it because the Sr. High left on the 5th for their work camp trip. Which was fine because I drove to Cicero and had food poisoning (I thought I blogged about it but I did not, instead I blogged about this, which I played the other day and got to 44 on our way to Cicero). Since the 4th was on Friday this year, I put my foot down and said we were coming to Cicero.

We made it.

I had a wonderful 4th just like the ones I remember.

I'm thankful for our freedom.

feelin' red, white, and blue

(aka, Emily's car game)

I drove to my parents on Friday, the day after Independence Day. I spent the first half of the car ride talking to a good friend, catching up on what's been going on in her life. After I, got off the phone I started noticing cars grouped together in some combination of red, white and blue. I decided to make a game of it and count how many times I saw some combo of those colors.

Here are the rules: the cars do not have to be in color order, but they must not be separated by any other color car. Say you see a white car, the next car has to either be red or blue. If it's any other color you have to start over.

I even went as far as seeing a red and white car, but if a green car was passing a blue car and the blue one was not right behind that white car, I didn't count it.

It's a four hour drive total.

I had already spent half of it on the phone and not playing this game.

In the last two hours I saw sixteen sets.

I thought that was pretty impressive.

Or a coincidence since I had Independence Day on the brain.

When I left this morning, I was debating on whether or not I should play it again.

Then I saw a set of the three colors and decided I should see how many I could count on the way home.

I got up to twenty-four! And there were a few times there were so many cars (holy mass exodus from the lakeshore back to Chicago) that I couldn't keep track. That, and I was trying to drive my car.

I didn't count the color if it was questionable. There are a lot of blues out there and a lot of black cars that could have been a deep blue. Nor did silver/gray blue count. I didn't count silver, it had to be white. I didn't count two-tone cars. I may have been more lenient on the red, but for the most part stuck to the true flag colors. If you can believe that!

I didn't count my own car (it's blue) if there was a red and white in front of me. There were a couple of times when there would also be another blue car. Mostly I counted the cars in the oncoming traffic, so I didn't double count any on my side.

It's a fun game and I recommend you try it next time you have a long car ride. Everyone wins, because everyone is counting. Let me know if you discover the same thing, there are lots of red, white and blue cars being driven, or if you change it up and look for different color combinations?!

Our independence

Happy 237th birthday to America.

As I sit here, in my dining room, listening to what seems like the entire neighborhood shooting off fireworks, scaring every living creature to hiding behind entertainment centers, curtains or whatever else they think will keep them safe (yes, I am talking about the same cat who caught a blue jay), enjoying the fact the the Tigers beat the Blue Jays, and having been slightly annoyed for the last year of the new law that Michigan now allows the average joe to purchase all kinds of fireworks; that is when it hit me.

This is independence.

This is what our rights and freedom mean.

We should be allowed to purchase and shoot off fireworks that I have only ever seen before in a professional show.

And we can shoot them off in our own backyard if we want.

I may not enjoy the fact that everyone in my neighborhood seems to have to turned into a ten year old boy who loves to play with matches, or that this can go on for another hour and a half, or that it can happen before, on and after any major holiday.

But it's freedom.

And I am happy that I can enjoy that.

God Bless America.