Finally, after two weeks...

things slowed a bit yesterday! Mainly due to allergies, but still!

Thursday we made an hour run east to buy fireworks, as the indoor retailer we used to buy from gave up his license two years ago and we had been a bit disappointed buying from the local stands. We went to a warehouse with a retail floor, and got things that had been handled several times less, as well as stored inside and dry. We counted things up in our head and thought we were on budget ($250 we had set, we thought we had $260 when we stopped). There were two major cases of heart failure as the girl hit total and it came up to over $560! We started pulling things to put back, both in shock that we could have been so far off. The girl on the register was new and couldn't figure out how to subtract things; she called the manager over, who looked at the ticket and said "I don't see two cases of such and such here at $140 each, where are they?"

Of course, we didn't have them; they rerang the order and we were right on; I went back and grabbed one more thing for a "finale" then they gave us a $50 one because we spent $300...

Every year we say we're going to cut down, and that is down some from years past (blush). The 4th was always a big holiday as I was growing up; in my grandparents backyard, with all the cousins and such gathered, sometimes 2nd cousins as well. Grandpa would spend a hundred or so, as would Dad; I would spend around that from my lawn mowing money. Sometimes things went on for 3 or 4 hours! Grandpa would always sit off to one side, even after his stroke, and set off Roman candles holding them in his hand while our parents all told us to "not even think about it".

After they gave up their house the party moved to my Dad's, and the cousins stopped coming, but it was still a big deal, and Dad and I picked up the spending a bit. Dad would grill (and he was good at it). The 2nd year Dottie and I were back here Grandma got sick the night of the 4th; we found out a few days later she had begun her 4th and final round with colon cancer. She passed away that fall...

We had 11 for dinner and fireworks Friday. Bill was here, though Laura is in D.C. doing an internship. John, Noel and the grandkids were here, along with my sister and her husband and their younger son and his girlfriend. After lots of daytime stuff and dinner, the show started between 9:30 and 10; we finished sparklers about 11:30. As the last sparklers went out John yelled "Happy Retirement, Dad"!

Dottie and I told them they didn't need to pick everything up that night as we would do it the next day. My brother-in-law had to be up at 4:30 to get to work at 5:30, and it was well past the grandkids bedtimes as well, especially since everyone needed a shower due to the powder smoke). I hadn't counted on 3 hours and filling four cans, but it was fun making the mess! I awoke with my left eye "bugging me" to the point that allergy drops weren't working and I was outside wearing an eye patch. After we took a break and ate I checked all the gutters (nothing like having a gully-washer roll in and finding out a downspout is clogged with a cardboard tube or a half a sphere from a mortar ball) and cleared them. After that I took a nap hoping my eye would be better (it was) then we had dinner and watched "Fool's Gold", Dottie's Netflix movie for the week. Mine is still sitting from 3 weeks ago...maybe later today...

Yesterday when I woke it was the right eye, and less cooperative, so I spent most of the day sitting in the living room with the eye patch over it while Dottie caught up laundry. We watched 7 hours of "Battlestar Galactica" (she was only behind one, but I had gotten behind while working overtime and Saturdays) then two of "Men In Trees" (not sure I'll forgive ABC for cancelling it).

We got to bed around midnight, and she returned to work this morning after her two weeks off; I'm sitting here feeling a bit guilty about that, since I'm not! I'm waiting for FedEx to deliver a hyperextension bench I bought on eBay, running more laundry, and trying to decide if I dare spend enough time in the basement to finish making room to assemble my weight bench, knowing I might not get to the door when they show up.

Boring, huh?

Somehow it feels like it's about time!

alan