Everybody have a fantastic Fourth

“Have a great Fourth: cookouts, fireworks, bugs, sunburn, parades, beer, relatives, cranky kids, flags, neighbors complaining about barbecue smoke, patriotic concerts, politicians handing out buttons, fire trucks sounding sirens, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts Girl Scouts, Brownies, marching bands, flag girls, clowns, rain showers, cooking burns, burnt hot dogs, smores, ice cream, hamburgers, potato salad, dogs barking, rednecks shooting democrats, fuego, fun, open trails, cool campsites, and even more beer.”

“I bet I know what is coming next”

“*waves@Geo*? LOL!

You have a good one too Geo and don't kill any kin at the BBQ.”

“*waves* @ Geo”

“I don't want to and you can't make me.”

“hell #&%!$ yea Fourth of July Rocks!!!”

“I'm working!!!

...double time!!!”

“It looks like its going to be raining on our parade. I hope this blows over before 10am.”

“Headin out of here. I'm backpacking in the Desolation Wilderness. Lake Aloha! I'll post my little flag at camp. ;)
Have a great 4th everyone.”

“We'll be out watching our city's parade. It has some distinction as the longest 4th of July parade route in the US, or something like that. Some years it seems like there are more people in the parade than watching it. I think last year there were around 150 entries - we always see lots of our friends. This year, one of our best friends is the Grand Marshall, so we will be out there to heckle her for sure - moohahahahah!!”

“That was a nice little walk.   Kinda warm, tho': 93 with a reasonable humidity and a little breeze.

And I didn't get shot at.       ; ^ )

”

“We planned a cook-out with our neighbors. Lmao, it started raining about 4:45 and didn't stop until about 9 pm! Sharis ended up cooking on the grill out in a downpour, and we scurried inside to eat. It was fun, nonetheless! It's been so dry here I was really concerned about wildfires starting from all of the pyrotechnics, but several hours of rain took care of that concern. However, one of our "other" neighbors did catch their roof on fire. Dumba$$es. That's why you don't set off skyrockets in between 2 close-set houses. Unfortunately, we also have enough leftovers to grill for a meal or two for the nest several days, or until the propane runs out. :)”

“We hung out at the local winery listening to a hippy chick sing & play. The temp came back down to double digits and it was actually pleasant outside with a nice breeze and little humidity. The winery put on a nice small fireworks show that resulted in only one small grass fire. We could see the ridiculously huge chamber of commerce display about 4 miles away. It went on so long we all got tired of watching it. Lots of sirens could be heard all night.”

“I did nothing except lounge around the house and work when I felt like it. Pretty much like every day:^)

My daughter and b/f should be here in a little while. We'll celebrate the 4th on the 5th with a little cookout, a little beer and a lot of fireworks.”

“We went to the Music City Hot Chicken Festival. Nashville is home to Super spicy fried chicken which we refer to as hot chicken. There was free watermelon and local ice cream and a Yazoo beer garden (our local brewery). Awesome time was had by all. Then we came back to the house and did a simple burgers, beers, and dogs cookout for our friends. What a great day.”

“We went downtown Knoxville to World's Fair Park for music.”

“The fourth was great - had lobster, clams, corn on the cob, strawberry shortcake and s’mores…went kayaking and swimming and did sparklers.

Around 4ish, Austin started whining to go home…he wasn’t sounding good, and despite my older sister’s “does he always get his own way” we packed up and left. Soon he was on the couch not feeling good at all…later on he was cold but burning up. Saturday morning he told me that under his arm really hurt – he had been bitten by a deer tick there a week before that. (I had called the doctor then, and since it had just bitten him, was easily pulled off all in one piece, and it was not engorged, they didn’t want to do antibiotics. I agreed at that time, as it looked like the thing had hardly broken through all layers of skin.) I cleaned it with alcohol, and a couple of days later it was completely gone. Then it started to itch and he started scratching it, and it started to swell. I should have paid more attention to it then.

Anyway, we went to the doctor Saturday morning. His temperature was normal at that time, and the bite that we all swore earlier looked like a classic bullseye, just looked irritated. The doc thinks it’s a secondary infection, but started him on antibiotics like he would for Lyme disease. Later in the day, fever was back and he didn’t feel well again until Sunday afternoon. Poor kid.”

“down with the king!! England sucks!!!

we took our 2 year old to see fireworks...we were a little hesitant about how he'd react but he absolutely loved them...he kept pointing and smiling and even caught on to the ooohhss, and aaaahhhs...when they'd fade away he'd put his hands up and say "Go?"”

“Kids are amazing. I was always afraid of fireworks because one landed in the grass near us when I was little and started a grass fire. People put it out quickly, but I was left with the strong sense that things that start fires are not good for people when they land nearby.”

“We found the way for kid fireworks is to ride the fireworks train from Wellsboro, Pa. to a nearby lake where they shoot 'em off - and we stay inside the train (we seem to have bad luck with folks near us getting debris falls, it's no fun watching the guy in front of you get taken off by ambulance). It's the pet of a locally owned fireworks supplier so it's better than the usual small town display.”