It was supposed to be a holiday . . .

Dear Mandella,

We don't get terribly involved with celebrating July 4th. We don't dress up in red, white, and blue. We don't go to parades. We don't head out to any of the fireworks displays. We pretty much just try to get some down time before heading back to work in the blazing July heat.

I don't think this weekend really counts as down time. Yesterday I dyed yarn, about 20 skeins. I think the thrill is gone. That thought occurred to me last night as I was soaking wet from rinsing (which means the initial rinse, then the vinegar soak, then a last wash and rinse) yarn over the bath tub last night between 8:00 and 9:00. That was four hours of dyeing yarn and about 1 hour to rinse.

At about 5:00 p.m. (roughly 2 hours after applying the dye) I realized I didn't have any vinegar. I ventured out, hopeful of finding something open. Lo and behold, my local grocery store was open. I placed a call to my DH to ask him whether there was anything else we needed.

"Get a couple of nice steaks," he said. "I'll grill them."

"Maybe some corn on the cob, too?" I asked.

"Great!"

I came home with the steaks, a package of 5 ears of sweet corn, a package of 4 little shortcake rounds, a quart of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, caramel sauce, 2 packages of shredded cheese to go with the bag of Tostitos and, oh, yes, 5 gallons of vinegar. I actually purchased some blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries (you know -- add the whipped cream and you have lovely red-white-blue dessert), but these mysteriously did not make it home with me. I suspect they are still at the grocery store.

We ate our supper around 7 pm. I rinsed yarn around 8 pm. Around 9:30 p.m. we went outdoors to the pervasive scent of gun powder because nearly everyone in the neighborhood was shooting off fireworks. I'm not talking about the little sparklers here. I'm talking about blooming balls of color and screaming spirals of glitter (sort of like what's in the photo above).

Which meant it was time to get out the ones we'd purchased - marvelous boxes that fired wads of paper and gunpowder into the sky that blossomed into a whole rainbow of colors. Oh, that was fun! It was all of about 10 minutes of fun, but we liked it.

So, this year we did our "patriotic duty" and barbecued, made an attempt at a red-white-blue dessert, and shot off a few fireworks. And then we went inside.

I'm still tired.

I have to leave in about 30 minutes to pick up my Aunt Mary to take her over to visit my mom. I hope I'll be able to get some sleep while they talk.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Judith