Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Happy Birthday, America!

We had a very enjoyable holiday weekend. Independence Day has become "our" holiday to host for my extended family, with my folks and siblings getting together for a late afternoon cookout at our place. We rent a fairly small but serviceable single-family house, and though small it's got a very nice, big yard in a great location.

Our gathering was followed by an evening trip for most of us to see the Natick fireworks, conveniently launched from the shopping mall right across the street from my office building (about 25 minutes from home) so we get a nice semi-private viewing party there with other folks from my work. C & I have been watching the fireworks here for many years, and it's been fun to bring along the whole family and a few friends in more recent years. They put on a great show there, and it's quite a shame that I've heard this is the last year they'll be able to stage them there (rumored to be due to construction changes at the mall). Next year we'll likely try the "local" fireworks in Milford, the next town over from us; our friends Elliriel, Taz and family went there this year and Taz says it was quite good.

On the Fourth itself we relaxed. C, The Momma & I went out to dinner in the late afternoon, then watched the Boston Pops concert that evening. And such an awesome fireworks display in Boston again this year!

One thing The Momma and I realized yesterday. We are not Bush people. (No, we knew that before yesterday, but I'm going somewhere with this!) We've never liked him as a president, and don't like most of his policies. We don't really approve of the direction the country is moving in under this administration. But we do love this country, and we know attitudes move in waves... we're not looking to move to Canada, for instance! But we realized yesterday that our grumblings may have had too much of an adverse affect on C, who hasn't heard us talking enough about all the positives of this country amidst our grumblings and so didn't see why we were still so excited about Independence Day. We'll be working to correct that, try our best to find a balance, as much as one can exist for any particular point of view.

Got the car back last week, magic alternator and all. The alternator seems fine, but while the car sat on the lot for over a week the emergency brake apparently rusted On... sigh. I wasn't happy, and they could clearly tell as they didn't even hint at charging me for pulling it back onto the lift and removing the wheels to bang it free. Even I can see it wasn't a related problem but I was in No Mood. Ah well, I'll be passing on using the e-brake as a parking brake from now on I think! At least I know it will stop me should I need it as an actual emergency brake!

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