Most everybody in America was celebrating his or her independence yesterday. Some showed their patriotism by firing up the grill and downing a cold one (or four). Some displayed the red, white and blue in the form of fashionable flags or not so fashionable clothing. Some watched parades, were in parades, or were thoroughly frustrated by the street closures and traffic jams caused by parades. And some, not so keen about the whole freedom thing, put on forced smiles and set off illegal fireworks to keep up appearances.
All in all, people were doing what they wanted because other people, a few years back, jotted down a couple thoughts about unalienable rights on a piece of parchment, signed it and sent it to somebody who hated the idea of losing an income source over something petty like rights. Battles ensued and people fought and died for those rights. To be fair, not all that fought died. Some only received minor contusions in the war for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Yesterday, I celebrated the Fourth of July by building a 10'×10' pavilion in the backyard. Thanks to the least stretchable canopy fabric in northern California, the assembly took longer than expected. The fabric finally succumbed after I disassembled part of the structure and used safety pins to secure a corner accidentally ripped trying to extend the super top canopy (N) over the end of the super top connector (K). This evening, before the blogger meetup, I hope to move the patio table, chairs and citronella candle into the pavilion to enjoy some outdoor dining.
After finishing the backyard project, I visited the folks for a family barbecue. It was a mellow event involving eating (salad, zucchini, barbecue chicken and kahlua cream pie), croquet and time trial croquet. The objective of time trial croquet is a simple one: get the croquet ball through the hoop course and peg out as fast as possible without tripping or destroying any solar lamps. The current course record is 42 seconds using the blue ball and mallet.
Once we got home, we watched a portion of New York's and San Jose's celebrations on television. We also saw some of Smallville's own fireworks from the front yard. From where we stood, they were barely visible above the rooftops. Note to self: Stand on roof next year.
Since I'm here, let me briefly recap the rest of the three-day weekend. On Saturday, I spent part of the day poring over a gardening magazine and book for some ideas on landscaping the backyard. In between staring at illustrations and photos of plants, I stared at the television and watched a few episodes of Futurama's first season on DVD.
In the evening, I drove to San Francisco for a wedding reception in Chinatown. Beyond the usual table toasts and bouquet toss, there was a lion dance and a hula dance. The lions were quite impressive, but we were sitting so close to the percussionists that my right ear couldn't hear anything for about five minutes.
On Sunday, I installed some spray bubblers along the drip irrigation system for the impatiens growing in the planter lining the back fence. The pipe is now hooked up to an electronic timer so that the plants receive five minutes of water every morning to help them grow big and strong.
Later in the day, I bought a copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm hoping to finish the book before the end of July, long before I see the movie on DVD. I started reading it over a cup of coffee from It's A Grind in Gilroy. Artwork of jazz legends adorned the walls and it had cushioned armchairs set around coffee tables. It's a coffee franchise, but I liked the feel of the place. It would be cool to visit again.
And that pretty much sums up my holiday weekend.
