Happy 4th!

Here is the lost video footage of a 4th of July at Lake Herman, oh so many years ago. Each year, the people who live near the lake get together and put on their own parade. In a counterintuitive move this particular year, the theme was "All the Other Holidays!"

Unfortunately my memory is as blurry as the video resolution, so I can't make out the theme of every float. The first few are confusing but after the guy walking the dog there seems to be the heart covered box denoting Valentine's day, followed by the Grim Reaper driving a tractor with a wagon filled with babies. Next is an Easter Bunny, but I have no idea what the float after that is commemorating...there seems to be a flag on it, so I assume it must be Flag Day. After the Thanksgiving Turkey, we see my personal favorite...an emaciated Santa hanging by his wrists in a pumpkin patch. The penultimate float seems to be another tribute to Flag day (why do the people of Madison love flag day so?) Our hosts tell us that the guy in the cowboy hat at the very end usually figures out a reason to dress in drag for every parade...for reasons that remain unclear, he decided to 'butch-up' for this parade. (I can only imagine that the overall quality of the celebration suffered because of it.)

I know that I was not alone in witnessing this 'live and in person.'' So if Roxy can remember any more details from this fine day, please elaborate in the comments section!

I Need Ideas

I know. This is weird coming from me, a self-proclaimed "idea-person" (ie, I'm more about ideas than action.)

Here is the deal: I have (wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles) a Saturday off at the beginning of July. In fact, I have a 5 day break over the Independence Day weekend (Thurs-Mon).

This needs to be taken advantage of. I'm thinking some sort of trip needs to be taken.

The problem is (and it's significant), I'm pretty broke. And any extra doe-rae-mi should be put aside for my relocation.

Anyway . . . I'm looking for ideas . . . any thoughts, anecdotes?

Temps dropping from cotton to wool socks

Last night I had dinner at Evelyn's with Merle's daughters and grandaughter. The younger daughter, Cristi?, was showing us her rather fancy MySpace page complete with slideshow. One of the pictures fading up through the star cut-out was that of everybody's favorite cousin. In this land of free association I wondered why he was wearing such a conservative blue shirt. I always think of Merle in those bright, verging on neon, striped western shirts. Then I thought of him as Parade Marshall at the Hermosa 4th of July Parade and remembered the shrine to the small engine with the flat-bed trailer carrying all those two-stroke engines merrily chugging away and then I tried to remember who threw better candy, the Republicans or the Democrats? or was it all the same?