Fishing, Family, Fireworks, Fun: Fourth
This entry was posted on 7/5/2008 9:11 PM and is filed under Holidays.
We had another terrific fourth of July here at the old homestead.
Two of the girls that Katie had roomed with during her semester in Prague were visiting this past week. It was perfect summer weather the entire time they were here. Minneapolis looked it's best and was on it's best behavior. I'd say the girls from out of town must have been impressed but one of them flew in from Hawaii so all I'll say is they weren't totally disgusted.
No, really, Hawaii's great and all but Katie took them to the falls! They played putt-putt at the Walker and saw the cherry spoon bridge at the sculpture garden! Hawaii's got nothin' on us!
On Friday the girls joined us here in the morning and we piled into the car and headed west to brother Tim's house. An enormous gathering of us get together to celebrate Carolyn's birthday out at the lake every year. There's a parade of boats and a porketta on the grill. Oh, we celebrate the country's birthday too, but only Carolyn's name is on the cake.
In addition to the porketta, Jay had instructed me to bring a sack full of fresh fish that our buddy Dave had caught the day before. I threw the fish at Tim and yelled at him to grill it up before it was too late! He looked at me like I was nuts and said he didn't know how to cook it.
"Nonsense!" I cried. "Make it hot and delicious, how hard can that be?"
He conferred with the two of his brothers who were on hand and between the three of them they made it hot and so delicious that we nearly inhaled it. Jay's lucky there was a bite left for him when he finally showed up at the party. It would have served him right for going off to play golf while the rest of us toiled over a hot grill and a cold beer. I ate so much fish I almost didn't leave room for the hot dogs and pork later. Almost. I managed it. I did have some trouble with the slab of cake they threw at me. I might have missed a crumb or two.
Aside from stuffing our faces, there was lounging in the sun, ladder ball, a hammock, boat rides, swimming and although it was a little too choppy for water skiing, it was perfect for inner tubing. I swear, if Tim and Mary Lou lived twenty minutes closer to town they'd never get rid of us.
We drove back into town before dark. We didn't want to miss any of the fireworks here.
For the last four or five years the best seat in town for pyrotechnics has been our front yard. Since dutch elm disease took all the tall trees out of the middle of the park, we've had a clear view of Edina's celebration at Lake Cornelia. Competing but not blocking that, is the display put on by the civic minded patriots across the park from us. I don't know who they are but they put on a show that rivals any I've ever seen. They've encouraged every one in the neighborhood to light em up all over the park. There were roman candles and bottle rockets going up from at least four different locations around the park and we had front row seats for all of it. A crowd of young men on bicycles came riding out of the dark, like something out of the Outsiders. They turned out to be Zack's buddy's, who have reverted to bikes since the price of gas hit ridiculous. They were here to join the fun. And it was fun! The show started just before ten and went on till after eleven and the sky was filled with the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air the entire time. It was great!
The only thing that could've made this fourth any better was if George Washington Garbers had decided to show up. Or Betsy Ross Garbers. No such luck; MJ's still waddling along.
The mail came very late today and it brought an interesting item. Last year a local sports show had done a profile on Jay and some kind soul thought he might like a copy. In the brief note attached to the dvd, the sender mentioned that he was also a regular reader of this blog.
It was fan mail.
For both of us.
I want all of you to refer to us as "Posh and Becks" from now on.
