Monday July 4

Independence Day! Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

We were up this morning at our usual 7 a.m. time, and I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast.

We had nothing special planned for this most patriotic of American holidays, so Hubbie went outdoors to clean the awning and top of the camper. Mother and I stayed in the air conditioning, of course, and worked on greeting cards again. Today, I made a thank you card, using handmade paper, and then I began an embossed card. But I haven't finished that one yet, because I needed to stop and help Mother with her projects...a screen door Christmas card, and a scrapbook page.

After lunch, Mother washed new potatoes, and cut zucchini and yellow squash into chunks, for the steamer. We planned to have barbecued country ribs with the vegetables, which I wanted to cook in an oven bag, but I discovered that we didn't have any bags. So I changed into patriotic colors, donned my American flag pin, and went to a grocery store to fetch some.

Around 3:30, we started the meal cooking, and then continued crafting for a while. The meal was delicious, served around 5 p.m. For dessert, we opted for ice cream...I topped mine with fresh blackberries, and Mother and Hubbie had caramel syrup on theirs.

Afterward, while we were putting the food away, Mother somehow lost her footing and fell flat on her back on the kitchen floor. Later, she joked that we'd challenged her yesterday to do a back flip, and she thought she'd just try it.

She was referring to an incident when our 17-year-old Shih Tzu, while trying to scratch her ear, ended up doing a back flip. Since she and Mother are essentially the same age in human years, we asked Mother if she'd like to try to do the same. She said she guessed not, since she can't scratch her ear with her foot.

Today, she nearly gave me an attack when she fell, but thank goodness she didn't break anything. Her pride was a bit hurt, and she'll probably be sore and bruised tomorrow, but otherwise she's fine.

After supper, we watched the patriotic show, "A Capitol Fourth," on PBS. Later, we went to the river to watch the fireworks. We found a great spot to park, where we could see the fireworks from the van. It was a very nice show, and afterward, we were able to beat the traffic coming home.

After a snack, we headed to bed...but it was clear that we wouldn't be sleeping for a while, because our neighbor's teenaged sons chose to shoot firecrackers well into the night.