Over the past five days, we've been treated to a lot of spectacular light and sound shows. On Wednesday, of course, we walked the two blocks to Powderhorn Park to catch one of the two official 4th of July fireworks shows in Minneapolis. If memory serves me correctly (and feel free to correct me if you know) this is the first official state-sanctioned fireworks show I've ever been to, and it did not disappoint. The crowd literally ooohed and aaahed at the impressive variety of shells that were fired off.
Normally, we go back to the old cottage on Blue Lake in upstate Michigan for the holiday where we put on our own considerably tamer display and watch other people launch big stuff around the lake. We had to stick around this year as Meaghan had classes on both Tuesday and Thursday, giving us no time to escape for the holiday. I hope everyone had a good time at the lake without us last week.
This is also the first year that I've been in an urban setting for the holiday, and let me tell you it felt like we were under siege after the show finished. There were rockets, bombs, and firecrackers going off in all directions around our house well into the night. Needless to say, the animals were not the happiest of campers. There was a lot of hiding and nervous panting going on.
Yesterday we were treated to another tremendous display, this one of the thunder and lightning variety, as a thunderstorm materialized right over our neighborhood around 3:00 in the afternoon. Luckily the hail missed us, but around 3:30 a distinctive sizzle accompanied a particularly loud thunderclap, and our electricity was reduced to brownout levels. Did I mention that it was in the 90s and extremely muggy yesterday?
Needless to say, being thrown into the dark without AC or fans on a day like that is no fun. After making sure the pets were well watered and transferring the contents of our fridge to a cooler, we decided to seek the cooler climate of our local neighborhood Perkins for dinner and a Dinkytown coffee shop for a nightcap once we realized that the power wasn't coming back anytime soon.
We literally burned dozens of candles before leaving Rochester because we didn't want to tote them around anymore. Unfortunately, we didn't save any for emergencies so we had to make a trip to Target to stock up. In proof that Murphy's law works for the forces of good, too, seconds after getting all of our candles lit and situated the power flickered back to life at about 10:30 last night. Oh well, at least we'll be prepared for next time.
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3 comments:
The fireworks display at the cottage was a little less tame than usual. Mandy and I bought some Pennsylvania fireworks along the way, and the very first one we lit was a rocket that made a 90-degree turn right at Mom's face. Luckily, she ducked out of the way in time.
Other things that you missed at the cottage included:
1) A "flying satellite" firework hitting Nick in the back
2) A "fountain" that shot something 75 feet into the air
3) Lots of babies
4) My croquet winning streak, only broken once I started playing balls in the brush as they laid, rather than moving them back to the "level" surface
5) Deep fried turkey
6) A broken horseshoe
Also missed US!!! And, we missed YOU!!!
More familiar things you missed were me on a diet (again), your dad actually catching a really good-sized large mouth bass (which Mandy and I set free, or we lobbied for its freedom), and sleeping on those great felt mattresses from the early part of the 20th century.
Sounds like I missed an interesting week, I wish I could have been there. It's going to be rough not getting to the cottage at all this year.
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