Fourth of July Reflections

I hung my flag in the window, the right way, with the stars on the left at the top for those viewing it.

I sit here, trying to pick a song to go on my MySpace page, and I think about the generations before me which served in the military. My grandmother's three brothers were all in the Navy during WWII, and my grandfather served in the Navy in WWII. My dad was in the Army. I've had coworkers and friends who were veterans of Desert Storm when I was in High School. I have known people who have served and those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You do not have to agree with the war in order to respect or recognize the sacrifice that generations before us, our own generation, and that our children's children will make in the future to defend our country. Today is a day to think about and reflect on the past, and to pray for and support our servicemen and women. May God Bless them and their families as they do their duty, and may we give them the respect, the love, admiration, and welcome they deserve whenever they come home.

Snakes and Sparklers

$2.17 for Fourth of July entertainment, the finest you can get... Snakes and Sparklers!

• Joe Dirt: So your gonna' tell me that you don't have no black cats, no roman candles, or screaming mimis?
• Kicking Wing: No.
• Joe Dirt: Oh come on man. You got no lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do das, or crap flappers?
• Kicking Wing: No, I don't.
• Joe Dirt: You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen spliters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?
• Kicking Wing: No... because snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like.
• Joe Dirt: Well that might be your problem, it's not what you like, it's the consumer.

Fourth of July - I got nothin'

Well, I got up this morning and got ready for the day only to have my plans shot out from under me. I don't understand what/why but for whatever reason I guess I'm celebrating the Fourth today at home alone. I may go buy some Snakes and Sparklers and sit on the back patio with the dogs, all my friends are gone to the lake and it's too late to make new plans with anyone else. I don't know why people are so undependable and heartless. :-(

Favorite Movies + Tank Girl

Oh, I forgot to add I watched Tank Girl today. My favorite movies are Bladerunner, and Brazil... but I think I need to add Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Tank Girl to the list since my favorite movies are usually ones that I can watch over and over and Tank Girl and Hitchhikers have both proven to be films which fit that category.

Tank Girl is regarded by a friend of mine as a stupid movie... but it's entertaining, and I seem to see something new in it every time I watch it. I also really dig the music, Lori Petty is really hot and very funny in this role (so is Naomi Watts as Jet Girl (Lori on the left, Naomi on the right) she was SOOOOO young and hot in this movie. Loved her as a brunette) and I really dig the music from the movie. So call it one of my few vices!

Someone is setting off fireworks tonight (just heard them going off). I hope they don't get a ticket, it's only legal to do so from 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning to 10:30 p.m. tomorrow night.

Independence Day 2008

Well, I cleaned the bird cages today... and hung up my flag for Independence Day.

The weather has already gotten hot, so I've been using my drip hose this week on my hostas and hedges to water them. There was rain today, but it didn't last very long and it didn't even register on the rain gauges I have.

I've been using a heating pad on my back this week along with an improvised cold pack (a 1 quart milk jug with a screw on lid, half filled with ice and water) to alternate hot and cold on my lower back.

I'm supposed to go look at scooters tomorrow with a friend, and spend the day hanging out. There's a fireworks display at Lake Willastein at 9:30 tomorrow night. Most everyone I know is spending the weekend out at the lake on their boats.

Nature and the Staycation

Saturday I found a lovely, big, beautiful butterfly in my garage when I came home.

I'd gone by the Murphy Oil gas station, and bought 17 gallons of gas (in my cans) and filled the truck up for $3.69 a gallon. The station just opened, they are promising to sell gas for 20 cents cheaper than anywhere else. We'll see how long that lasts! :-) The other stations around here have already been forced to drop their prices from $4.05 a gallon to $3.77 and $3.75 to try and compete. That's awesome. Imagine if other stations and gas producers got into that spirit and started a price war versus the collusion they all seem to have in pricing their gas with only a one to two cent difference.

The butterfly was happy to crawl onto my hand, and I took the butterfly to the front porch and placed it on the bench. I didn't want it getting trapped in the garage and dying.

I'm off this week, it's a Staycation for me. Resting my back, and just relaxing for a change. It's kind of nice actually. Today I got up, went to the bank, checked my mail, did some grocery shopping at the new Wal-mart Neighborhood Market (it so does not look like the old Harvest Foods). I wonder if the Neighborhood market is going to be like Wal-mart. (Sorry Amy! :-) I do like shopping at Wal-mart and Sam's Club!) Nothing ever seems to be on sale in the grocery department at Walmart, whereas at Kroger there are always sales. Sliced cheese never varies in price at Walmart, versus Kroger where they always have specials. Maybe Wal-mart doesn't think they need to run specials. I dunno. The neighborhood market was definitely VERY nice. I liked being able to buy Pollenta so close to home. Dinner tonight, if I have dinner might be Pollenta, some Kimchi, and some chicken and spinach sausage. It's getting late, and I'm not really hungry.

The weeping willow died above the line where the label from the nursery was. I'm still waiting in eBurgess to make good on their warranty, and send me replacement plants for the ones which died. I trimmed off the top of the willow. The bottoms have already grown new branches, and it's really healthy. I transplanted it into the yard well away from the house, and the entire pot (HUGE POT) was full of roots from it. I watered it after I got it into the ground and added some plant fertilizer stakes for what must have been forty five minutes. I also took cuttings from some plants in the neighborhood and my hibiscuses and used rooting hormone on them and then planted them (so we'll see if they do well). All of the plants out back, the four fruit trees and the four hibiscuses, the weeping willow, and one other all got 2.5 gallons of rainwater a piece from the rain barrels. We only got a 1/4" of rain when it rained this weekend. Not enough.