Had a great 4th.

First, check this out. This guy's got an interesting take on the upcoming Live Earth concert. Also, see there where Al Gore's son was recently nabbed doing about 100 in his Prius, trying not to get caught driving drunk, with a bag of weed and pills in the car. Nice to see that those hybrid cars can really pull out when you need them to.

And now, I hope you all had a great 4th of July. I did (click on any of these to enlarge them).



Here are some shots to prove it. Started out the day at about 8AM, going to a good friends house for breakfast. She cooked us all eggs, waffles, ham and biscuits. I think that I started out the day full as a tick, and kept that full feeling going all day long.

Then I went over to Temple and picked up my dad, and we went to watch the annual Belton 4th of July parade. The folks from breakfast were going to meet us there.



Soldiers from Ft. Hood always march in the parade, near the start. Always emotional to see them. There weren't a lot of them this time though, but it was still good to see them.



The marching band from the local high school always shows up, and plays patriotic music.



One of our two senators, and his lovely wife. Our congressman was there too. George W was here in 2000, during the campaign. The crowds then were ridiculous.



Always lots of folks riding horses. There's a rodeo that goes on here this week, coinciding with the holiday, and we'll be attending that this weekend. Love the outfits the vaqueros wear. My dad rode horses in this parade, 60 or 70 years ago.



He always gets teary when I bring him, remembering old times. He does that a lot. My earliest memory of this parade is from sitting on his sholders, standing on the sidewalk down town, down by the county court house.



Things have changed since then. I could almost put him on my shoulders now. Ain't life funny?



There are always a lot of beautiful horses, and horse women...



and then there's the guy who has to follow along after the horses! Wonder how you get that job? Or maybe this guy's followin' along after the Senator? Dunno.



There's always some cool old cars...



and some special vehicles, for advertising various products. This one is selling pretty girls and booze, I believe. Gotta love that.



And then there was this friggin' thing! Local grocery store lost a cart, I guess. Was the hit of the parade. Made a hell of a lot of noise.



And then there were more horses (this is Texas, after all).



Police and fire departments from all the surrounding towns.



Our local Sheriff, riding at the head of his posse. Dan Smith. Nice guy. Met him a few times.



My one surviving uncle, in the pink, and his wife, in the red, and a few of my cousins at the end of this row. Don't know who the scowling woman in the burgundy top was, but she can kiss my ass.



Anyway, the parade wound down main street to the county court house, and then headed out east towards I-35. It was a good time, and though it was overcast, I was happy that it didn't rain or anything. After, I took dad back home, I gave mom a big smooch, and took a few pictures of her back yard...



Had the good camera, so why not. Look how tall those flowers are on the right. Here's a closeup.



And even closer.



Ain't nature cool!




Dad and the dog soon assumed their regular position on the swing, and I was off. After leaving the folks, I joined my friends at one of the local fireworks barns off the highway. We plunked down $70 for all sorts of rockets and other sundry piro, and then headed to the house.

Our objective was to head to one friends house, where we would all congregate, grill dawgs and cheeseburgers, eat and drink and watch the huge fireworks display that is always set off on the base. These folks can see it clearly from their back yard. Very handy. After that we'd set off our own fireworks out in the street in front of their house. We went over there and hung out all day. A good time was had by all. This is Steve, my hosts 15 yr old son, and Steve's pooch, Trevor.



He's a great kid. At one point I told him that when I was his age, living in San Antonio in a secluded cul de sac, my friends and I had set off a whole roll of Black Cats one 4th and watched it erupt. About fifteen minutes later we were in the house when we heard this godawful noise out front. He and his friend had unwrapped one of the rolls of black cats and set it off. It was a LOT louder than I remembered, and smoke went everywhere. Hilarious. I felt bad for a second, and then realized that his mom was cool, and everyone was enjoying themselves.

It had rained that afternoon, so everything was wet and we didn't have to worry about fires starting anywhere. The cops didn't even roll by as the neighborhood erupted in merriment. A few neighbor kids showed up and we let them set off a few rockets. They reminded me of my own childhood in Missouri, when I'd go out with a friend and his dad to shoot off about three grocey sacks full of bombs and bottle rockets while my folks sat inside and watched fireworks on TV. Fuck, some things you need to do yourself, even if it's dangerous or illegal.



Our host busted out the good fancy liqueur. Sweet as hell, and smooth goin' down. Tasted like syrup, with a kick. I told her "Well, this stuff is great, but it's probably not good for the DIABETES!" Laughs all around. Shit, I was eating and drinking all sorts of bad stuff, but my reading this morning was fine. No worries.



Towards zero hour, the clouds began to look like we were gonna get drenched, but it held off till after the official and unofficial fun.



Tried to take pictures of the official fun, but I haven't really figured out all the settings on this camera yet. After all my screwing around, this one is probably my favorite. You can kinda make out the fireworks in there, somewhere. The above shot was taken with a timed exposure, hand held. I know. Whatever!



This one was taken with the "Fireworks" setting turned on, but I could never time the shot right. Wanted to capture the grand finale, but I gave up taking pictures of the official fun and we retreated to the unofficial fun in the front driveway. Turns out this thing is much better at taking conventional shots, or maybe I am. I mean stuff like...



Like more back yard flower shots! Eventually we went out front, where the kids were already setting up for the illicit fun.



Here's Steve, trying to set off a home made smoke bomb. He learned how to do this on YouTube. The Internet is such a cool thing, eh?



It didn't go off as planned though. An earlier one had worked, but this one just flamed up. The weather was cooperating nicely, so i put the camera down and we had a great time firing rockets and watching other fireworks be set off in other driveways down the street. Swore I also heard a few celebratory gun shots. Had broached the idea of loading one of my AKs with blanks and cutting loose, but level heads prevailed. Figured we'd be risking enough with the illegal fireworks. Why tempt fate?

Well, that was most of my evening. The rest is private, and none of your friggin' bidneth. maybe some day I'll talk about that, but not here. Hope your 4th was as much fun. Cheers.