7/5 – Friday – The Day After

Here it is Saturday morning, and I’ll try to recap yesterday.

Breakfast was another serving of the Julie special breakfast concoction which is still good and will probably last quite a long time.

I think it was stormy when I woke up, and that was my excuse for not walking. Again. There have been several storms, at least one per day, and temperatures are much lower than in recent years.

This morning we went to Sheep Mountain. It was nostalgic, and it is beautiful. We saw the red fox – what a beauty. And we pretty much just sat on the porch and enjoyed the place, the view, each other, and a bit of wine. There may be another visit, but this one is the farewell to both a friend and his home.

Julie and I shopped on the way back – tonight is our (her) night to make dinner, and it’s going to be Chief’s Special with roasted corn on the cob and special sauce.

I worked on the puzzle while Julie worked in the kitchen, occasionally doing whatever she asked me to do. We all know I’m a hinderance in the kitchen, and I was pretty much assigned to grill the corn when the time came. Which I managed to do with a little help from Gary.

There as a lot of conversation and drinking and just having fun in general. We made progress on the puzzle, but it’s going to tough to get it finished.

The meal was great, of course. And we learned that the recipe needs adjusting to our current taste for hotter dishes – the old back east recipe just doesn’t have the zing it once did. But it was really good, just needed more heat.

It was just before 10 and getting dark outside when Bill and Gary disappeared and Chuck was given instructions to keep us inside until 10. All very mysterious. And when we went out front at 10 it still wasn’t clear what was about to happen. But then the fireworks started, and it was spectacular. We had the fireworks show of the holiday, right there in front (overhead) of us. And the quality of the fireworks that you can buy now is really incredible. It’s not just Cherry Bombs anymore!

Then there was the fire in the backyard, which refused to burn without considerable help. All the wood was wet. But with enough oil to pour on it did get hot enough to keep going. Then the spent fireworks containers came in for burning, and that caused the crowd to disperse- we weren’t quite sure what may be left over in those boxes!

And so it was to bed – a really nice day.