4th of July Report

I’m recovering from a busy 4th of July weekend. We had lots of fun at the cabin (and farm) with family and friends. Due to increased population density in the cabin, the Hobbled Runner spent two nights out-of-doors in his new tent (a Father’s Day gift from the kids). Sleeping under the stars was a lot of fun, but it took a while to settle down on the night of the 4th as it sounded like we were in a war zone. Given our close proximity to North Dakota, many had made a run for the border to secure real fireworks. While I have no interest in spending hundreds of dollars to buy stuff that you are going to turn around and blow up in a few hours –I’m glad others do. Thanks, we all appreciated the show.

On the night of the 4th, I slept in the tent with M and the Dude, stretching the limits of this 2 to 3 person tent. The highlight of that night was M waking me up at 4:30 with tooth in hand. She had lost a tooth, and her mouth was all bloody. I ran to the house for water and paper towels. After a few minutes with her head sticking out the tent door, spitting bloody water into the grass, we all settled down for a few more hours.

On the second night, it was just the Dude and I. More room to turn over, but the ground was just has hard and lumpy.

Highlights of the weekend (besides the tenting): Lots of fun with the little cousin, I-Man; playing with the Kentucky cousins; the maiden voyage on the new (to us) hand-me-down boat; breaking both cables in the boat lift – but not at the same time; M learning to kayak, and making a very nice recovery from rolling it while attempting some sharp maneuvers; oh – and the Dude perfecting his lawn mowing techniques. I’m probably crazy to let him ride the thing, but he does a pretty nice job. We insist he stick to the flat open spaces, no fancy maneuvers around trees or buildings and no mowing the slopes. He’s only 8 and weighs about 60 pounds. Next year – the job’s his for good!

The 4th of July would have been my Dad’s 84th birthday. I no longer believe that we shoot fireworks to celebrate his birthday – as he told us when we were little kids, but I never hear fireworks without forgetting that story. Happy Birthday Dad.