This weekend was the 4th of July, it was a bitter-sweet weekend at best. On Thursday we learned of the death of a dear friend, on Friday we celebrated (early) a pre-40 birthday party, on Saturday we had a lazy rainy day, pizza, movies and a bbq in the evening with my parents friends. After the bbq, we came home and sat in the driveway to watch the neighbors try real hard not to blow up themselves or their houses – they even blared some Skynard for dramatic effect {or at least that’s what we called it, I’m sure they truly enjoyed it.}

That was pretty much as close to a childhood 4th of July replication as I’m ever gonna get.