Boom!!

Just walked home from enjoying the last of the Bayview Daze festivities. We started out this morning with strolling downtown (a strenous 5 blocks) to check out the crafts fair and watch the Bayview Parade. They advertise “An Oldtime 4th of July” and that’s pretty much what it is for the parade. Lots of veterans marching, carrying flags, playing bagpipes (I always like that), people driving decked out four wheelers, one guy on a motorized bar stool - and people can still toss out candy here, which is cool. My niece and nephew made out pretty well in that regard.

The crafts fair is fun - I love looking at the jewelry especially, although I managed not to buy any this year, mainly because I got several pieces of jewelry for my birthday from my sisters. They asked me what I wanted and telling them to buy me sparklies decreases my odds of getting oversized t-shirts from whatever touristy place they’re at currently. And, because i think only of others, I suggest they buy me jewelry becasue I know the shipping will be less. Anyhoo, I took Ampersand to the crafts fair and he did much better than last year. I still tend to think of him of pretty puppy-ish and high energy, but this year he was very well behaved. He got more petting than.. than… than something that gets more petting than a cute golden retreiver. A fuzzy bunny? A baby horse? I dont’ know. I have to say that if I was single, walking around with a friendly dog would be the way to meet people. I’ve decided that I’ll let Ampersand determine how favorable my opinion is of people by how they react to him. Some people don’t want to pet him, and actually move their hand out of the way so he can’t slobber on them. They are definitely not going on my Christmas card list.

It’s also highly entertaining walking around town when the tourists have descended upon it - there are some people out there completely lacking in fashion sense. Some of them have gone so far past good sense I tend to think they must have decided that really, they want to look as unattractive as possible. Bikini and sarong showcasing a belly and cellulite legs? Bad. Shorts that show part of someone’s butt cheek? Also bad. When that person looks to be over 50? Extra bad. At times I find myself drifting into a fantasy in which I’m one of those people on the TV show What Not to Wear and i can go ambush these bad dressers and put properly fitting jeans and a t-shirt on them (because I’d be a casual What Not to Wear person).

This year we walked down to the lake to watch the fireworks. Past years we’ve watched from up higher, where there’s less people, but I enjoyed being right in the middle of the action tonight. We found spots for our chairs right by the boat launch, and while there were lots of people there it was surprisingly uncrowded and calm. There were the standard drunk guys whooping and hollering behind us, but it’s kind of endearing when it’s all because of an especially sparkly or colorful firework (can you singularize fireworks? hmm). Normally that kind of guy enthusiasm is heard directed at scantily clad women.

As we walked up the street to our house, I was suddenly so glad we live where we do. We’re fortunate indeed. Good times.