Holiday weekend

It was Independence Day over the weekend. And it was hot as blazes on the island. As usual, the actual temperature wasn’t much over 90F (32C), but the sun and the humidity made it FEEL much, much, much hotter. The fact that it hasn’t rained in more than a month (and doesn’t look to rain today, despite the storms predicted by The Weather Channel), does not help

And I still haven’t made it into the water. I really wanted to go swimming sometime last week/weekend, and every time I wanted to go, everybody else had something else going, and I didn’t want to go by myself. I believe in the buddy system. Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico really isn’t a solo activity, even if there is a lifeguard on the beach… I am just going to have to twist somebody’s arm and GO.

I didn’t go to the 4th of July parade downtown. It was too hot, and I didn’t want to go downtown an hour and a half early, and nobody else in the house got up. Which didn’t really hurt my feelings. (‘Cause it was hot.)

But we did go to the fireworks. We headed down toward 39th Street about 45 minutes ahead of time, because they shoot them off out the 37th Street jetty. (It’s paved along the top, so they could drive the Budget Rent-a-truck out onto the rocks.) There was a really strong onshore wind (isn’t that what you call a wind that blows from the water onto the land?), whipping up the sand everywhere, so we had to hunt a little while to find a place where we could actually keep our eyes open and not have sand in them. The kids on the beach below the seawall digging in the sand like puppy dogs did not help, but it wasn’t too bad, once we moved upwind from the sand ramp down to the beach. And shortly after it got dark, the fireworks started. It was a good show–lasted about 30 minutes. I’m not sure if it was longer or shorter than last year, because I don’t remember how long last year’s show lasted. But there were plenty of great big sparkly, splashy, flashy fireworks. It was fun.

I am hoping to have a chance in the rest of the week to plunge deep into the deadline cave and get a bunch of this book written. The fella and I are leaving the boy behind to hold down the fort and keep the dog in the yard to go to a conference of his. I plan to spend my time in Fort Worth writing. And maybe going to some fun stuff. I’m not sure what’s playing in Bass Hall. We talked about going–but I don’t remember if we ever did anything about it. Wish me luck. I have GOT to get some writing done!!