Happy Independence Day (Belated)

Growing up I, unfortunately, learned it was better to stay home and hide while the mobs of people visited the Cape. So, I grew up rather anti-social, shy, and whatever other words are used when speaking of a sheltered existence. That has to change and indeed we are beginning, somewhat, to break out of that. I'm 40 now, so time to grow up and have fun.

I (stupidly) took a midnight overtime shift on the 4th and immediately following that craziness went to work at the kennel for the whole day. I arrived there at about 8:15 or so and found our full-time worker was well under way getting the dogs out and starting the cleaning process. Kara saved my ass for certain. I was feeling good, but had the uneasiness of having just pulled an all-nighter. I have not worked a midnight shift in years.

We had no office hours at the kennel so no need to worry about dealing with people. I do enjoy talking to customers about their dogs, or their adventures, but I always - ALWAYS - am ready for an argument having been through a number of them in my manager years. I can do without that anxiety and always tell people that I have less stress as a public safety dispatcher then I did as a kennel manager.

Anyway, at lunch time I came home and wanted to fall on the couch, but it was too hot. Mrs was out with an old friend clamming and would be home soon. They did very well hauling in 90 quahogs which our friend came specifically for. In the waters on her part of the Cape, they are not nearly as big as what we have, but she has more soft-shelled clams there (what we call steamers). So, she brought us some steamers and she left with a good catch of her own.

I spent the afternoon finishing up a project of putting a giant sun shade over top of the outdoor kennels. We're in a nasty spell of heat and blazing sun here. Good for tourism, bad for gardens, laws, and dogs. It's not crazy mid-west hot, but we tend to melt when the mercury creeps towards 90.

Kara and I finished up around 5:00 and we were out the door. Once I got home I stripped off and immediately hit the showers. I have not felt that disgusting in a while. Even camping (2 showers in 5 days) I did not feel this gross. 8 hours of office sitting and jail cell smells, 8 hours of urine, crap and slobber and sweating like a pig in blazing sun. I had to have been offensive. So, two cycles through the shower and I could relax and try to stay awake to spend some quality time with my ever-understanding, beautiful wife.

She made us a wonderful supper of Vermont Natural Beef burgers, potato salad, steamers and I even grilled up a piece of linguica for more Cape Cod flavor. We enjoyed some beers and with a loosely open-ended invite to see the Falmouth fireworks, we went over to the marina that my father-in-law works at during the summer.

There was quite a bit of traffic and we were a few miles down the coast from where the display is set off from a barge in Vineyard Sound. Falmouth Heights is the place to see them if you want to be right underneath them, but it turned out where we were was excellent as well. We have not been to a Falmouth 4th display since the early 90s. I must say I was quite impressed with the quality. The weather was near-perfection and moved the smoke out of the way of the blasts of color. The guy who runs the marina was also there and he tuned to a local radio station that was broadcasting music synchronized with the display! Even better! So, in the Marina parking lot full of cars, but no other people the 6 of us enjoyed the show and some laughs.

The second song played during the display was from my long-time personal Elvis, John Mellencamp called Our Country. It was magical and emotional and it was not the beer talking. It reminded me how much I love this town and how wonderful it can be.

I have no photographs to share from the night since we got changed and pretty much ran out of the house to make the drive there. Honestly I had low expectations so why bother with a camera, right? Lesson learned. It was one of the best 4ths I have had and I have the memories.