Summer

 

This is Nana "sledding" down the hill with Blaze on a homemade board with wheels attached that #1tomatolover made decades ago. 

She also played wiffleball with the boys and did sponge painting with Blaze. In the afternoon she took them to another creek. She's an incredible woman. 

It was a quieter day--I worked in the morning while the boys were asleep and a bit in the afternoon. I spent some time packing with Q for his camp. I made risotto with bacon, asparagus, lemon, and basil for dinner. 

In the evening we saw quite a fireworks display, put on by Diana's sister's husband. It was very 3D, in the sense that it was actually coming toward us, dumping cardboard fireworks wrappers in our laps and ash in our eyes. Even with earplugs it was loud! And some of them were blindingly bright. I don't want to see army flashbulbs that make me turn away! I want to be able to see the fireworks! Anyway, they were great, but I was wondering as sparks floated toward the air toward us whether it was entirely safe and a good idea to be there. (I didn't even tell you about the two times that Blaze fell off the tube and had to be rescued when we were going down the creek. In this place, you take your life in your hands.)

Before they started, we got to visit with friends and relatives. 

This morning Q and I went to mass. Francisco calls the giant round thing above the altar a transporter that can zip you up to space. 

It was a July 4th mass, so once again, little about the readings, more about the country. But this priest did better, in my opinion: He connected the prophet Amos calling out the king to our duty to reflect prophetically and critically on our own country. That was a bit daring of a position to take with so many people wearing red, white, and blue with Rush Limbaugh flags on their shirts (okay, I only saw one of those). 

Francisco is in California with his family, working on his father's estate.