Well, I've been meaning to post for a couple of days, but it's been a crazy couple of days and I haven't gotten around to it. Work has been busy, with teen summer reading in full swing and programs like Recycled Crafts (where we made a wallet out of an old audio cassette tape, and tried to finger-weave a lei out of plastic grocery bags-- but did not have much success because despite doing it twice before at workshops, I just couldn't get the hang of it using only the photo directions :-( And we had a horse show at the farm two weeks ago; I took a bunch of photos of "my" horses in that, which you can see on my Flickr stream. (It rained for a solid hour during the English riding portion of the horse show, then the sun came out for the last half, when all the Western classes were on: does someone Up There have something against English riding style? :-)

My July Fourth started on Friday night with some great fireworks at the public park in Independence, Ohio--great place to be on Independence Day, eh? My friend Peggy had invited me along with her family and friends to watch the display together. I took some pretty decent fireworks photos, had some burgers and fair food, enjoyed the company. Then early Sat. morning I was up and in downtown Kent for the annual Kent Heritage Festival, which is a daylong party in the streets with craft and jewelry vendors, information booths, kids activities, a classic car show, lots of food vendors, and live music and dance troups on 3 stages. I sat at the PDC (Portage Democratic Coalition) booth for several hours, asking folks to sign a petition to get Single Payer Health Care onto the ballot in Ohio. Not the most fun way to spend the day--lots of people heard our "get health care for all Ohioans" plea and said "oh but I've got health care!" as if we were personally handing out health care to people. Sigh. And one woman was just so steamed at the idea that she spent five minutes yelling at the top of her lungs at us, despite our calm requests for her to stop yelling and just tell us her opinion like a civilized human being. We weren't twisting anyone's arm, it's just a petition to get the legislature to consider the idea for crying out loud. Anyway, that was a bit disconcerting. But I had the company of my good friend Kat and we enjoyed the weather (70's, sunny then overcast) and the smells (if not the sight) of the pig roasting on a spit right across the way from our booth. (!) The new cajun restaurant was advertising its pulled pork sandwiches (which were very tasty) with this poor naked burning pig, blecch. Quite a risky endeavor considering all of the vegetarians who live in Kent! But it was a very oft-photographed attraction...

The highlight of the day for me was getting to ride in the caboose! Of a train! Whoo-whoo!

It was only a twenty-minute ride up and back on the tracks running from downtown up along the river, but it benefitted the chamber of commerce and I've never been in a caboose before, so it was fun. We got to sit up high in the "cupola" seat and everything. Felt just like a little kid. Even had to wait at a crossing for the dumb car drivers to finish racing across the tracks: evidently the crossing arm didn't go down when it was supposed to, because we were sitting there for a few minutes blowing our whistle as these idiots kept driving across, right in front of us! Makes you wonder about people's IQ sometimes.



After the train ride we walked around enjoying the festivities, and ate a "butterfly fry", which my Nebraska friend cannellfan informs me is called a "spiral spud" or something like that where he comes from. I'd never seen these before, they were quite tasty--made out of one giant Idaho potato spun into one long curly strip. It was like a series of potato chips connected into one strip. Mmm.

I was to end the day with a quick jaunt down to the riverbank to watch the River Ducks Race: they drop about 1,000 rubber ducks (each sponsored for $5) into the river and the first duck to make it to the ending point wins. Something, I'm not sure what (enduring glory and its own song? Oh but Ernie already wrote that song.). So after stopping home to feed the horses I parked at the Kent Free Library and walked down the street to go to the river. THEN DISASTER STRUCK. (cue dramatic music, or rather, the silly Benny Hill music) As I prepared to cross the street at the curb, I looked up for cars, there were none, I glanced back down and stepped off the curb but wasn't looking closely and CRASH! I fell down. Landed on the outside of my right ankle instead of the bottom of my foot. I think I misjudged where I was on the curb; I thought I was on the high curb when I was angled to go over the ramped curb cut instead, so I had farther to land. I dunno, either way I'm an idiot. Passersby were very nice and helped me back up. Now I was mad, because all I wanted to do was see the silly ducks and then I was going to drive to my parents' house to enjoy a fried chicken picnic with them. So I hobbled over to see the ducks anyway, because I was that stubborn (and I was practically there anyway). That turned out to be more entertaining than expected, because one of the girls who dumped the box also had balance issues and slipped into the river! Got soaking wet. It was pretty funny, after we determined she wasn't hurt at all. (Those photos haven't been uploaded just yet, but the little duckies are very cute.) Then I drove home and asked my parents to come to me instead of me bringing the food to them.

Ever since then I've been resting my ankle, icing it, keeping it wrapped and elevated. I have had other people feeding the horses so I don't have to worry about that job, and I stayed home from the library for 3 days in a row. The ankle's much better now, still keeping it wrapped and staying off it as much as possible. But the swelling's all gone and it doesn't hurt unless I bump it. I have nearly all of my mobility back, but I'm not walking on it yet. I've been learning the fine art of walking on crutches, as well as a walker and a cane borrowed from friends, and I even used my office chair at home as a wheelchair :-) I will never take two good legs for granted again, lemme tell ya....

       
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. And I hope yours didn't start out the way mine did, as I frantically bailed out my bathroom sink to keep it from overflowing while my washing machine ran!! Ack! Because evidently my kitchen drain is still clogged, even after I've been Dranoing it (is that a word?)--my washing machine is in the kitchen, connected to that sink--and it backs up into the bathroom. I did not know that. On the to-do list for tomorrow: calling in a plumber (or at least the landlord, who will likely call a plumber) Sigh. Now I'm off to mom's house. Happy day everyone! Stay dry!

So here is my favorite of the shots I took Saturday night at the Kent display. It's during the finale. They put on a really good show, although there were more gaps between groups of rockets in this one than there were in the Euclid display. But one nice thing about viewing fireworks that are being shot out over a river instead of in a tightly populated urban area: it's much quieter! There were no reverberating heart-thumping ear-shattering booms at this one, thankfully. I had a great spot on the Main St bridge, which is the big bridge into downtown, been there for nearly 200 years. But after a bit I realized I was probably getting the same shots as euclid, just without the trees and wires in the way, so I walked around in the crowd to try to get some variety.






After it was all over, I watched one of the bands perform--really good big band swingy jazzy music. Kent State University has an awesome folk festival every fall, and there are a ton of good musicians who live right here or nearby. And there was a great juggler; I was wishing I had come earlier in the day as originally planned, to take in the whole festival. (But getting home at 2am from July 4 day meant I was really really beat on Sat. morning, and I went back to bed for half the day. Sigh. We had just gorgeous 75 degree weather all day, too.)

That's it for now. No more fireworks til New Year's! Oh, and in case you've noticed a whole slew of new photos on flickr that I didn't mention here, they're from LAST YEAR'S July 4--I was in the Stow parade and never got around to uploading them for my flickr archives. And last year's gaming party where I took some decent fireworks shot. Anyhoo that's what those are. A moment back in time...

Happy July Fourth everyone! I had a fantastic, albeit very energetic and lengthy, July Fourth holiday yesterday. As you see here, I rode my bike to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. But that was already halfway through the day! First, after the usual wee morning hours horse feeding, I drove to Cleveland Heights for breakfast with my bike team. Patti made us wonderful French toast, on Italian bread, with Canadian Bacon, for an international July 4. :-)



Then we set out on the first of two rides, with Patti as our Pace Car for the start (see Flickr photo of her driving her scooter!) First, a 15 mile ride in the neighborhood and to the park bike trail in nearby Shaker Heights. That was enjoyable, until I began to notice that instead of being in the first group of 5 or 6 bikes, I kept being passed up by other teammates. And it was getting harder to pedal.... Turned out we were on a very gradual incline of a few degrees, not enough to *look* like a hill, but enough of a grade that it became a real challenge to keep up my speed of 15mph. No way Jose. Eventually we hit some awesome downhills through the park, on a very curvy and shady wooded trail. It was a nice workout. (I'm curious to see the footage we shot of the ride: our co captain wore a Helmet Cam the whole time!)

And that would have been enough for most people, but oh no, not the Paladins!! We need to get in our miles. So after a brief rest and recharge back at Patti's house, we set out on our second ride, another 15 (ended up 20 mile) ride, but north this time, through Rockefeller Park and MLK drive--picturesque woodsy biking trail--and then urban he**--the torn up city streets of Cleveland, under heavy construction in some parts. We ended up along the lakefront, where we were buffeted by winds as we rode along the shore to end up at the Rock Hall. Whew. If it wasn't a hill, which we encountered on our way back (you have to go about 200 feet back uphill from the lakeshore to get to the "Heights'--they ain't called that for no reason!), it was headwinds for a few miles. Suffice to say it seemed like a lot more than 20 miles total by the time I finished. Oy.



This is the view from just off the bike path at the rocks and waves along the lakeshore.

But having made it back, we got to stuff our faces with really good food at our team picnic. Ahhhh. And my brother had shown up with my niece, whom I saw for about 2 minutes in between her frenzied playing with other kids all over the house and yard... Okay. First half of day done. THEN, because I love a good party and want to see all of my friends whenever I can, I scarfed some Aleve, ignored my body's clamoring for a serious NAP and drove about 15 minutes from there to Euclid, further towards the lake, for a Fourth gaming party with my scifi club gang that ended with fireworks on the back porch! Yay! (Professional fireworks, sent up by the city.)

I had a grand time, played some fun games like Labyrinth, Go Mental, Taboo, and a new one called Seismic where you set up roads leading out of San Andreas--but watch out for earthquakes, they destroy your highways and take away your points! It was interesting. I ate a lot more, of course, and at the end of the day I practiced taking fireworks photos, but I didn't really like how they turned out. There was no way to avoid the telephone wires and trees in the way. But I fiddled with settings and got some interesting colors.
Tonight I went to see fireworks in Kent, and I'll upload those photos tomorrow, see how they turned out.

I hope all of you had a spectacular July Fourth too, and Happy Independence Day to you!