Saturday, July 3, 2010

Chilly Morning

The NWS Wonks got it right again.  They said the temp today could be 20-25 degrees cooler.  They were right.  It's 47 out right now at 7 am.  Yesterday this time it was 72 or more.  Now that's a significant drop in temps.  The July 4th parades we have attended have all been hot, literally and figuratively.  We've felt sorry for the marchers plodding away on the hot asphalt.  You could actually see some of them wearing down and wilting by the end of the parade.  Today, there's likely to be an unexpected spring in their step.  Marching smartly along the route will help keep them warm! It's cool enough and windy enough to make me wonder whether to wear some poly pro underwear.  Brrrr.

Yesterday afternoon was Honey Do time.  I helped finish 3 project that have been on Susun's list for some time.  On one project, I caught my left middle finger in the drill chuck so I can't type real well this morning.  All that mechanical mayhem with the bicycle and I didn't get knicked.  Ah, well....such is life.

I purposely went out to both WINCO and Smith's markets late yesterday to see the crowds.  Whoa!  Total chaos inside WINCO.  Pretty amazing.  All holidays are "foodie events" to some degree.  Some holidays are more "foodie" than others.  I suspect July 4th ranks higher on the foodie list that some people suspect.  It's all about fast foods.  On Thanksgiving, for example, people have to actually PLAN ahead!  Then they have to bake a turkey for sometimes hours and slave away making all sorts of complex side dishes.  The same goes for Christmas and Easter.  That's not so with July 4th.  The most complex menu item is perhaps a hamburger.
The rest of it is soda, potato chips, deli salads, hot dogs, all the usual suspects.  A third grader could put together a competent July 4th feast.  Consequently, shopping for July 4th "eats" is a grocery "grab & go."  Whoa!  You should have been the brim full junk food laden carts rolling out of WINCO.  Maybe July 4th is actually a Memorial to the Freedom to eat really bad food and think it's the American thing to do.  The Cheese Whiz people gotta really LOVE this holiday--it's probably much bigger than the Super Bowl for spray cheese in a can.  I don't think I've ever seen as much high fructose corn syrup being wheeled out of WINCO at one time as I did last evening.  Sometimes I think America lives on high fructose corn syrup and days like yesterday only seem to confirm that suspicion.

Brrr.  I just glanced out the window and the clouds are really flying by--they actually look like they might rain any minute.  I checked the weather and the wind is gusting to 30 mph.  Brrr...this is going to be one really COLD July 4th parade this morning.  With 70 percent humidity, the wind chill is running in the upper 30's to low 40's right now.  Geeze, maybe it's poly pro AND gore-tex this morning!

Not much else to report this morning as we've already discussed today's activities yesterday.  Cheers!  jp

1 comment:

The Goatherder said...

It's turning into just another buy-fest. Pugh research just came out with a new poll. 74% of respondents (all citizens) knew we declared independence from England. 20% had NO IDEA and, get this, 6% named other countries, including CHINA!! Better than 1 in 4 Americans have know idea why they're celebrating....

Trivia notes: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the 4th, in 1826. Jefferson at Monticello and Adams in Quincy MA.

Sixty years after the signing was completed, one visitor to America, a Captain Frederick Marryat, wrote of a New York City 4th of July celebration. Marryat reported seeing quantities of food in stands along Broadway in which were oysters and clams, boiled hams, pies and puddings and candy. "Broadway being three miles long, and the booths lining each side of it, in every booth there was a roast pig, large or small as the center attraction. Six miles of roast pig! and that in New York city alone; and roast pig in every other city, town, hamlet, and village in the Union."

Cooking the glorious pig appears to be the most enduring 4th tradition. Happy 4th!