Independence Day 2010

The 4th of July holiday weekend has come and gone. Nothing huge happened so it can be a little difficult to make sound interesting. But it may have been the most perfect holiday in memory. No stress, no drama and no drinking. I am starting to think those things go hand in hand.

To start with the weather was hot, hot, hot. To cool off I spent the weekend either in my sister's pool or swimming off the boat in the bay. It was a nice way to go.

My weekend got off to a slow start because on Thursday night I was trying to fix my rack of 3000 CD's when they fell and I then had all of them on the floor. I was able to get the shelves fixed in no time but then every spare minute I was spending getting the CD's back in order.

I was able to take Friday off from work so I spent part of the day with my mom who is visiting from Florida. We went shopping for a few things including some plants for me to put out by my front door. I am trying to make my home look like a real person lives here. Or at least attempting to make visitors feel welcome. Maybe it is more for me.

Friday night I spent with Janet and Roberta outside watching a Latin music band. It was a little boring so we went to a tiki bar we know and hung out there. I was ready to go early but stayed until about 10.

Saturday my plan was to get the boat all spic-n-span so that people wouldn't be disgusted when they came out for the fireworks on Sunday night. My sister (Maryliz) and my mom helped ... well, actually they kind of did all of it. I wanted to clean but apparently my standard of clean is not what it should be. I have trouble getting through the clutter. I know I tend to hoard things and sometimes it's best if you just let someone else get rid of all the stuff you don't need. Besides. I needed to take the cat to the vet and the appointment that was available was at 11:30 ... right in the middle of the day. Still my sister was cleaning until after 3 PM on a hot day. While I was there the whole time I would never have been able to do that. I would have quit in 2 hours. It does look nice all cleaned and no junk all over the place.

That night we all went to dinner and I felt honored to pick up the tab for all the hard work they did. Sunday was the 4th and Maryliz planned a pool party and BBQ at her house after which we would take the boat out into the bay for fireworks show. It was a perfect uneventful day. I must say that not drinking gave me more confidence. I was calm and in charge. I was a little disappointed that some of the friends I have failed to come aboard. Just Chris who joined me last year was there. He has some experience on a boat so it's always good when he comes aboard. I didn't really need it though. Maryliz took care of the galley and Kenny took care of things up on deck. All I needed to worry about was driving the boat.

I did see Coleen briefly on Sunday. She called me and we took a ride to Macy's so she could return an item she had bought the week before. I had planned for her to go on the boat but she said she was not coming for the fireworks. She had made another plan. I was a little disappointed to hear that but to tell you the truth ... she is probably giving more stress than anyone right now so it was better for me not to have her go. Still it was good to at least see her over the 4 day weekend.

Monday I was off from work so I took the boat out again ... it was 95 degrees so I needed to cool off. Chris was off too so we both went out into the bay and just swam off the back of the boat until about 5. That was my weekend ... no real news. Just a regular time with friends and family. No fights, no arguments, no drama.