Independence Day Ruminations

The 4th of July weekend has always been an unofficial summertime halfway mark for me. Big party at my parents’ in ER, lots of family in for the weekend. Usually hot, food, drink, good times. Not as usual this year since ER very controversially shut down their fireworks this year. But we had our party all the same, since my godsister usually throws her own summer bash each year, and this year stepped up to take over the 4th. It was a great time, even if we had an actively pinging weather radar for a good part of the afternoon. Nephew #1 drove the 30 or so mile trip to the party taking mostly freeway driving, and had to learn behind the wheel what it’s like to drive on the freeway through a whiteout downpour. I’ll give the kid points for doing something well at 15 that I sure wouldn’t have wanted to do myself at 41.

We stretched the weekend out a little more to include the 5th with a trip to Valleyfair. Pretty good day. I’ve never been one to shy away from rides, but after x number of trips to Valleyfair with the school patrol, the shine of the place has worn off for me in a definitive way. But being there with people you enjoy being with helps a lot, and here’s a tip that maybe I shouldn’t share -- it seems that EVERYONE in the Cities is up North on the weekend of the 4th, which means that on the day after? All the lines at Valleyfair are amazingly quick. Some of the empty queues that we just breezed through were vaguely reminiscent of an establishing scene from some kind of B-grade post-apocalyptic movie.

The older set, which now consists of my generation in the family, didn’t ride quite as much but still hit a few of the more famous coasters and a few other rides. We heard a lot of obscure 80s one-hit wonders played on the park soundtrack, discovered that the cherry-flavored Jolly Rancher frozen drinks taste remarkably like cherry Jolly Ranchers, spent time swimming and/or lounging at the water park, and of course I spanked down Nephew #1 pretty hard on the air hockey table. Considering some of us had been there together more than thirty years ago when our families took us as children and we are still together and doing things like this as adults all these years later, I think that makes a pretty strong statement about our family.

I had a nice surprise while enjoying my aforementioned Jolly Rancher cherry-flavored frozen drink. As we (me and one of the cousin wives, another teacher) were walking back to meet up with some people we were waiting for, who do we happen upon but SuperKyle himself, escorted around the park under a huge shade umbrella by his mother and some other family members. They were also there on a big outing. He told me about several of the rides he had gone and and still planned to -- he was taking on quite a bit more adventure than I was that day. It was great seeing him out and about like that. Very affirming that he’s still hanging in there.

Album of the Day today is “Hints Allegations & Things Left Unsaid” by Collective Soul. Just because they’re a cool band and I felt like playing it. This was probably triggered by having a CS song not found on this album come on the radio in my cousin’s van on the way to the park today.

Tomorrow is Monday, and the Lazyman Triathalon begins. I have until August 9th to row 12.5 miles, bike 112 miles, and walk/run 26.2 miles during my workouts at the Y. How perfect that this will begin the day after walking around Valleyfair, as my knees are showing their age and I’m sporting a blister under my right big toe the approximate size of a Canadian dime. Wish me luck.