A "Mostly" Good Time

When Bigger Girl finally realized it was Saturday, not Sunday, and came home, i asked her about her Independence Day with her friends.

"It was great!  We all went down to the levee for the fireworks, even Vera!"

Wait a minute, i asked.  Vera, the veteran of the Afghan War?

"Yep!  My favorite shell-shocked, Kentucky Fried Soldier, who watches "My Little Pony" episodes to de-stress.  She has PTSD, but she loved the fireworks.  When she knows to expect explosions like that, they don't upset her at all.  We all sat out there and watched and had a great time.  It was on the way home that we had trouble."

What happened?

"Well, the people down there had their own fireworks, too, which is illegal.  But anyway, they were setting them off all over the place as we were driving home, even shooting them across the roads at each other!  Mom, they were having fireworks wars!  And get this, there were police all over, but they didn't even try to stop them.  Too many of them, I guess.

"Vera really did start to freak out a bit then, and I don't blame her, so we got out of the area as fast as we could once the show was over.  But I wish Sammy had been there.  She can calm down anyone, she's amazing!"

That's a shame that she got scared like that at the end.  But other than that, it was a good night?  And where was Sammy?

"It sure was, and she calmed down pretty quickly once we got away from the crazies.  Sammy had to work, her boss needed her.  

"It does make me wonder sometimes how bad things were over there for Vera.  She says she had roadside bombs go off near her several times."

Trust me, you don't want to experience any of it first hand, i noted soberly.  And considering that these people are going to set off fireworks they buy in the next parish, legal or not, you need to be prepared if you go to the show on the levee.

"We will be.  Next time, we'll take Sammy."



Today is

Carnival Tuesday -- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Celtic Tree Month Tinne begins (Holly)

Feast of St. Sunniva (Ancient Norse solar maiden Sunna's worship around this time of year was merged with the story of this medieval saint; Patron of Bergen, Norway and the Norwegian west coast)

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show -- Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey, England (the world's largest flower show; through Sunday)

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod -- Eisteddfod Field, Llangollen, Benbigshire, North Wales, UK (Six days of the best music and folk dance, and all the world in one place; through Sunday)

Math 2.0 Day -- celebrating the intermingling of math with technologyhttp://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events

Nagoya Sumo Tournament -- Nagoya, Japan (one of the 6 major tournaments; through the 22nd)

National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day

Old Crafts Day -- it's listed in a few places, but i can't find the history; Old time crafts, or old crafts you've had sitting around the house and never gotten done? If you have the latter, do them or toss them!

Olive Branch Petition Day -- the final attempt, by the 13 Colonies, to avoid a complete break with England in 1775

SCUD Day (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama) -- a good habit, on every day

Senior Citizens' Day -- Kiribati

Soapy Smith Wake -- held simultaneously in 4 locations: Skagway, AK, US; Hollywood, CA, US; Denver, CO, US; Chicago, IL, US (held by Soapy Smith Preservation Trust and Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith, preserving the memory of one of the Wild West and Alaskan Gold Rush's most notorious con men, killed in a gunfight this day in 1898)

Sts. Aquila and Prisca's Day

St. Kilian's Day (Patron of people with gout or rheumatism, whitewashers; Bavaria, Germany; Paderborn, Germany; Tuosist, Ireland; Wurzburg,Germany)

Unity Day -- Zambia

Uniwaine / Unaine Day -- Kiribati (Senior Citizens' Day, specifically Elderly Men's Day / Elderly Women's Day)

Video Games Day -- do they really need a day?

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (when Vitula was given the first fruits of the earth)

Ziegfeld Follies Day -- his first "Follies of 1907" opened on this day


Anniversary Today:

Prince Richard of Gloucester marries Birgitte Eva van Deurs, 1972


Birthdays Today

Jaden Smith, 1998
Sophia Bush, 1982
Milo Ventimiglia, 1977
Kathleen Robertson, 1973
Beck Hansen, 1970
Billy Crudup, 1968
Toby Keith, 1961
Kevin Bacon, 1958
Christopher G. Moore, 1952
Marianne Williamson, 1952
Anjelica Huston, 1951
Wolfgang Puck, 1949
Kim Darby, 1948
Raffi, 1948
Cynthia Gregory, 1946
Jeffrey Tambor, 1944
Steve Lawrence, 1935
Marty Feldman, 1933
Roone Arledge, 1931
Billy Eckstine, 1914
Nelson Rockefeller, 1908
Louis Thomas Jordan, 1908
Philip Cortelyou Johnson, 1906
Alfred Binet, 1857
John D. Rockefeller, 1839
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1838
Etienne De Silhouette, 1709


Today in History

Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India, 1497
Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island, 1663
Battle of Restigouche – British defeat French forces in last naval battle in New France, 1760
The Olive Branch Petition is drafted by the Second Continental Congress as the Congress' last attempt to get King George III of Great Britain to reason with them, 1775
The Declaration of Independence has its first public reading, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell is rung, 1776
Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom, 1822
Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay, 1853
The initial force of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin their March West, 1874
The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published, 1889
St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22, 1932
The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF), 1948
Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American Self-Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination Act, 1970
The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe creates the office of High Commissioner on National Minorities, 1992
NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance, membership to become effective in two years, 1997
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, 2011
Pope Francis condemns the 'global indifference' to the plight of immigrants who have drowned trying to reach Europe, 2013
The mission of the NASA Curiosity Mars rover begins, 2013