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-Keith Pelczarski
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Patriotic is as patriotic does
Happy to say that we flew a flag outside today. Max and Kerah put it out, at my urging. I'm a sucker for Old Glory, and even celebrate Flag Day every so often. I'm into the flag enough to know that I shouldn't still be flying it after dark, but not so much that I'm going to take it down.
Continuing my patriotic part today, I played several key America Rock selections for Max, including The Preamble even though the Constitution, while resulting from our Declaration of Independence, doesn't really have much to do with Independence Day, per se. (That's a whole lotta commas and capitals, folks.) Ahem.
We went to the Woodside Norcal Junior Rodeo today, too. It was a fun little exploration to take with a toddler: horses, tractors, petting zoo, shooting, flags, a color guard, etc. The National Anthem was spirited, featuring a real honker on "free" and much trilling of the "R"s* -- on the rampart's red glare, et al. I was one of the relative few who sheepishly sang along, though I did wince at the honking and trilling. Overall, though, we had a really fine time being all patriotic and stuff.
The one downer note for us at the rodeo was the blaring of Have You Forgotten. I suppose it might've been appropriate back when we were going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but I'm afraid that far too many folks think that hunting him was why we went into Iraq. It seems that a similarly frightening number of people believe that there really were weapons of mass destruction -- NO WMD PDQ! bleck. Happily, there didn't appear to be anyone whooping it up for the song. Jingoistic song notwithstanding, we had a most excellent time at the rodeo.
Afterward, we went for a bike ride with me on my new Specialized Sirrus Comp towing Max in his new Burley Solo. Poor Mom just had her old Bianchi Ibex. She likes Dad's new bike enough to buy one for herself, though.
The Sirrus is just that good: Really light and efficient, but still rugged enough to handle potholes and such. On Sunday I rode it home from Menlo Velo via the Portola Loop, and it was comfortable and competent. According to their marketing, "They're perfect machines for moderate duration road rides, event rides, commuting, or fitness-based riding." They're not just making that up. I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to be able to ride aggressively without being, like, totally hardcore! Can ya dig it?
Yes, you can.
The day continued with merriment in the pool, dinner with the Donovans, and putting Max to bed. After all that, Kerah went to watch fireworks down at Shoreline with Lucy while I stayed home with Max and watched A Capitol Fourth. This was the tipping point for me in actually writing something here instead of just thinking about something that would be cool to write if I weren't such a lazy bastard. The motivating force was the horribly campy performance by Mike Love of the Beach Boys down at the Mall in Washington. Oy, I'm not even Jewish and I have to say OY! It was just so weak that I had to start ranting about something, anything, everything.
The saving grace of the first half of the show was the music from Star Wars. I think John Williams is the reason I continue to like Star Wars movies, despite Lucas's bludgeoning. There's something about that dynamic, powerful sound. Back in the 70's, I was especially enamored of the Star Wars soundtrack eight track (split with music from Close Encouters -- how cool is that?). As bad as the 70's were in many ways, the bicentennial was really quite kick-ass. Of course, as a youngster with good parents, I didn't even notice the suckiness of the seventies until much later.
Back to the present, the true stars of the show were in the sky, as fireworks illuminated DC's big stately bits. (I was pleasantly amused to see us playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture at such a patriotic event. Imagine, being happy about a Russian piece playing with bombs bursting in air.) I do miss the majesty of the mall and all, and look forward to visiting the East Coast again in August.
Speaking of which, much love to our people, and god bless the United States of America!
Peace.
*Due to the Law of Conservation of Rs, every R that gets wasted in trilling is brutally, savagely stripped from a cah in Hahvahd yahd. Be careful out there.
:: Keith 22:13 [link] :: ::