Here I sit.....

listening to fireworks from the festival that's going on at the lake about 3 blocks from me right now. The grand finale will be at 11 p.m. and its LOUD and constant for almost a full two minutes when it happens. It used to get my other dog so upset she was beside herself so I had to tranquilize her on the day of the festival.

Its been sprinkling for the last several hours but not enough to stop this celebration. Seems like every year they get bigger and louder. Sigh - I guess I'm showing my age. I don't bother fighting the crowd to go down there and see them any more. Actually I can see a lot of them from my deck. Some of them are so powerful that it vibrates the pictures on my walls. Personally I think its really over done....I say this silently every year and have sort of labeled myself a 'grumpy old woman'.....I don't voice this opinion to very many people because of that. I thought maybe this year it would be a bit more subdued because of the economy but the Association that puts it on are all members who live in lakefront homes and money is the least of their worries.

When I was a kid, I looked forward to seeing the fireworks because it was a rarity. They only had them one weekend, the one closest to the fourth as possible....and that was IT. You enjoy something so much more when you have to wait a whole year to see it again. I've been listening to fireworks since the last week of June and past experience tells me that I will continue to hear them up until the end of August. Some people just don't know when to stop.

My daughter is down there with my granddaughter who hasn't seen too many fireworks displays at her young age. To her, this is really special and I'm glad she's able to watch them.

I haven't had much to write about and I'm glad really. Its sort of nice to have life slow down for a while. My computer is running so s-l-o-w, it is maddening. I have purchased the things needed for my new one and my computer guy picked them up today. He will assemble it during this week and next weekend pick up this one and begin the transfer process. I am apprehensive....afraid I will have to do a lot of things over. You know, you have everything set up just like you like it and then if you have to reinstall, then you're back to square one again. I know my photos are safe as I have them backed up on an external hard drive. Well, actually my whole hard drive is backed up, but its no guarantee that the programs will work once the transfer is finished as I'm upgrading to XP. I'm using Win2000 right now. So, I'm kinda stressed out over that. I have paid all the bills that are due up to August 8....so hopefully I'll be back in business way before then.

One good thing did happen. My daughter received notice that she WON her disability case. I can't begin to tell you what a relief this is to us. Things have been so difficult since she lost her job because she was unable to do the work any longer. We've waited for 2 years and 5 months. All that time with no money coming in and fighting to get what she's entitled to. Now we wait another 30-60 days before she finds out the rest of the particulars from her local social security office.

Keep smilin'