Monday, July 6, 2009

Week 27 - Celebrating True Independence

Well, it was a good week for many reasons. The weather was unseasonably cool and ended with a long weekend to celebrate the 4th – what’s not to love about that? But the best thing this week was Jonathan got out of jail.

My cousin’s husband has been in jail since winter because he was the sales manager for an investment company that ended up being a ponzi scheme. The company had been shut down and Jonathan was cooperating with the SEC’s investigation when the Madoff scandal hit. The Attorney General of California saw his name in headlines and decided that all the executives under investigation should be arrested, so out of the blue, Jonathan was rounded up with 5 others and slammed in jail. With bail set at more than $3,000,000 (more headlines?) he was stuck there. His public defender was useless so while all the others had their bail reduced and got out, Jonathan languished in jail.

Well this week, after a flurry of fedexed legal documents – sign here, notarize this, fax that - he was finally able to get out. Hearing that gave Independence Day a whole new meaning.

On a more ordinary front, I had my 2nd annual 4th of July cookout. It was nice that we had Friday off so I could enjoy the preparations instead of running around stressed. It’s always a good thing to have people over because I did things I’d been putting off for too long, like going through all the paper on my desk and bar (my 2 hot spots) and getting the entire house neatized to a higher standard than normal. I had gotten a head start on Wednesday morning while I was waiting for Fedex so I had time to go the extra mile. It always takes external motivation for me to get stuff like that done. Since the cleaning lady comes tomorrow and I’m flying to RI Saturday morning, having all that done puts me ahead of the game for this week. Life is good!

The weather Saturday was weird for July – dreary with intermittent sprinkles and very cool. At least the sprinkles stopped by the end of the day and everyone (I had 21 people come this year) had a good time. I had the usual burgers, hotdogs, chips and beans and everyone brought something to share so there was tons of food. This year I bought s’mores stuff and those were a big hit. When the sun went down, it was so chilly that I had to get a blanket for one of my friend’s kids to wrap around her shoulders and we all wore sweatshirts down to watch the fireworks. It was a fun night and I cleaned up before I went to bed so I didn’t have to face a mess the next morning – so unlike me but worth the effort.

Sunday was a gorgeous day but I was tired, not having gotten to bed until 1:30. I had a leisurely day of vegging interspersed with the usual chores. I even gave up on my fancy 360 degree antenna, which worked in the dead of winter but was now useless. I was getting zero reception, not even PBS, which even comes in down in the basement with just rabbit ears. So I dug out my old satellite dish antenna and got that hooked back up and rescanned the channels. It means changing the position every time I change the channel but since I’ve gotten used to watching no TV, I figure that’s better than nothing. I also did a lot of cooking – sloppy joes, taco salad mix, yet another burger on my newly fixed grill (it had been out of commission since last summer – dumn!) Do you see a trend? I only used half of the hamburgers I made so was cooking with ground beef prior to freezing the rest. I ended the day by trying out the new mulching mower I got from my friend’s husband on a trial basis, which worked great so I will be buying it from him.

So it was a good week. By the end of this one, I’ll be enjoying a cookout at Bob’s surrounded by all my RI friends, which will be wonderful. Despite Bob’s contention that summer is over after the 4th of July, I’m looking forward to this one. I’ve only had my AC on for 5 days so far but I’m sure the heat will arrive and I’ll finally get my purse made. But if the cool weather holds, I’ll just get some more gardening done. It’s all good. Happy summer!

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