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Happy Semiquincentennial

olbriar

 
Moderator
In other words, Happy Independence Day. 250 years is quite a span of time. I well remember the Bicentennial 50 years ago. I was married and had a one year old daughter. I doubt I get to celebrate 50 years from now. We aren't doing much this weekend. I plan to grill out some chicken and laze tomorrow. Sunday we are going to the cabin to hang out with some friends. I hope you have some fun stuff and good eats planned. Be careful and be grateful that with all of the endless turmoil of this country of ours, we continue to be a united set of states and our overall direction has been positive for 250 years.
 
We had planned to help (through a volunteer group at our church) with some of a local municipality's events, but my back is acting up so I will be staying home and resting/icing. (Old age isn't always fun, but it beats the alternative!)Y wife will go as planned. Later we will go a short distance to my sister's house and have a small get-together for an early dinner.
I too well remember the summer of '76; I had just graduated high school and was looking forward to going out and conquering the world! :)
My aspirations have changed somewhat...

Just yesterday I read an article about a poll that showed nearly half of all Americans (and almost 2/3 of Gen-Z) don't know the reason we are celebrating the 250th year. That's sad and troubling. :(

Happy Independence Day!
 
The fireworks have started and I'm sitting here out on the front porch with my dogs. They can't stand the noise and will only be calm when my wife or me sits with them.
I do get to enjoy being able to see some of the larger ones through the trees.
Someone in the neighborhood South West of us is sending up some nice ones that get much higher than treetop, so far.
Also sounds like some moron is shooting a pistol too. He doesn't realize that the bullets have to come down somewhere.

Looking like I'm going to be here for another couple of hours.
 
My city puts on a professionally lit show each 4th of July. I'm guessing it was 45 to 50 years ago that the show was put on by the volunteer fire department that we once had. The last show they did, they somehow managed to set everything off at once. Nobody was injured but it was one hell of a show in a short span of time.
 
I estimate that my city and it's inhabitants spent enough on fireworks to have purchased my entire block of houses and all of the vehicles. The sky was on fire and I finally took my hearing aids out. :)
 
I hope you all had a wonderful 250th Independence Day! And the term "Semiquincentennial" is literally Latin for "half of 500" so yeah... it works...

While I generally do a presentation with reading of the Declaration of Independence every Independence Day at our 1871 Courthouse, I was invited to participate with the county's celebration (which, thankfully, was held indoors). It was a capacity crowd of well over 100 people and was very well received with a standing ovation. Then I drove over to a neighboring town, where I'd been invited to do my presentation as the ending of a conference at a small church. Lots of young people in attendance, which was great! The second performance was also well-received: people told me it was "amazing" and the church crew had actually gotten a video of it so I can post it online. They fed us lots of food and then had a fireworks display that literally lasted over an hour. There's no telling how many thousands of dollars they spent just on fireworks!

By the time we got home we were absolutely exhausted. My brain was fried, but at least I can say I did it twice in one night... and at MY age! :D
 
Yeah I forced myself to go to the local church down here , and we sung "American the beautiful" that was oh yesterday, talked with my friend who i have not seen in like forever and just smiled and waved,, my ankle is beyond repair but I can at least stand on it for a few minutes without raising it up in the air like I did in the church, after that I got a 3D view of fireworks wrapped around the entire last night of fireworks on the Fourth out in the country yard.


No cars or anything for miles on end so I was able to photograph much, I will attempt to upload them from my pc when the wifi connects to here... least it is okay for the time being too... IT was not bad. I also hang around with my sister duration of yesterday up until like four p.m., and my Brother-in-law.
 
I stumbled across this history-of-flight themed drone show from (appropriately enough) Dayton, OH, so I thought some here might appreciate it. And speaking of videos, if you are comfortable with it, Chief, please share yours as well. I know I'd be interested in it, so a DM is good if you don't want to go public, so to speak. :)

 
Sadly @rootabaga the videos for BOTH presentations are messed up! Darling Bride's phone died 3/4 the way through my first one; and while I have the second presentation intact, my wireless lapel mic started going out on me just minutes before the end! I wasn't very happy with it anyway, so I'll likely set up my portable studio and reshoot the whole thing right here. However, here's the video of that event:
 
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The second shot is lighting. Yeah going against a cloud, I was two miles away sorry for these blurred images.
 
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