My blog post title for this week comes courtesy of my sister in-law Ember. She and her husband Andrew came over to spend the holiday with my wife, our dogs and me. To set the stage for you, I was outside on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the great Pacific Northwest. We are currently in the midst of a heat wave.

Normally, the fourth of July in the Seattle area consists of clouds, rain and perhaps a high of sixty degrees. For well over a week now, and counting, the temperature here has hovered in the low to mid-nineties. For our part of this beautiful nation, that is late August weather. We had a mild winter and could have a record high heat for our summer. I’ve been wearing shorts since February. As my wife can verify.

Naturally, on a gorgeous Saturday I was out washing the car – naturally. The automobile, Crystal Red and proudly made here in the good old USA. The speaker pumping out some old fashioned rock and roll circa the late nineteen seventies with a little David Lee Roth on the microphone in his first tenure with the mighty Van Halen. All that was missing at this particular point in the afternoon was my mom and some apple pie. This year, cheesecake would have to do – and it did.

Good food has become a tradition at our house for this, and every holiday. I live with an award winning chef. She is beautiful, she is talented, she can smoke the heck out of ribs and she’s the best wife in the world.

Yes, multiple award winner. Note, I don’t particularly care for ribs, sticky fingers, but I can appreciate a good smoke ring when I see it. Not only did she smoke ribs this weekend but hamburgers, she whipped up a potato salad and as I type this, she is preparing homemade chocolate chip cookies – need to make sure my gym membership is current.

We not only celebrated our independence day with good food, good company and good conversation but also the nineteen ninety-six masterpiece, “Independence Day.” Okay, I use the word “masterpiece” loosely. Sorry Bill Pullman, your best work was a year early with Sandy B in While You We’re Sleeping.

No sleep for us on this night, yes I happily went there. On this night, the neighbors emerge from their homes about ten o’clock to light up the  sky. Though pretty to look at, it can also be scary given our current hot/dry weather. It is also unsettling for our two dogs. Princess Sydney handled herself well with the occasional bark but it was our other dog, Buddy, who had some issues. The poor little guy hid under a blanket for well over an hour.

 I’m starting to think she’s the Meryl Streep of the housewife world – what can’t she do?Tweet

With the sunlight gone, he began to shake as the volume of fireworks increased. Luckily, my wife is trained for such instances. I’m starting to think she’s the Meryl Streep of the housewife world – what can’t she do? She wrapped the little Bud-man up in a “ThunderShirt” and with a little extra TLC he stopped shaking and was finally able to rest.

Sunday morning we said hello to Steve and his donuts but goodbye to Andrew and Ember. Blessed to have them in our life, we are also blessed to have good friends who came over to visit Friday night and later in the day Sunday afternoon and dine on yet more smoked meat prepared by my wife. Man, I really need to take up a hobby and pull my weight around here.

This weekend we spent time with family and friends as we celebrated this great nation of ours. Happy Birthday, America – or as we kept saying – “’Merica!”

Ember, you were spot on. This is what the fourth of July is all about.

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