Independence Day Weekend, So Far

The Lovely Wife, for a few years now, has spoken very highly about the City of Moroni's July 4th celebrations, how they spend most of the yearly budget on Fireworks, they do a cool little parade, etc, etc. . .

One of the coolest things about the parade is that it is kicked off by a small airplane that buzzes the parade route and drops a mass of ping pong balls on the parade route. TLW's eyes would light up as she would recall the cloud which erupted from this plane and the chaos as balls would go flying every direction and kids fighting each other to get a ball, because some contained prizes.

Imagine my anticipation as I see the plane, flying low over main street, heading right for us, and then a handful of balls start falling out of plane. It doesn't quite block out the sun like I thought it would, but maybe the ball dropping mechanism jammed. It's ok, they'll come around again.

The plane had quit dropping them before it got to us, and I watch it as it flies past, and I see someone's hands sticking out a side window, shaking the last balls from a plastic Walmart bag.

So they fly around again and come down the street again, and this time they over shoot us. And the second time around was every bit as impressive as the first one.

Lovely Wife looks at me, and says, "I promise it was way cool when they started, they're cheaping out on us." To which I replied, "I guess they couldn't afford more than 1500 ping pong balls."

Maybe the oil spill is driving up the price of oil, and therefore plastic, so ping pong balls must be like $30 a pop.

Last year the Awesome Fireworks were canceled because of gale force winds and Thunderstorm. The Lightning was very spectacular and fun to watch, as loud and bright as any fireworks display, but you don't get that distinctive sulphur smell of summer.

Tonight will tell if Moroni will live up to The Lovely Wife's childhood memories.



In other news, the City is putting on a Trap Shoot, which I will be attending. Hopefully pictures and video to follow.