Today is Sunday, July 3 and there are only 175 days until Christmas.  Hey if you aren’t prepared, don’t blame me.  I have been warning you.  today we remember the birthdays of Samuel de Champlain, Franz Kafka and Pete Fountain.  On this day in 1608 Quebec City was founded by Samuel de Champlain, in 1819 the first savings bank in the US, Bank of Savings in New York City, opened its doors and in 1986 President Reagan presided over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.  In Algeria it is Independence Day, in Idaho it is Admission Day and in the US it is National Fried Clam Day and National Chocolate Wafer Day and tomorrow is Independence Day.

Variously known as the Fourth of July and Independence Day, July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution.  In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later its delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

In the pre-Revolutionary years, colonists had held annual celebrations of the king’s birthday, which traditionally included the ringing of bells, bonfires, processions and speechmaking. By contrast, during the summer of 1776 some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III, as a way of symbolizing the end of the monarchy’s hold on America and the triumph of liberty. Festivities including concerts, bonfires, parades and the firing of cannons and muskets usually accompanied the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, beginning immediately after its adoption. Philadelphia held the first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777.

In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees. Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day has remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism. 

That should give you some things to talk about at your barbecue tomorrow.  But now, let’s go on to other things.  As I mentioned last week, I was in Austin Texas.  I have some other items that I wanted to share with you.  Here is a question that I am hoping someone can answer for me.  In the hotel we were in, most of the rooms had a large picture window in the room that looked out onto the hallway.  My question is why?  The hotel was built with a big open area in the middle, but the window would only look out on the windows across from you.  There was nothing to see; however, if you forgot to close the curtains, there would be a lot to see in your room.  I was just wondering.

We saw a lot of interesting things while we were out there.  My brother commented on how svelte he felt compared to the average male in Texas.  It seemed a matter of pride to wear a shirt that may have fit 30 pounds ago, tuck it in and walk around with your belly protruding out over your belt … way over your belt.  I asked my cousin if there was some kind of statute that set a protrusion requirement.  She said she didn’t think so.  One other weird thing we saw driving around was a café with a sign on it that said it was closed for lunch.  H-m-m-m-m.

One little bit of excitement we had occurred on our last day there.  My cousin had loaned us a cooler to use to carry beverages.  She even included bottles of water and soda for us.  We planned to get together with everyone on our last day for dinner, so she said to just bring it back then.  That morning, we emptied the water out, placed the cans of soda in the lid and left the cooler open to dry.  Things went well until we were pulling into the restaurant parking lot.  As we entered, we suddenly heard a loud noise.  We thought we had hit something or blown a tire.  I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw soda running down the back window and we realized that letting soda cans sit in a hot car all afternoon was not a good idea.  Fortunately the can was facing the back of the car and only the window got sprayed.

The best sight we saw happened while we were in the lobby during happy hour.  Sue and I were sitting there with our wine when a couple came into the lobby.  I spotted them and then Sue did.  Now, anyone who knows me will find this very hard to believe, but I was speechless!   I will do my best to paint this picture for you, but trust me when I tell you that you had to see it to believe it.  The male in the couple was about six feet tall.  He had long gray hair that went to his shoulders and ended in a flip.  He had round glasses that made him look like he was surprised.  He wore an athletic tee that was kind of gray.  His shorts were sea foam green and looked like they belonged to a 12 year old girl.  His socks were mid-calf, matched his shorts and had pandas on them.  His sneakers also matched the shorts.

His wife was a little over five feet tall and almost as wide.  Her clothing was a variety of colors and none matched.  One thing we noticed about both of them was that they eschewed underwear.  He was obviously going commando, but not in a flattering way.  It appeared that he was carrying a snail around in his shorts.  She was just as bad and wore no supporting garments.  It looked like she had two small children under her shirt who were fighting whenever she moved.  They were there for about ten minutes and then left.  We never did figure out what they were looking for.

This week our fact tells us that in snow skiing, most men fall on their faces while most women fall on their behinds.  So now are we going to have to get legislation to allow transgender people to fall based on how they identify themselves?

Have a good day tomorrow and be safe.  God bless America!