4th of July

Nope, I didn't write last night. I was tired...that's pretty much my excuse. Not that I'm not tired pretty much always- I was just exceptionally tired last night.

Yesterday was funish...we didn't get much accomlished but...oh well? After morning chores, Merle's company ie: Sabina (used to work for Merle) and her boyfriend Tyler and her two friends from her hometown in Switzerland went out trail riding. Merle and I helped them get the horses in and caught and saddled up. I threw my saddle on Joe and Tyler ended up using it. I had to shorted the stirrups like 5 notches...haha that was pretty funny. Sabina was brave and took Bandit out. It was actually a great time to take him because there wasn't a job at hand other than just riding. Dan, JD, and him need to be topped off because they havn't been road for quite some time. If I ever get time and feel up to a little "trail riding" I will have to take them out. So anyway, they went off on their way, Merle went inside and I went to church.

It was a baptism day at church so that only took forever...but hey there was cake afterward. How can you go wrong with that? So, I ate some cake and socialized with the little old ladies and picked up my groceries and headed home. Merle called on the way home to figure out when I would be ready to go shoot some prarie dogs. Woo Hoo! I changed clothes quick and grabbed Ross's rifle and off we went. When we started I was sitting on the outside so I shot 2 for 2 dogs. Then, switched with Tyler and let him shoot the rest of the time from the front seat- I figured that I see them all the time- I may as well give him a chance. Besides, that makes me sitting at 100% kill rate for the day! haha While Tyler shot out the front, Roger and Sabina shot out the back windows and the rest of us sat back and watched them shoot things! We hit all the towns and everyone did a pretty good job. With six people in the pickup, there are plenty of criticts..believe me! Roger did not speak any English so Sabina taught him a few 'must know' words...one being "Yee Haw!" So, he shoots the head off this prarie dogs and goes "Yee Haw"! It was hillarious. She also taught them Howdy, and a few other random words- it was great.

So, after prarie dog hunting and being jealous of Sabina's ability to transulate Swiss German to English and vise versa all day long- we headed home. We all ate a late dinner and then sent them on their way to Rapid City to continue on their road trip. Merle and I did chores, then I headed home and took a nap before fireworks.

I ended up going by myself because Merle was tired and wanted to spend some time with the family (understandable). So, I called Johnny and we met at the fire hall at the same time. Apparently we were early because the only thing going on was the explorers having a fireworks fight in the parking lot of the fire hall. Now that makes sense....We decided that was enough of that and took off for the park where the city celebration is held.

They had a band and food and raffles and all sorts of things. I meandered around and talked with a few people and saw most of Merle's family, then headed back to the fire hall to change into our gear and get ready for fireworks. Picture this: about 15 adult men walking around in tube socks and shorts...hillarious. I just wear my jeans under my bunker gear, but apparently they can't take the heat! One of the firemen found this sweet pair of plastic slatted glasses with stars and stripes on them on the top of one of the fireworks boxes and was wearting them around....it was ridiculous. Once we got all of our explosives loaded up and everyone had their gear with them we took off for the baseball field. We spent quite some time setting everything up and labeling tubes, and then geared up and got assignments. I was actually pretty annoyed with mine. Chris (the fire chief) gave me the sissy job....passing out the fireworks. Now, most people would probably be happy to have that job because you get a lot less sweaty and are further away from the explosives. But I, on the other hand, was super annoyed because it was basically like pulling the "you're a girl and you can't do anything else" card. But, I got over it quick and passed them out. After the fact I could see where it might be difficult for one of those guys to keep the number with the right firework and unwrap them fast enough! Last year I ran, this year I passed out- whatever works I guess.

The show lasted about 20 minutes and I think it looked pretty good. I asked Merle and he said it was actually nice to watch the fireworks for once and they looked pretty good. You see, when you light them, you don't see them at all- there are bascially explosives going off all around you and paying attention is vital. We had a ton of duds- like 10 or so that went off low or blew up early or didn't go off when they were lit. In addition, on of our main guys go sparks up underneath his shield and burnt his face. It wasn't super serious- in fact he finished the show (because he has too much testosterone in him) and then went and got checked out. They ended up patching both of his eyes overnight to let them heal from the burn and smoke they were exposed to. I felt super bad for him because his two, super ridiculous brothers were headed home to mess with their "blind brother"! lol He should be fine- it just sucked that he had to get burned. All in all the show went just fine. We got it done anyway and it's always fun to do stuff with the fire department.

After we got it all picked up and headed back to the fire hall we just stood around and talked. I ened up standing there chatting until 11:30 or something ridiculous like that because they were giving me a hard time about leaving and going to bed on teh 4th of July. They said that was lame. So I stood in a shed and talked to a bunch of overgrown children for a couple hours (that's not lame? haha)! Eventually, I headed home and just went to bed.

It wasn't a super stressful or difficult day, but I was tired! It was fun to see Sabina and her friends and shoot off fireworks. I think I have pretty much figured out where I will spend a lot of fourth of Julys from now on! haha