Nerve Endings Firing Away

I am sitting my ass at home on the 4th of July. The much hyped Yankee(or Dixie… depends on which side you were on) Independence Day brings hordes of people on the interstates more than any other place choking us poor commuters just waiting to get home. The deluge of cars arching their way to the nearest fireworks “viewing stations” simply saps your energy to enjoy outdoor fun. This has to be one of the hottest 4th of July and I am already black with soot from blowing the smoldering charcoals in the BBQ grill until of course I realize we get things like charcoal fuel which literally blasts the flames on my face for a brief moment. But at least saves my breaths for more opportune times. Yup, of course we enjoyed the half-cooked badly-burnt chicken legs which were washed down by some delicious tiramisu, pasta casserole and a weird but nice concoction of ginger ale punch.

After much deliberation whether Stone Mountain or Lake Lanier would be a better place to see the much-talked about fireworks, I realized that most of the people in Metro Atlanta had the same dilemma. The US-78 and Stone Mtn.parking lots were full before 4pm and the most sensible thing was to head home to cool off in our home air conditioning. Our enthusiam totally sapped, some of us still weathered the heat to take the MARTA to Lenox for the fireworks. I let them go ahead to wither amongst loads of sweaty drunk Americans…not me. Whoa, I have seen the “4th of July” fireworks at Lenox last year and contrary to popular belief, if you have seen one, you have seen them all.

But basically is the 4th of July about independence any more in the land of Dubya, curbed civil liberties and abortion & gay rights dilemmas? I guess not. Americans are out today only to do the thing they love to do most. Have some good ‘ol fun in the hot ‘ol sun, babes in bikinis, and gallons of beer; Summer of ’03 rocks on. Some things never change.