Twenty Five, Eighty One and 1776

Numerical narrative: 1776, 2016, 4th of July, youngest person at the party: 2, birthday boy: 81, oldest 84, number at the party: 25, give or take, number of people whose names I didn't know or couldn't remember: 12, give or take.

Blowing bubbles, chasing bubbles ... and that's just the adults. Wine was involved.

Screaming kids.

A few short political comments and reactions to Fox News Channel. Quiet commentary, maybe because they know I'm the only registered Democrat in the room and they didn't want to offend me. Or maybe they were just being quiet at that moment and it had nothing to do with me.

More screaming kids. They're playing and having fun. But they're screaming.

Tattoos.

Pizza last night instead of leftovers. Nobody remembers why we ordered pizza at 9 and ate it at 10. Maybe wine was involved there too.

Daddy, I'm going to miss you. Don't go.
I'm just going for a day to pack the house.
No I mean don't go to Afghanistan again.
Well that's not for another month, so let's not talk about it today.

Nationals beat the Reds 11-4. Yay!

My third July 4th weekend in a row here. Noisy and chaotic but fun. Grateful to have friends like this. Grateful to live in the land of the free.