I stood on my balcony last night and watched fireworks go off all over the Valley. Our house is relatively high up for Las Vegas, so I get a great view of the entire southwestern and southeastern part of town. All over, you could see orbital flashes of red, green and blue. Vegas can be a rather bland looking town if you take out the view of the Strip, so to see the sky just over the City lit up like Tammy Faye's face was a nice change.
Fireworks are one of the best things in life -- as long as you are watching them. I can't say I enjoy hearing stories about kids and rednecks who get their fingers blown off from them.
Like many other 4th of July holidays, yesterday was one of those magical rare days that I will always remember. The 4th is probably my favorite holiday. It's warm outside, it's almost always sunny -- except for the 18 years I lived in San Francisco, then it was always foggy, but still magical. There's always wine and good friends involved, which means there are always stories to tell.
The odd thing about the 4th is I don't recall one holiday ever where there was a political debate at any of the celebrations I attended. On a daily basis, we are a country that complains about not only the other political party, but our own. The only debate I heard yesterday was whether to drink chilled red wine or mojitos. Our little gathering was a democracy. An equal number of people had wine versus mojitos.
Maybe the 4th of July is a bit like Christmas. You know -- everyone is nice to everyone else for a day. On the 4th of July, we put our politics aside and are simply Americans, not Democrats or Republicans.
Good thing that's over. Let's go back to being nasty to each other. Real fireworks are fun, but come on, so are the verbal ones.
