The Wheel of Fire...Works

Just a few random thoughts as we conclude the celebration of our nation today:

• Here in this part of Texas, we've had a drought for most of the year. So it figures that we'd get a pretty decent rain on the one day we didn't want it to do so. At least the fireworks show out here wasn't rained out...


• In another touch of irony, Firewheel was more crowded than I'd ever seen the place (even on opening week or around Christmas), but it was one of the first times in recent memory that I didn't run into anyone I know there.


• Moving the Fourth fireworks to Firewheel (say that ten times fast) was a shrewd move on the City of Garland's part. If the city and the new town center had tried to compete, Firewheel would've won (definitely for me, because of the proximity). The fake downtown of Firewheel was a perfect substitute for the actual downtown that, although it seems poised for revival with the DART train station and all that, hasn't seen much life lately.


• The traffic control has a few bugs that need to be worked out. I parked across the turnpike at Fuddruckers, and it took us an hour to get home (keep in mind, this is a place that's so close to my house, we could've walked there and back and there again in that amount of time). Next year, it's an earlier trip and dinner at Potbelly to get a good parking place close to the road.


• In case your neighborhood festivities got rained out, check out an oldie but a goodie: The Vitural Fireworks Display; it's even better over here this year, thanks to my much faster computer. (Once again this year, the hat tip goes to Dave Barry's Blog.)


• The lucky-but-stupid award of the day goes to the family in Fuddruckers parking lot who decided it would be OK to let their kids light up sparklers and wave them around in front of the whole world. Thankfully, they put them out just mere minutes before the local firefighters came out from dinner to that same parking lot.


• Quick poll: Did you work today? My boss was a slavedriver and made myself teach till lunchtime...but it was all good.

Hope you had a wonderful time today, in whatever way you chose to celebrate.

From the archives: One of my all-time favorite questions asked of me about the Fourth happened again and again during the summer that I went to Switzerland with the college jazz band. Read it, and more, in this post from 2004.