Time to drink and blow shit up.

You're going to Iraq?

There's nothing worth drinking in Iraq.

It's a BYOB party.

I was walking the dog at 10am today and people were already setting off fireworks.

And not just firecrackers and bottle rockets.
Big stuff.

This town won't wait for nightfall.

I live in a chinese neighborhood. Fireworks are more popular than food or sex.

It's sounded like a war zone here since midnight.

I got a call at 1pm... the water main broke to my place of employment. I get the day off.

Vacation started 1 day early.

Looks like I'm flying with a hangover.

Just make sure you have plenty of the hair of the dog before you land.
This town doesn't stop for hangovers.

This is my first 4th in this hood.
It's a little disappointing.
having all of the merry children in the street
is really interfering with my nudity.
I can't wait for things to go back to normal
so I can celebrate my independence of pants.

It's probably just heat cretinism.

Ha! How come when I Google that, I get links on how to treat my goiter? Proleeeee?

Long weekend being pampered at a B&B in the Berkshires.
Lots of wine, cocktails and absinthe, introduced the innkeepers to absinthe and they loved it.
Now at home listening to crappy bottle-rockets, firecrackers, and riceburners revving up and down the roads, what a joyous celebration.
Though the grilled salmon in a soy-maple glaze makes it bearable (maple syrup from an artisnal maker in the Berkshires, yum).

There have been so many fireworks set off in this town that it looked foggy on my drive home from the family thing.

Interestingly enough, absolutely nothing happened here.

Heat Cretinism is a term I coined many years ago to describe the effect of humidity and high temperatures (southern summers) in slowing down the metabolism and thinking processes. It explains why southerners may only utter a dozen or so very slowly spoken words an hour and may suffer from a certain cerebral stuntedness. Generations growing up and living before the advent of AC have had an effect on the region that makes it quite different than the midwest, west or north east -- especially the north east!


Combine this with CPJ and it's bad news . . .

Numerous NY dive bars on Mon (evading the
touristas) then back home to da 'hood where
shit was bangin', blastin' and blowin' up quite
fierce like.

Had 16 tacos for lunch, then a shot and some
beers @ Candida w/my gay homies.
It's so friendly there. There's always someone
willing to push in my stool.

Which is why you're a regular there, no doubt.

No, that's why he's irregular there.

We drove down to Prosperity SC to visit my dad for a couple of days. I took my smoker and smoked five Boston Butt pork roasts for a family get together. I started the smoker Friday evening at 6pm and served the pork at 2pm on Saturday. It could have smoked a couple of hours longer but it was passable.

Lots of fireworks on the lakefronts.

Lots of beer and booze.

I spent the rest of the time there spraying weed killer on the weeds, painting the trim on the mobile home, and doing general yard work that he can't do any more.