Theater of the Soul

I didn’t have a chance to post this yesterday. After Discovery reached orbit, I had two anxious boys dragging me by my hair out the door to the carnival. For those of you interested in such geeky things, NASA TV has complete coverage of the STS-121 mission (click on “Watch NASA TV” on that page and it will pop up in a new window).

I had planned to take the kids camping at the lake yesterday after the carnival but found out, much to my dismay, that the town that puts on the fireworks display over the lake didn’t have money to do it this year. WTF? It was no big deal though…the town we live in puts on their display practically in my backyard, so we hung out in the parking lot and watched. I just LOVE watching shit blow up!

I will say one thing for this tiny little town of mine (population: 3000): they put on a good 4th of July shindig. Parade, carnival, town-wide cookout and a good sized fireworks display. The festivities always kick off with a flyby, courtesy of our local Air National Guard:

A pair of A-10s and a pair of F-15s sneak up on this sleepy little town and fly low over the parade route. The first year I lived here, you can bet that the noise almost sent me into a duck and cover position, but now it’s my favorite part of the day. I climb up on the roof so I can see them coming and they fly so low that you could probably see the rivets on the bottom of the plane if they weren’t going so fast. Good times, indeed!