Independence Day 2008

….was such a weird thing to me. First, we declined invites to BBQs because RePete wasn’t feeling so well and had had a fever for the last two days. Mystery Fever! So we ate at Kelly’s Tavern. Good food by the way, but so not a Fourth of July cookout.

Then we decided to drive into town and watch the fireworks. The last two years, they’ve said it would be “here” and it was “there”. So we took a chance and went “there” this year and what do you know? It was “here”. We could still see them but no close-ups.

“There” was a city park behind the Farm Fresh. There were only three other cars parked back there and we, along with those families played at the park until the show. Everyone else who thought it would be “there” parked in the Farm Fresh parking lot.

A storm was rolling in and we kept watch on it. To get a better view, we climbed to the top of one of the playsets. I setup my camera on the tripod, set my aperture at F11, 30 seconds like the good little student of photography I am. I also made sure it was on manual focus and used my wide lens.

Between the unwieldiness of the camera atop a fully extended tripod and trying to carry it up a ladder AND having the kids squishing in all around the legs of the tripod, I forgot to focus. Doh!

Then, the race was on.

Lightening and thunder in the distance,

us atop a metal playset, and the pyromaniacs setting off the fireworks.

It lasted all of what seems like five minutes and BN said, “let’s get the H out of here.” Just as we got in our van, the raindrops started to fall. By the time we got home, it was an all out thunderstorm.

I realized later what really made this a weird 4th for me. The quiet. Our dinner was quiet. The park was quiet. There were no “oohs” or “ahhs” since we were basically alone back there in the park. The quiet disturbed me.

~R