Now THAT'S a Faaar!

Hi all,

So, the question of the day is, why do Americans, peace-loving as we are (except for Republicans, of course) celebrate our national birthday with explosions and fires?

We had the good fortune to spend Juy 3rd evening down at our friend's Tom and Heather's cottage on Conesus Lake (one of the 11 Finger Lakes, ~ 8 miles long) for what's known as the "Ring of Fire". An awesome event, to say the least.

Even though I had lived on this lake for 2 years in college (after getting thrown out of the dorms, but that's a story for another day...), I had never experienced the ROF. Basically, about 100,000 people cram the shoreline of the lake, every cottage owner lights a huge (ours exceeded 20 feet high at one point, fueled by 4x4's and plywood sheets from the lumber company- above pic was the fire just starting) bonfire, and at dusk the fireworks start all along the shoreline.

Then, at 10pm on the dot, the real party begins. Every cottage owner lights scores of red highway flares along the shoreline (thus the ROF), and at the North end, the "Mayor of the Lake", a rich cottage owner from Buffalo (of all places!) launches an incredible 45 minute fireworks show. Of all the shows I've seen over the years, this was only second to Cincinnati's (which I understand is top 5 in the nation). Incredible colors, vast booms echoing throughout the lake valley for miles, and the recurring sounds of the revellers "ohhhh....ahhhhh" shouts. There were scores of private planes flying overhead (must be one hell of a sight from the air), and scores if not hundreds of boats out on the lake.

Tonite we head off to our second July 4th extravaganza, over at Long Pond. Unfortunately, the weather is expected to be quite grim, so we may have to just drink margaritas and launch the fireworks in the living room instead...please get your M-80 out of my ass!

Take a moment today for some quiet introspection as what rigors our forefathers endured to make us the free country we are, and think about how you can do your small part to help keep us this way. We're headed through a very difficult maturing timeperiod right now as a country, and we need to find a way to get back to the values that made us a great nation...freedom, inclusiveness, leadership by example, and charity.

More to come...be safe, keep your fingers intact, help make the world a better place, and enjoy blowing things up this evening!

Lumpy