Category → Independence Day
Favorite Day of the Year
It is hard to believe that it is the fourth of July (Independence Day). This year is really going by fast. I hope that everyone has a nice day and remember to recognize and be thankful for the freedoms we have. Last night I had a good laugh when I posted this message on Twitter
“I miss the old days when you would hear thousands of fireworks going off on our own street. Now it is illegal.”
If you are familiar with Friendfeed, you know that your Twitter messages are displayed on Friendfeed. Someone posted a response to my post that said…
“Stick it to the man! Light off a few bottle rockets and shake your fist!”
That was pretty funny and I got a kick out of that for sure. Well it is true how I miss the freedom we had when I was younger to pop fireworks, or fire crackers as we use to call them. I was watching a video that my dad made in 1976 when we were standing in the front yard on the second of July and it was amazing how many we could here going off all around us. It was continuous noise with some people setting off entire packages of 1,000 black cats. I do understand why they have made fireworks illegal with many homes burning down but I do miss the fun. Society as a whole has become a little more malicious these days and house fires would probably be worse today. It was fun though when we use to be able to get M80’s and blow things up. I am not old enough to have been able to use the cherry bombs that my parents used. I heard they were very powerful and could explode those thick vegetable cans. My dad, now at 70, told me an experience where he set one off on his neighbor’s out house while he was in there and there were turds blown all on the house and peach trees. I can only imagine how funny that must have been. I can just see him running away from the house laughing so hard that he could barely breathe. Anyway, although I understand the reasons for outlawing the use of fireworks in the city, I still miss the fun and wish my kids could experience the fun that I went through.
I told myself that I was going to sleep in this morning and I made it until 8:00 AM and that is as far as I could go. I am a morning person and I just love waking up to see the sunrise. I missed it this morning but it is still a beautiful morning before it gets too hot. I have to get out there and mow the lawn soon because it is looking like it has not been very well maintained. I hope you all have a wonderful fourth of July today and have a blast. This one day we can forget about the problems in the world. We can put aside our political differences and appreciate those military people that are protecting us today.
Technorati Tags: fourth of July,4th of July,Independence Day,fireworks,fire crackers,Oklahoma City,holiday
Enjoyed Fourth of July
Yesterday was a pretty good Independence Day though it was a little warm. I guess being warm is common place in July but I just do not like to be hot and sweaty. We went to the city of Mustang, Oklahoma, which is a suburb of Oklahoma City. The reason we went there is because not only are fireworks legal but encouraged. The city itself is only about 15,000 in population but is growing fast. It is a very popular place to go for the fourth of July. The park that we went to was reported to have 15,000+ people shooting off fireworks at the same time. This according to KOCO TV five last night. There were thousands of fireworks going off for hours all around us. If you get nervous easy, you do not want to go there because it is a very rowdy place with people shooting them at each other. Even the very large professional fireworks were being fired off all around us. I recorded more than two hours on my camcorder.
Today I am aching all over for some reason. I woke up with a sore throat, sore neck, and a head ache. I did not help the situation because I went next door to the vacant house with a axe and chopped through about seven or eight tree roots. Then I sprayed them with tree killer poison. The same tree that we cut down in January after the ice storm, still has living roots trying to grow trees on the other side of the fence. Since the house is vacant but will be a rent house, I do not want them letting that tree grow back up in the fence again. If I have to, I will continue spraying that thing for the next five years. It just wears you out when it is 95 degrees while trying to chop tree roots with an axe.
We sure could use some rain around here. We went from having above average rain to stopped. It teased us a few times over the last few weeks but they all went around us and now my front yard is cracking. The grass is struggling to survive so this evening when the sun goes down, I am going to go out and soak the lawn pretty good. It needs a lot of water. I just turned on the HF radio a few minutes ago and stumbled on the Nazarene Net on 14.305 MHz. There is a guy calling CQ Nazarene Net over and over and I thought he was in some other state and come to find out he is W5OLI in Moore, Oklahoma. It is a small world.
This brings back a memory of my first CW (morse code) contact. When I first obtained my Novice Class ham radio license in 1983, I was sending CQ CQ via morse code and some faint signal came in answering me. I was so excited to have my first contact just to hear him coming in with my signal was 599 into Midwest City, Oklahoma approximately three miles from here. At the time I was disappointed but now it makes me laugh. I was expecting someone from a distant land over seas and I get a sister OKC suburb. That man was so nice that he sent me an ARRL first contact certificate. I lost that certificate years ago in one of my Air Force moves and I forgot his call sign. I never forgot him and I went to see him shortly after this and he was very nice.
It is funny how things work out. It was Jack Perkins, K5ESF that was in the Air Force with my dad back in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s that inspired my dad, W5QO to become an amateur radio operator. I have been around ham radio my whole life and was inspired to get my license by my dad back in 1983. It is hard to believe it has been 25 years. My original call sign was KA5QNB and later changed it to KB7ZCO when I lived in Phoenix, Arizona. When I came back to Oklahoma I changed my call sign back to my dad’s original call sign of K5GLH in 2001. If you have never tried ham radio before, it is really interesting. The idea of speaking to someone across the ocean right off your antenna is quite interesting. With the invention of Skype, it helps you to be able to get in touch with them over the Internet and clarify what frequency you are calling for them. It is an expensive hobby but really fun.
LiveJournal Tags: K5GLH,W5QO,K5ESF,ham radio,amateur radio,Oklahoma City,Midwest City,Del City
Happy Independence Day
Without question my favorite holiday of the year is the fourth of July that is Independence Day in the United States. This day that we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the fourth of July 1776 is one of the most popular holidays in the United States. I have always loved it because it is an opportunity for the family to be together and pop fireworks. Sometime during the 1980’s Oklahoma City made fireworks illegal and that really ruined this holiday for me when I was a teenager. I have some movies from when I was a kid where you can hear hundreds of fireworks popping in the background. There is a suburb on the West side called Mustang that still allows fireworks and it is fun to go there because my kids get to enjoy it the way I did. You do not hear them like that anymore.
I still love this holiday anyway. It was my mother in law’s favorite holiday. It is ironic that she passed away on July third in 2002. Today was the fifth year of her going to be with Jesus. This year my kids are at church camp this week so they are not hear to celebrate with us. We will enjoy it and we hope you do to.
Technorati Tags: Independence Day, Fourth of July, 4th of July, fireworks, Oklahoma City, Mustang, Oklahoma