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Thought we were going to go visit family. The weather was wrong, or was it the moon phase? No matter, we stayed home.

For the evening we went to the local college campus for an outdoor symphony. It was part of the local July 4th –week celebration. The symphony played well, I just didn’t care for most of what they played. Damn me for a heretic, but I almost never care to hear Copeland. Perhaps the theory is that we rejoice in Americana, the holiday thing, it doesn’t matter, I don’t appreciate Copeland’s stuff, I just can’t wait till it’s over. It’s like bad lovin’.

They did two pieces written by a local composer. The piece from his musical was eminently forgettable. The song with lyrics was sung by the composer, hated it. The music was predictable, the singing heavy-handed, the lyrics were cliché ridden. He got a standing O. Couldn’t believe it, a standing O just for being local. I laid on the blanket, making no attempt to get up, neither did the wife or kids. What a bunch of critics we were. This is going to sound terribly vain, but I thought that I, even I, could write better lyrics.

Ms. Pikachu continued to play her Game Boy. Trainboy was fed his hot dog by the Superwife. I continued to lay there, looking at the sky, doing nothing to justify my existence.

As the sun slowly went down the clouds to the south darkened. It became apparent lightning filled the formerly friendly-looking clouds. Mother Nature put on her own fireworks display. It was too far south to threaten the scheduled show- no thunder could be heard. It was as though she was a wildly gesturing mute.

Continued to lay, continued to look. The sky overhead turned from bright blue-gray to darker hues. The darker it got the colder the air became. Above me beckoned a solitary star, growing brighter as I got colder. The surrounding crowd continued to murmur, only the wife and kids were distinct. I wondered if this was anything like death would be. Not that it mattered, there’s no hurry to find out.

The symphony finished it’s program with a patriotic/military medley. And it was dark enough for fireworks. Somebody cued up a disk of Disney favorites. Couldn’t believe it, not that I minded. Just thought, hey, you’ve got a freakin’ symphony here, it might behoove you to use it. But there was a reason, the fireworks were timed to the music.

It was nicely done. Impressive actually. Beautiful fireworks nicely timed and choreographed. It was just amazing that a relatively small town can have such a sophisticated display. Technology advances and it trickles down.

The wife watched while sitting on her right hip and leaned on her right arm. Irresistable. I scooted up behind her and snuggled. So soft, so warm, so wonderful. Everytime we saw a good one we squeezed the other. Did I say it was wonderful? It was wonderful. In a big crowd with the kids and it was still so romantic. Life was good.

The symphony draws an older crowd. When the show was over we quickly gathered up our things and headed for the parking lot. Since we moved faster than the average fine-arts partaker we were able to beat the rush out of the parking lot. The wife was happy.

Last year at a Little River Band/Paul Revere concert we sat in the parking lot for 30 minutes. So there’s a lesson for you- if you want to beat the rush, hang with old folks. But if you have to go to Marilyn Manson, well, you get what you deserve.