So here's the short of it,
I'm proud to be an American

And here's the long.

Today we celebrated the 4th of July with our neighbors from the Belvoir Neighborhood.  We've been living here for almost 25 years, and the neighborhood began their picnic probably 2 or 3 years after we moved.  It's a great event and we always get to see people that we don't have a chance to see very often during the hectic work week/year.

The picnic was great once again this year!  Some years we have hamburgers and hot dogs, but this year we had barbecue.  Chicken and Pork - with all the trimmings. Neighbors bring desserts.  This year we were heavy on the "store boughten" cookies and cupcakes - but that's alright.  Mom brought along some fresh fruit and I got to have a little of that to go along with a homemade brownie, there was only one pan of those and I was probably lucky to get there at a time when there were some left.  We took a note for our upcoming event.  The lemonade in jugs was from the Publix deli and it was really good.

The fire fighters came and joined us and as usual there were some politicos out to meet and greet their constituents (or hopeful constituents).   The kids climbed all over the fire truck and paraded around the triangle with their decorated bikes.  Wow - time flies; it wasn't that long ago that we had kids in that neighborhood parade.

Now we are continuing this celebration with the neighbors and fireworks.  Sophie doesn't like this even one little bit!  Of course it's not legal to be setting off fireworks, but it hasn't ever stopped this neighborhood.

But - I did stop today amongst all my coming and going to think about how lucky I am to live in this country, in this time.  I am ever so grateful to those men and women who had the audacity to believe that we could make something new - try a form of government that had never been tried before.  It's not perfect, and quite frankly I worry about the incredible acrimony between the parties these days.  It seems that there's not much willingness to cross the aisle.  But this country has weathered tough times before.  I know we don't always get it right.  I know sometimes we get it terribly wrong.  But we can change anything about this country that we don't believe is right. And today I'm proud to be an American.