Rant #1,464: July 4 on July 5

How was your holiday weekend?

Mine was fine, relaxing as could be, and yesterday, I went to bed at 7:30 p.m.

I did nothing on July 3, and I mean nothing, during the day part of Friday.

My wife worked that day--has today off, by the way--so my son and I did nothing ... until the evening, when the three of us visited my father in law in the hospital.

He has a broken hip--actually two, but he is in there for the second one--and we visited him, and then came home.

On the actual holiday, July 4, we did some shopping, like a lot of people.

But we just didn't shop to shop; we had a purpose.

Out son finally has gotten a job, with Home Depot through the Ken's Krew program.

It is only part time, for two days a week, four hours at a time, but it is a start, and better than having nothing.

We are sure it is going to work out, and we shopped to buy him clothes for his new job.

If nothing else, he will be the best dressed worker that his particular Home Depot has, and we know it will go further than that.

He begins his job today, and he is raring to go.

And then, later that day, we did the all-American thing to do on July 4 as far as food is concerned--we ate Chinese food.

Well, there were barbecued spare ribs as part of our order, so we did not forego the barbecue tradition of July 4 entirely.

I also watched the "The Loves of Dobie Gillis" marathon on the Decades channel off and on during the weekend. I always enjoyed that show; it was really something different than what was on TV during those years of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and now as an adult, I think I get the show even more now than when I watched it as a kid.

And Bob Denver is a real hoot as TV's first real slacker, beatnik Maynard G. Krebs, and you can see the beginning of the Gilligan character in his portrayal of this show. People forget about the Krebs character when talking about Denver, but the "Gillis" show was actually the first of the two shows where Denver's character is called "little buddy," by Dobie himself (Dwayne Hickman), so let that record be straight.

And, of course, I watched the Yankees, who somehow, are in first place in their division.

As the weekend moved on ...

July 5 was our big day.

We had my sister's family over, as well as my aunt, and we had a nice barbecue--hot dogs, hamburgers, the usual stuff.

The weather was good--Saturday's weather was pretty lousy for a good part of the day, so it worked out well for us on Sunday.

I cooked and cooked and cooked, and it was hot and I was perspiring pretty well.

Once that was over with and everyone had left, I went into the bedroom, watched some TV--and promptly conked out.

The next thing I remember was that the TV was on, my wife also had gone into the sleeping mode, and I had to shut the TV off--but not before getting up and telling my son that it was lights out early because he had work the next day.

I don't remember much else, other than I obviously went back to sleep, and didn't awake until my usual 4 a.m. arising.

So the holiday weekend was a good one, and I wish I had off today to be with my wife, and see my son off to his new job.

But back to work I go, back to the "salt mines," as Fred Rutherford on "Leave It To Beaver" used to call his place of business. He worked with Ward Cleaver, Beaver's dad, and to this day, I am not sure what they did for a living, other than the fact that they were always reporting back to the home office--insurance, perhaps?

Anyway, I hope you had a good Independence Day, and I will speak to you again tomorrow.