Saturday...I think it was the Fourth of July
So, last night.
Shortly after I wrote the last entry, we had dinner, and mom asked if I wanted to go watch the fireworks at the park. I told her, if she wanted to go, I'd go, but if she didn't, no big deal. We left it sort of ambiguous, but she seemed to be leaning toward no. That was fine, because after we ate, I went upstairs and chilled for a while and ended up napping.
Probably about 7:30, she comes by my room, in her PJs, and asks if we're going. Uh...I don't know. I'm kind of sleeping here.
Then, sometime after 9--our fireworks start at 9:30--she comes by, dressed, to see if I would go outside with her. She wasn't aware that I was awake enough to do that, and when I got ready and went outside she was already at the end of the driveway. It was about two minutes 'til but something was already going off, and I could hear music somewhere. Crap, did they start early? And then I heard the familiar starting song, same one every year, and I realized we were okay.
Despite losing a bunch of trees to the emerald ash borer, there's still plenty to block the view from our house, since we're toward the end of the block. We ended up walking south so we could see better, passing a set of neighbors sitting in the middle of the street who said hello. We ended up on the curve of the road, looking between two houses; we couldn't see much of the lower stuff, but anything that was more than halfway high was okay.
I was just impressed that, A, mom was awake, and B, that she was out of the house. This hasn't happened in several years--this journal indicates since 2011. She was insistent that she and I walked to the park two years ago. Mom, it's been like five years since I went. I think she's spending too much time with her dad, who has no concept of time these days. Also, she tried to insist that the Fourth of July was on a Wednesday last year. Uh, it's Saturday. That's...not how calendars work. She also refused to believe that, yes, we could in fact hear the music from the park and it wasn't that someone was playing a simulcast radio broadcast that was loud enough for us to hear from someone's house. Mom. I can hear the marching band, which is not amplified, clearly in my room all the way down the block so long as they're facing this way. The fireworks people have speakers set up facing north since there are still people who view them from the high school. (The show turned 90 degrees to the east when they did construction at the high school a few years back, so the show properly faces the park across the street.) Believe me, it's coming from there. She then shh-ed me, which is her way of shutting me down when I say something, you know, that makes common sense. Yes, she really is that special. It's like she never took a science class in her life and doesn't understand how physics works.
The music was okay. Some of it was fine, some of it did not impress us. There was a "summer" theme, so among other songs was "Saturday in the Park" by Chicago, what was mostly likely "Summer" from "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, and "Summer Wind" by Frank Sinatra. With that one, the song started echoing off the buildings, which was actually a neat effect--but it confused mom, since she needed that. Also, there was this airplane that seemed to be circling the area, a little one probably out of DuPage Airport, and mom was all, that's weird, and I went, not to the people in the plane--you could definitely see our fireworks, and likely St. Charles', and possibly Aurora's as well. Then, when I saw the plane basically go through the fireworks, mom thought I was seeing things. Even when she saw the plane as well. Sigh. But back to the music--several songs were ones I've done in band, including the opener, "American Overture for Band." I was super excited about that as it was one of the songs I got to do on piccolo a few weeks ago...except they totally cut the song down and that solo was eliminated. Boo. The closer was "1812 Overture," which I just did this week; I went, the fireworks will be the cannons! And they were. Except they could have used more booming.
Despite my mom being a dork, it was nice to have her, and she appreciated me joining her. Also, the show ran a bit long this year, so even though it probably took us a whole 30 seconds to walk back home--definitely no more than a minute--it was 10:07 when we got home. Still way faster than had we gone all the way down to the park. Had I not spent hours in the yard earlier in the day, I likely would have been up for it, but I'll live with what we did. Heck, had mom not wanted to go outside, I may well have spent the time watching TV.
Edit for songs: I thought to go online and found a link to last night's program. Since I like music, here's what we heard. (And I'm totally correcting the typo for "Antonia Vilvalid.")
"American Overture for Band" - US Army Band
"Washington Post March" - John Philip Sousa
"Saturday in the Park" - Chicago
"In the Summertime" - Mungo Jerry
"Summertime" - Bon Jovi
"Pontoon" - Little Big Town
"Summer Love" - Justin Timberlake
"Summer" - Calvin Harris
"Summer of '69" - Bryan Adams
"Summer Wind" - Frank Sinatra
"Boys of Summer" - Don Henley
"Surfin' in the USA" - Beach Boys
"Summer" - Antonio Vivaldi
"1812 Overture" - Peter I Tchaikovsky
Shortly after I wrote the last entry, we had dinner, and mom asked if I wanted to go watch the fireworks at the park. I told her, if she wanted to go, I'd go, but if she didn't, no big deal. We left it sort of ambiguous, but she seemed to be leaning toward no. That was fine, because after we ate, I went upstairs and chilled for a while and ended up napping.
Probably about 7:30, she comes by my room, in her PJs, and asks if we're going. Uh...I don't know. I'm kind of sleeping here.
Then, sometime after 9--our fireworks start at 9:30--she comes by, dressed, to see if I would go outside with her. She wasn't aware that I was awake enough to do that, and when I got ready and went outside she was already at the end of the driveway. It was about two minutes 'til but something was already going off, and I could hear music somewhere. Crap, did they start early? And then I heard the familiar starting song, same one every year, and I realized we were okay.
Despite losing a bunch of trees to the emerald ash borer, there's still plenty to block the view from our house, since we're toward the end of the block. We ended up walking south so we could see better, passing a set of neighbors sitting in the middle of the street who said hello. We ended up on the curve of the road, looking between two houses; we couldn't see much of the lower stuff, but anything that was more than halfway high was okay.
I was just impressed that, A, mom was awake, and B, that she was out of the house. This hasn't happened in several years--this journal indicates since 2011. She was insistent that she and I walked to the park two years ago. Mom, it's been like five years since I went. I think she's spending too much time with her dad, who has no concept of time these days. Also, she tried to insist that the Fourth of July was on a Wednesday last year. Uh, it's Saturday. That's...not how calendars work. She also refused to believe that, yes, we could in fact hear the music from the park and it wasn't that someone was playing a simulcast radio broadcast that was loud enough for us to hear from someone's house. Mom. I can hear the marching band, which is not amplified, clearly in my room all the way down the block so long as they're facing this way. The fireworks people have speakers set up facing north since there are still people who view them from the high school. (The show turned 90 degrees to the east when they did construction at the high school a few years back, so the show properly faces the park across the street.) Believe me, it's coming from there. She then shh-ed me, which is her way of shutting me down when I say something, you know, that makes common sense. Yes, she really is that special. It's like she never took a science class in her life and doesn't understand how physics works.
The music was okay. Some of it was fine, some of it did not impress us. There was a "summer" theme, so among other songs was "Saturday in the Park" by Chicago, what was mostly likely "Summer" from "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, and "Summer Wind" by Frank Sinatra. With that one, the song started echoing off the buildings, which was actually a neat effect--but it confused mom, since she needed that. Also, there was this airplane that seemed to be circling the area, a little one probably out of DuPage Airport, and mom was all, that's weird, and I went, not to the people in the plane--you could definitely see our fireworks, and likely St. Charles', and possibly Aurora's as well. Then, when I saw the plane basically go through the fireworks, mom thought I was seeing things. Even when she saw the plane as well. Sigh. But back to the music--several songs were ones I've done in band, including the opener, "American Overture for Band." I was super excited about that as it was one of the songs I got to do on piccolo a few weeks ago...except they totally cut the song down and that solo was eliminated. Boo. The closer was "1812 Overture," which I just did this week; I went, the fireworks will be the cannons! And they were. Except they could have used more booming.
Despite my mom being a dork, it was nice to have her, and she appreciated me joining her. Also, the show ran a bit long this year, so even though it probably took us a whole 30 seconds to walk back home--definitely no more than a minute--it was 10:07 when we got home. Still way faster than had we gone all the way down to the park. Had I not spent hours in the yard earlier in the day, I likely would have been up for it, but I'll live with what we did. Heck, had mom not wanted to go outside, I may well have spent the time watching TV.
Edit for songs: I thought to go online and found a link to last night's program. Since I like music, here's what we heard. (And I'm totally correcting the typo for "Antonia Vilvalid.")
"American Overture for Band" - US Army Band
"Washington Post March" - John Philip Sousa
"Saturday in the Park" - Chicago
"In the Summertime" - Mungo Jerry
"Summertime" - Bon Jovi
"Pontoon" - Little Big Town
"Summer Love" - Justin Timberlake
"Summer" - Calvin Harris
"Summer of '69" - Bryan Adams
"Summer Wind" - Frank Sinatra
"Boys of Summer" - Don Henley
"Surfin' in the USA" - Beach Boys
"Summer" - Antonio Vivaldi
"1812 Overture" - Peter I Tchaikovsky