Despite the gloomy skies, and the ceaseless rain, it’s been a rather cheerful, and enjoyable day.
I started out the day at the McCutcheon Music Sudio in Centerville where I’ve spent at least the past 10 years photographing the Americana Parade from a second floor window.

Jim and Debbie always throw the most welcoming, warm get-together feeding the masses that traipse through their original studio/store on Franklin Street.  

Through the years, their youngest son, Jeff, one of my former students from the early-mid 1990s, now a college professor living in Connecticut, went from a young man in college to a husband, and a father of two beautiful daughters.  Many of Jeff’s friends join under the front lawn canopies for a mini-reunion.  Every year, it seems there are more little peeps added to the mix, or protruding mommy-bellies indicating more are on their way.  

It’s exciting, but also a personal reminder that time waits for no one.  

I spent an hour at the festival, wading through humidity, and humanity, and it was beginning to wear on me. 

The afternoon, following lunch, consisted of s nap with three of the most loving fur balls surrounding me.  

A watermelon has been cut, and I am waiting for the Gebeles to join me at the Moraine Air Park where I’ve spent firework shows the past 3-4 years. 

As I was driving to the air park, it occurred to me it has been forty years since one of my most favorite Fourth of Julys: the 1976 BiCentenniel. 

Forty years?  Already?

Happy Fourth of July!