INDEPENDENCE DAY

I hope you all had a great 4th of July.  Mine was good even though I am in terrible pain due to an abscess under a crown on my molar.  It's a spot that the dentist has been keeping an eye on and of course last night is when it decided to flare up.  I have been living on aspirin for the pain and to try to get the swelling down.  I am hoping my dentist did not go away for the weekend and I can get an emergency appointment tomorrow or at least some antibiotics.

Yesterday was Sheila's (the children's librarian)  birthday.  She never gets to take off work for her birthday so I tried to make it nice for her.  She is not a cake person, so we got her a Philly cake, otherwise known as a soft pretzel.  She loved it.  I even got the mustard to go with it.

I watched the Independence Day parade and the speeches, etc. before it.  Not only was it the 237th birthday of the United States, but the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Both were being celebrated.  It was really good.  Here are some pictures from it.

Everything took place in front of Independence Hall right where our nation began.  I've always thought how cool it is to live here.

This is Desiree Peterkin-Bell the Deputy City Representative in charge of communication.  She was the MC.  In back of her is a gigantic reproduction of the Declaration of Independence and a statue of George Washington which was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln.

The Marine Corps color guard during the prayer.

This is Mayor William A. Bell, the mayor of Birmingham, AL.  He read the Declaration of Independence.

Of course our mayor, Michael Nutter, gave a speech.

The parade started with a float sponsored by Tastykake with a huge birthday cake and Kirby the Krimpet.

The Marine Corps color guard.

A colonial fife and drum corps from Connecticut.  It's the oldest continuous group in America.

The Founding Father's float.  It's a horse-drawn carriage with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

My friend, Debbie (the one in front) was part of the SPCA group carrying a huge 13 star flag.  How cool to see someone you know on TV.

The Abraham Lincoln float.  You can tell there was a lot of history in the parade.

Civil War re-enactors.

A group of our city's flag.

The winner of the first season of America's Got Talent, Bianca Ryan.   When she won, she was 11 years old and now she's 18.

There were two of the Tuskegee Airmen in attendance.  They are in their 90s now.

And here they are.  They were moving so fast that the picture is blurry, but it was the best I could do.

Wawa sponsored the parade and here is one of their first milk trucks.  Can you imagine getting your milk delivered in a truck like this?

And here is Smoky the Bear!

Here's Miss America.  Her float was beautiful!

And Swoop, the mascot for the Philadelphia Eagles football team.

Uncle Sam and McGruff the police dog.

The end of the parade featured the Filipinos who live in the Philadelphia area.

Beautiful native dress.

This little guy was so cute.  He just captured my heart.

I made dinner for Joe, but my mouth is too sore to eat anything.  Well, it's one way to lose weight.  I've been drinking juice all day.

We watched the movie "Oz the Great and Powerful" tonight.  We just got it in the library and I brought it home to watch.  What a good movie!  It was not at all what I thought it would be, but so very entertaining.  Of course, I love fantasy.  But even Joe said he was so glad we watched it.

I didn't see very many fireworks, but you have to see some on the 4th, don't you?

It's after 1 a.m. now and I have to work tomorrow, so I am heading to bed.  I hope I can sleep with the pain and I pray I can get to a dentist tomorrow.  Have a good one, folks.

YOU KNOW IT'S SUMMER WHEN...

Rain, rain, rain.  It has rained every day for over a week.  I am getting so tired of it. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow, but then get sunny and hot for Thursday.  I am looking forward to the sun, but not the heat.  I guess there's just no pleasing me.

You know it's summer when we had our last Tuesday morning Bible study of the season today.  I get a little break from my 12-hour days.  I love teaching the Bible study, but I sure am tired by the time I get out of work at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night.  We finished the book of Ruth today.  I don't know what we are going to do next, but everyone seems to want to do Esther, so maybe that is where we are going to go.  Like I told them, we have 66 books to choose from and they are all good!

It was a wild day at work today.  You know it's summer when we usually have about 300 people in and today it was around 800!  We were making new library cards right and left.  I gave our part-timer Marquita 12 to do in one hour!  Thank goodness she was able to be there the whole day today.  I don't know how I could have gotten along without her.  She did a lot of my shelving too because I just didn't have time!

We had folks from the Philadelphia Museum of Art come today for a presentation to the kids.  I was so busy I didn't even see the program, let alone take pictures.  Like I said, it was wild!

At least I had an easy dinner -- meat loaf and sauteed summer squash.  It was good.

So now it's time to call it a day and get myself together for tomorrow.  Good night, everyone.

A POEM FOR JULY

THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE
by Fran Haraway

Stripes and stars,
Antique cars,
Pretty girls,
Baton twirls,
Spangled gowns,
Friendly clowns,
Smiling folks,
Papered spokes,
Marching feet,
Endless heat,
Clapping hands,
High school bands,
Town traditions,
Politicians,
Perspiration,
Celebration!