It’s the 4th of July weekend and I sit here in this quiet house this morning, listening to the noises that an air-conditioned house makes when no one is moving about. I can hear the coffee pot gurgle ever so slightly, as it pours instant hot water over my freshly ground up coffee beans so that I can slam back a few cups of my required morning nectar.
I can also the hear the nearly unnoticeable hum of the compressor motor of my refrigerator as it quietly keeps my beer from getting warm, oh yeah, and the meat and other stuff too but I like to keep things in order.
Every once in a while, if I am paying attention I can hear the water refilling the ice maker after it has dumped another load of ice into the automatic dispenser waiting for me to slide my cup, glass, bottle, goblet or Chalice, (if you are feeling regal) into the slot in the door that eagerly spits out the ice on demand.
The recliner that currently supports my slightly overweight body is covered in leather, heavily worn leather, so worn, you can practically see the indentation marks from my backside when it is unoccupied. A reminder that perhaps I need more leafy greens in my diet, just a reminder though, not a call to action. It squeaks when I adjust my position after prolonged periods of sloth and shamelessly, I have been searching the internet for a new one, perhaps one that is wider, stronger and won’t ridicule me daily with its permanent indentation marks, one that I can be friends with again. I suppose I could get up and go to a furniture store somewhere and peruse the vast array of heavy-duty recliners they have to offer, but that is simply too much work.
While it is quiet, I started thinking, something I try not do, but it happens sometimes. I’m not ashamed of it, but thinking often leads me to the conclusion that I might need to mow the lawn or clean the garage or clean out one of twelve junk drawers in the kitchen or even re-arrange my closet and perhaps donate those size 32 waist pants that I plan to get back into some day, yeah right… so I try to avoid thinking whenever I can.
The best way I have found to avoid thinking is either watch reruns of Gilligan’s island or just sit in the quiet and mindlessly scroll through the sea of videos provided by people all over the world doing silly things, happy things, mean things, sad things, in places they either shouldn’t be or they are not ready to be. These “rabbit hole videos” as I like to call them, are available via, Instagram, Facebook, TiK Tok and other mind numbing venues. They provide endless hours of entertainment that do nothing other than to allow me to deepen the already clearly defined ass marks I leave in my heavily worn leather recliner. In retrospect, I really should applaud these stars of the internet rather than scoff at them, at least they got up out of their chair.
Today, as I sit here quietly listening to all the noises a house makes, I started thinking about July 4th 1776. I thought about things like; what was the temperature on that infamous day? Were they planning some “get togethers” as a much needed break from making their own clothes and growing their own food? Nah, we all know now that they got together to talk about how they were basically going to map out the bi-laws of a new intercontinental HOA.
In my extensive and scholarly research for this blog, I read that Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers and a man with the best penmanship I have ever seen, kept a daily journal of temperatures. For some reason, I found that fascinating. He wrote in his journal that at 6am on the 4th of July in 1776, the temperature in Philadelphia was 68 degrees, 72 degrees at 9am, and 76 degrees at 1pm. Fascinating.
Since there were no airconditioned buildings at the time, no refrigerators that dispensed ice to keep their drinks cool, this type of weather was probably perfect to go ahead and work on those HOA laws and such. Especially since there were no flip flops, board shorts, tank or halter tops for folks to wear while they wrote out a formal declaration of independence from their old oppressive and overregulated HOA and creating a new set of rules for the new HOA.
I’d like to think that one of the first things discussed in new HOA rules would have been color schemes. Like the HOA’s rules and regulations we see today, simply substitute bright red colored house paint for bright red colored British uniforms and you got yourself the beginnings of the first HOA bi-laws.
Now, painting your house bright red can more than likely get you expelled from your neighborhood in some places, but dawn a red coat and holler, “God save the Queen” in 1776 and you would most likely be expelled from the country or possibly even get you killed but most assuredly, get your ass kicked. I don’t believe for one minute that painting your house red would get you killed or get your ass kicked today, so wearing a red coat back then made the consequences of choices, exorbitantly higher.
So, ss you plan your BBQ’s, parties, vacations and what nots in celebration of the Declared Independence on July 4th 1776 and the subsequent birth of the greatest nation ever conceived in the history of the world, please tip your hat and offer a humble thank you to all the men and women that way back on July 4th 1776 made the choice to call B.S. on the heavy handed and oppressive style of Monarchial rule and said… not today King George, we choose to be free.
Happy 4th of July everyone!