The week gone by — July 4

I have good news and bad news about Christmas.

The good news is that I will probably reinstate my ban-that-no-one-follows on starting Christmas before Thanksgiving, or even Halloween.

But how is that good news?

Very simple … the amnesty was because if getting Christmas going early was a way for people to find some kind of happiness last year, I didn’t want to stand in anyone’s way.

However, I hope this year is better — barring some super-duper variant that evades vaccines and forces us all back into our homes — so I hope we don’t need the amnesty.

As for the bad news, let me explain.

Memorial Day weekend was, of course, at the end of May. It also happened to be my birthday.

And it was 45 degrees all weekend.

This weekend being July 4 weekend, Suzi and I had all sorts of plans: soccer Thursday, baseball yesterday, getting together with Mix today.

Thursday brought torrential rains (I wrote a thing about it, which you can refer to below), we didn’t go to the ballgame because it was 55 degrees and raining (although they played) and the get-together with Mix was postponed until tomorrow. (We’re going to shoot for a pizza-and-bookstore outing, which theoretically won’t be affected by rain. Also, as annoyed as I was for most of the previous 72 hours, at least the town I live in didn’t burn to the ground.)

So what I’m saying is that while our anniversary later this month is on a Tuesday, so I hope it will avoid the jinx, Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, meaning we should expect about seven feet of snow.

WHAT I WROTE

When the weather was hot, we got up early to walk, but I used to have a different reason to get an early start.

A cat on my front lawn caused me to get to know my neighbors a little better.

After more than a year of masks and social distancing, we went to a soccer game on a night for rain gear and huddling under the scoreboard.

STUFF I READ

For T.B.C., Shelly writes about her Spawn.

Renata is learning it’s usually OK to get something 98 percent right.

For the “Lessons in Loss” series at Smelly Socks and Garden Peas, Lisa describes what it was like to lose herself.

Graham is having some middle-age problems, because being our age is not fun.

There’s a part of Independence Day Austin has grown to dislike.

Jeff receives surprising scientific news that he’s a regular studmuffin.

Vee’s upbringing has a lot to do with her approach to life today.

Maybe you like Fran’s politics. Maybe you don’t. But she’s going to keep writing about politics.

Giggles is moving from Toronto to Ottawa this summer. It’s going to be a bit of a process.

Michelle was caught off-guard at the start of her relationship with her husband.

Plans change, including Ally’s haircut.

Emily’s working on getting her social skills back in order.

I can’t get into poutine (I like fries and gravy, but the cheese curds throw me off), but Marie claims to have a great recipe for it.

Zoe knows she’s responsible for her own happiness, but old habits die hard.

Jackie in Italy is ready for whatever comes next.

Lynette was in no mood to celebrate Canada Day. I get the feeling she was far from the only one.

BereavedSingleDad doesn’t understand some people, and I don’t blame him.

The Huntress’ home-buying saga may be over?

Whether you like sports or not (and we’re working on a bit of a soccer theme this week, just because it worked out that way), I wish I could write something this well.

TWEETS I LIKED

A year or so ago, if she was talking about soccer, it was probably to complain about something. Now she’s grousing about Switzerland being screwed by the officials, and it’s a beautiful thing to see.

The Brit refs can suck it. Bite me. #EURO2020 #ESPSUI #Euro2021

— love2teachmom, Ph.Vaxxed (@YPViking) July 2, 2021

So rigged. They know if Spain wins, they’ll get more television viewership and advertising. I wonder how much they slipped the ref under the table. #EURO2020 https://t.co/115TVQZPxI

— love2teachmom, Ph.Vaxxed (@YPViking) July 2, 2021

Mine would have been more of a flat line.

Rough reminder to kick off this social media conference 😭 #smdaybmore pic.twitter.com/ot3Jlb1qQr

— Kristi Moore (@kfunder) June 30, 2021

I’m going to guess this wasn’t the hardest investigation ever.

the crime the criminal pic.twitter.com/XtsiCCCYum

— Savannah Nelson (@NelsoSav) June 28, 2021

Well, OK …

We’re not going to talk about how I temporarily dyed my hair pink then immediately got sunburnt and now I look like this pic.twitter.com/ni6dqBSnaU

— Rosie Culture (@RosieCulture) July 3, 2021

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