Our Independence Day

Allie wanted to go see the city fireworks. Julia wanted to go see the city fireworks. Greg wanted Allie to help him set off our fireworks in the driveway. Julia was supposed to watch but she only watched one or two before she came in, holding her hands over her ears. Allie watched all of it, but said that the smaller fireworks were boring. I was in and out of the house watching some of them and towards the end, Greg was lighting things, throwing them towards the road, and neither he nor Allie were even looking at them. Isn't that the point? All of us got completely eaten by mosquitos.

Then it came time to leave for the city fireworks. Julia had to change her clothes because she had on a sundress and it was only about 70 degrees outside. She started crying because her head got stuck and then she remembered that she apparently burned her fingers slightly on a hot sparkler. She was horribly tired anyway, so I suggested that she stay home with me. It was a measure of how tired she was that she thought about it and immediately said yes.

Julia went to sleep despite the noise outside and about 10:15, Greg and Allie came home. They banged on the window of the living room to try to scare me. When they came in, Allie immediately got into her pajamas and she went off to bed. For about 3 minutes. Then she came out on the landing and said plaintively, I don't want this night to end!

About that time, Greg and I realized that Simon the cat was missing. Greg looked all over the house and became convinced that Julia had let him out earlier when she was watching the fireworks in the driveway and holding the front door open. I suggested that Greg get some leaves off our catnip plant and see if that rousted him. I think the leaves from our catnip plant could entice a dead cat (yes, we do have cat visitors to our garden). Simon did not appear but Rabies had a great time. Greg went outside with a flashlight, risking intense mosquito attack, and I checked the house again. We both realized that if Simon had gotten out, the fireworks would scare him to death and he'd probably be long gone.

I went into the basement and opened the door to the storage room and behold! There was Simon, eager to get out and get upstairs to the catnip. Today, our plans are to go buy collars for the cats. There's a pet store in Madison that has cats, dogs, birds, ferrets, lizards, fish, spiders, snakes, hedgehogs, crabs, etc. It's like going to the zoo without getting eaten by mosquitos. Ah, summer in Wisconsin.