A Rainy 4th Of July Weekend

But we still got to do everything we wanted to do: 

On the 4th, I got in a run during a break in the rain--I would have happily run in the rain, but it was nice to see the sun.

Later, I fired up the grill when it was mostly sunny.  When it started to rain, I wheeled the grill to a place under the new shelter we just installed and I was able to grill, without the rain drowning the coals or wetting the meat.

After dinner, it got nice again and everyone went outside and lounged under the shelter.  I had wheeled the grill back to its normal place in the sun, or rain.

Much later, some fireworks were set-off and I was kind of glad it was raining again, since one of the small rockets landed in an oak tree branch and a small fire was burning up there.  I'm pretty sure the tree was never in danger and all that was burning was the firework itself.  But better safe than sorry: The garden hose just reached the spot (after I stood up on the deck railing) and after a few tense moments, all was well.  We set off one more large rocket and decided to not test our luck with the arrays of tiny ones.

Another break in the rain came on the 5th and so my wife and I explored a new (to us) trail nearby.  It was very buggy and the trail didn't go far.  But the town forrest had been harvested in 2019--according to a sign I saw on the way to the parking spot--so there was much open area and we found ripe blueberries growing in there.  We braved the deer flies and mosquitoes long enough to enjoy a couple handfuls of the tiny but very sweet and tasty berries, before making our escape.