Happy Birthday, America! The Reprise, With Esplodey Thingies and Geology

Upon getting off work on July 4th, I hurried home and hied me up the hill behind my house.

I love the hill behind my house.  For one thing, I suspect it's a drumlin.  For another, I found my garnet mica schist there.  And for the third, I can see a whole bunch of fireworks displays from all over the Seattle area from it.  Not perfectly, mind, but well enough.  And there are no crowds.  Just lotsa ba-booms.

As I was headed for the hill, I saw the lovely crescent moon shining in the last of the sunset:

And then, once I'd got up the hill, I discovered something outstanding. 

Happy Birthday, America!

Our very own Woozle has written you a birfdai song:



It's going to be soooo hard not to sing the chorus whilst standing in line for my own personal groping session when next I fly...

Happy Belated Birthday, America!

I hope all of you had a lovely Fourth, whether in the US or not.  In case you needed fireworks, I brought you some:

I even got some reasonably good video, which I was then able to stitch together into a nice demonstration of the shows I saw.  The hill near my house lets me see what displays several cities are putting on.  I even got to see fireworks bursting over the freeway - if you look closely in the middle bits, you'll see the cars driving merrily along as fireworks burst beside them:



I'm rather pleased with how that turned out, considering I've never tried shooting video of fireworks before.  And Seattle threw the old girl a pretty good party.  So that was fun.

So what did you all do for America's birthday?  For those of you from other countries, what do you do when it comes time to wish the dear old place many more?  I'm tired of just talking about my own adventures - tell me yours!

Tis the 4th of July. Many Happy Returns, America!

America turns 233 today. Sometimes, it's fun to embarrass the birthday country with a home video unearthed from their parents' attic. Remarkably, our Founding Fathers had both musical talent and excellent videographers, so we have just that opportunity. Here they are, solemnly choosing the author of the Declaration of Independence:



All humorous history aside, declaring independence was a momentous event. Here's something with the proper gravitas:



Happy birthday, America.

Happy Birthday, America. Some People Still Give a Shit About You.

On this Fourth of July, I just want to let a few of our more courageous politicians say a few words about the freedoms this country was founded on:

Senator Russ Feingold:



Senator Chris Dodd:



Representative Dennis Kucinich:



The Constitution is a huge part of what we're celebrating. Let's not forget it.