Several years of seemingly never-ending political news and conflict (largely forced upon us through cable news and social media) has left me emotionally drained when it comes to discussing anything remotely related to national politics. When drama began to unfold in regards to this year’s Independence Day celebrations in Washington D.C., I made a point to intentionally ignore it, and put my focus on local events and our own personal freedoms instead.

Thursday morning, we were delightfully surprised to find our favorite local diner was open for business, and so Susan, Mason, and I stopped by for some Independence Day omelets. (Morgan celebrated by sleeping in). After breakfast, Mason went back to bed, Susan and Morgan went to White Water for a few hours, and dad and I went to Yukon’s Freedom Fest to check out the local car show. The car show was just the right size, and it only took us about half an hour to see everything.

Later that day, the four of us went over to Susan’s sister’s house for some burgers and hot dogs, hot off the grill. Susan’s mom brought vanilla pudding (one of my favorites!) and everything was delicious.

After eating, we left there and went to my mom’s house, where my sister and her family were popping fireworks. We brought ours along too, and their kids and our kids had a great time setting things on fire. Several of my mom’s neighbors set off larger fireworks, so even when we weren’t blowing things up, there always seemed to be something around us going off.

We got home late, around 11pm, and I turned on the television only long enough to see the requisite talking heads arguing about who did what, who said what, and who paid for what that day. Politics are important, policy is important, debating is important, and the direction our country is headed is certainly important, but I couldn’t help but think it was too bad people couldn’t call a truce for 24 hours and spend one day being grateful for the freedom we have.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

PS: Joey Chestnut ate 71 hot dogs in 10 minutes. God Bless America.