That first sentence hit the nail right on the head. I want to call my boss and say, "Save your money on me for the next 2 days, and I'll see you on Monday."

I may be in the office, but mentally, I'm gone. Anything done today will be by wrote, and no more. Here in Florida, July is officially "You think June was hot?" month. While I watched a public display of firewaorks last night, my friend shot off $1,100 worth of fireworks. With a schedule of what was to go off and when! The glow on the horizon over HIS place was amazing.

I only wish I was gone - mentally or physically. But I just printed out the 70+ page document for a two hour meeting that starts in half in hour. Sigh.

I second the first paragraph; my local transit authority was running a Sunday schedule that day, and I found myself locked into thinking it was Sunday.

Anyway, if July had a slogan, it would be this:
"July: More Than The Fourth, There's Christmas, too!"

The only thing keeping me at all motivated today is the knowledge that it's Thursday already and I only have to work two days until I get more time off. I just wish every "Sunday" provided me with this tiny little work week.

Business where I work has been downright dead all this week. Just about everyone that works for the County, the City, or the State seems to have taken some time off during the entire week, leaving us with nothing. If I were to schedule holiday time off, I would have made the 4th an optional holiday, if it fell on a Wednesday. If it fell on a Tuesday or Thursday, I would have given that Monday or Friday off as well.

and the promo spot for The Month of July is, of course, various jumpy video set to the Village People song "Y-M-C-A."

just to insure everybody leaves the TV and goes to the bathroom or get sandwiches.

I'm long out of school, but it still bugs me to see the stores trot out the "Back to Schools" stuff so early. I was at Target yesterday, and they had a "back to savings" display in the children's clothing departments. Big cardboard lockers. We wonder why more kids these days aren't patriotic? It's because department stores start reminding them that the fall semester is coming on July 3rd.

For a slogan, how about "July: Proving that October isn't the only month for jumping-the-seasonal-gun."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go buy a new winter parka and some snow shovels. If I wait until December, they'll be selling air-conditioners and bathing suits again and I'll be stuck digging my car out of the snow with my scraper.

"Only 5 more months until Christmas!"

"July: Month of Patriots! Now with added heatstroke!"

"Hey, don't step on the corn!"

"Obituary: He Didn't Get Away Quick"

Come for the Fourth, stay for the Summer.

This Fourth in the middle of the week seems to skip the end of summer feeling for me. No big weekend, because two days is too much vacation to take to get 5 somehow, so I stay and work the rest of the week...

In some places school starts back as early as August 1st! So I guess after July 4th, the summer really is almost over. I remember when I was a kid, August seemed like a really long (hot) Sunday, and September 1st was that dreaded Monday.

But the way stores constantly try to get the jump on the next Holiday selling period is kinda ridiculous. It's as if Halloween comes so inconveniently late in the season and they could have had Christmas stuff displayed for months by then.
~Fae
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-:¦:- Bling Blog -:¦:-

I love Come for the Fourth, Stay for the Summer! That's the perfect description of my family's summer. The fourth, which also is my niece's birthday, is only the beginning. In the next three weeks, we celebrate my Dad's birthday, my daughter's birthday and the birthday's of no less than six more nieces. The Fourth is just our way of starting things off with a bang.

- Firecrackers to dog days.
- Hot enough for Sam McGee.
- Hey Caesar, heck of a nice month you appropriated!

I used to know the 'Oh, no ... summer's almost over' of Independence Day. No longer. July 1 in Texas is like February 1 in Minnesota. 2 more months before possible relief.

Except this year. Rain and 80s. If this is the result of global warming, I'll take it.

My slogan? "July: At least the summer solstice is behind us."

My wife works at Hancock Fabrics. The Christmas fabric is starting to show up NOW.

James, how about Minnesota requiring US flags flown to be made in America? Got this from Drudge:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2028740.ece

My local 9 hole golf course decided to have a fireworks show...Tuesday night at 10 pm. At first, I thought it was a bunch of morons (there's a lot around here) who like to shoot off fireworks early because they have absolutely no discipline or patience...but no...a sanctioned city event.

Hows about "July: Where Every Day is Fireworks Day!"

And why is it that every time I drive home from watching a fireworks show, I just assume that I'll drive around the corner and see my house completely engulfed in flames? Does anyone else do that? One bottle rocket is all that it would take and with the aforementioned morons in my neighborhood, it's just a matter of time.

Several points about requiring flags to be made in the USA:

* Every since Adam Smith, circa 1830, it's been well known that a certain activity called TRADE is good for both parties. Each party gives up something for something else that they more want. So this law is a bad thing, pocketbook-wise.

* Flags made in the USA are likely to be sewn by illegal immigrants in sweatshops in the USA, or by effectively slave labor on Saipan (a Abramoff special). Not exactly USA values in play there.

Hows about our legislators work on something meaningful, like balancing budgets?

Just a little report on the mayhem in N MPLS last night. I'm not really into fireworks but if you want a fireworks experience you'll never forget, take a drive through N Mpls on Jul 4. I stood on my front step and could see no less than 4 different major firework displays, all within 1 block of my house. People set up shop in the street and alley (my alley was pretty much closed off on one end because of people running around and shooting fireworks). I would say less than half were the legal kind - everyone had the ones that shoot 100 ft in the air. You could hear the remains of fireworks hitting rooftops, sparking in trees and there was a bluish haze over the whole area. From about 5pm until I went to bed, it was nonstop fireworks. Its hard to describe the mulititude of fireworks going on in Camden last night. There was nowhere you could go and not hear multiple groups with huge fireworks displays. It was even hard to drive around since so many streets were taken over by the parties and impromptu fireworks displays.

Anyone else from the Camden have the same experience? This is my 5th year living there and this was the biggest year for fireworks, and I've said that every year. Last night, the northside was as close as you can get to chaos without descending into outright rioting - the next step would have been something like the riots at the U when Gopher Hockey won the National Championship. I'm exaggerating, but not my much. I don't mean to be this to be a negative post because it was a pretty amazing spectacle and it was mostly harmless. The only thing that made me mad was that my dog was petrified and hiding in the basement. Next year, I'll make sure she's not around.

The 4th of July is the new Halloween.

PapaTrunk: That article was an eye-opener, not so much about the silly protectionist legislation, but the incredibly nasty comments from our British Cousins. Apparently American Patriotism is the root cause of all the evil in the world, ever.

I'm proud to fly the flag at my house. It was flying there on September 11, 2001. It was flying there on September 10, 2001. A newer one is flying there today because the old one wore out.

I fly it because I believe in the principles on which my country was founded, and which are seen in the Declaration of Independence (which every American should read again every July 4) and the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

I believe all people are created equal. Being born into a rich and powerful family doesn't make you any better than a poor child. King George the Third may have been king of England "by the Grace of God" but God does not control American elections.

I believe in freedom of religion. You may worship Jesus, Moses, Allah, Vishnu or even nobody at all. Your holy day may be Sunday, Saturday, Friday, any other day, or never. You may post the Ten Commandments or Surah 1 of the Koran on your own property. You must not imply a government favoratism for Islam by posting the Koran on government property. The same goes for the Ten Commandments.

I believe that no religious test may ever be a requirement for qualification for any office or public trust. Being Protestant, Catholic, Quaker, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim, an atheist or member of any religion does not disqualify you to become President.

I believe in justice. I believe we have the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. I believe prisoners must not be held indefinitely with no charge being brought against them. The accused has the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; and to be able to obtain witnesses in his favor.

Does this make me a liberal? Well, then, I'm proud to be a liberal and proud to fly the flag.

http://www.gadsdenandculpeper.com/

http://www.united-states-flag.com/index.html

July: The Imperial Month.
August: The Empire Strikes Again
September: The 7th month, no seriously, if it weren't for those Caesars . . .

An extra day off sounded good at first, but now we realize what we've actually created: A week with two Mondays! Ack! Bring on the unearned Friday...

July: It Is SO Not September Yet

(School starting in August is Just. Not. Right.)

"July: Fry, You Bastard, Fry! Bwahahahahahaha!"

Whatcha think? Too long?

This is a little late but you could have been off 9 days straight and only take 4 vacation days. Thats a nice long vacation during a slow time at the office.

July 5th, more than the 4th but less than the 6th.

I grew up in Rhode Island. Summer arrived for me with my first trip of the year (even if it took place before June 21st) to Rocky Point Amusement Park for clam cakes and REAL clam chowder (the kind without cream, milk or whatever the dairy yulk is that is mixed with fake clam chowder). Summer ended the second day of school (the first day of school, with the catching up on summer exploits of friends, the exaggeration of one's own summer exploits and the cheerful griping about who got what teacher, was still summer).

Alas, Rocky Point Amusement Park is no more, although thankfully my kids got to enjoy, before the park closed, the rides, true diversity (with the prep school kids, the gangster kids and the kids who seemed to live at the park all sharing the same roller coaster and all trying to ram each other's bumper cars) and the wonderful clam cakes and real clam chowder at the Shore Dinner Hall.

Sorry, I know this blog is more focused on Minnesota culture and history, but I thought that a little sentimentalizing from a Rhode Islander would be tolerated.

"... like some strange out-of-place Sunday that got lost and showed up looking for directions; now we’re back to normal, but it feels like a pretend weekday..." was just a delightful piece of prose to read.

Thank you -

Late yesterday my wife and I talked about how nice it was to have a Wednesday off, how nice it would be if we had every Wednesday off. It was a nice little break right in the middle of the week. Then I read your blog and it hit me: I feel crappy. Any momentum I had built up from Monday and Tuesday are gone. If it were like this every week I'd never get anything done. Who wants to work now? Not me.

Thank God my boss was out of town. Going to work today just seemed wrong.

You literally live in a house which would go up in flames from just one bottle rocket? What a deathtrap! That actually sounds much more moronic than anything your neighbors might do.

My guess is that it would actually take many thousands of bottle rockets to send your house up, assuming it's made of ordinary building materials and ordinary laws of probability continue to apply. I hope for your sake you learn to relax and enjoy the holiday.

Drink a fifth on the fourth and bond out on the fifth.