Jones Adventures on the 4th of July

It’s been a relaxing weekend here at Jones central. On Thursday afternoon we saddled up the horses and rode around the pasture for a while. Some family friends came by and the thought was we might pull out Martian Rails, but the weather was so nice we just remained outside after the pitch-in dinner.

We could see some fairground fireworks going off over the hill, and the new neighbors, atop said hill, seemed to have sunk a chunk of change into fireworks themselves, because some pretty big stuff was launched into the sky. Our own fireworks display was much more subdued, although our old friend Bruce brought some pretty cool ones.

Some of the most delightful moments came when something went slightly awry. For instance, I discovered I’d purchased a box of cardboard tanks a few years back, and we set them rolling on the drive way. Anyone who has lit up those tanks knows they generally don’t roll very far, which was true for most of these. One, though, worked exactly as must have been intended by the designer, except for the sudden ninety degree turn. Not only did it zoom ten feet at a pretty good clip, when it launched its fireworks it wasn’t a bright fizzle, but a projectile that went halfway to one of the cars!

The other highlight was launching balloon lanterns into the sky and watching them drift away. If I’d known how neat that was going to be, I would have purchased one for each of us. Next year. After, we sat around a campfire roasting marshmallows and making s’mores.

More adventures followed over the rest of the weekend, one at least of which might be interesting for families with younger children. I’ll detail those tomorrow.

Writing wise I finished a rough draft of one Pathfinder story and drafted a rough of another, much shorter one.

And I keep contemplating the calendar and the upcoming 45th birthday. Sheesh. When did THAT happen?