That's a wrap for the first week of July!

The company recommended to us by our son and dil came out the last week of June to give us an estimate on the cost of taking down the dead tree in our front yard.  We did not have them remove the wood or grind the stump down.  Our son said he would do that for us and take the wood away for their fireplace.  Monday, they came out and using chainsaws, a cherry picker and a chipper, they had the tree down within an hour.  I was watching from the front deck and when they would get close to the electrical wires strung through it, I held my breath hoping they wouldn't touch them accidentally.  After taking the tree down, they cut the wood into manageable lengths and stacked them by the garage, raked up everything that hadn't gone thru the chipper and took away all the debris.  The cost was $800.  Expensive but worth it as now we don't have to worry about one of our UP winter storms taking the tree down along with the electrical lines.

We went to the garden center and got a number of hanging plants and flowers for both the front and back decks.  Everything was on sale for the holiday so I bought quite a few extra.  We also got flowers for the cemeteries for the graves of B's parents and my parents.  We went to the cemeteries on Wednesday of this week and placed the flowers and also put a flag on my dad's grave as he is a veteran of WWII.

I made appointments for B and I for our annual eye checkups.  B is sure that he will have to have cataract removal in his other eye this time.  We will see.

For the 4th of July, we just stayed around the house.  B got the grill out and he made his special secret recipe cheeseburgers while I made potato salad.  We had strawberries and ice cream for dessert.  Then we watched "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS.  Great way to watch the fireworks without worrying about parking and bugs.

B mentioned this morning that if I were still teaching the 4th of July would be the end of my vacation.  I laughed because he was right.  After the holiday was when I started working on preparing for school which consisted of going into the building every few days to start arranging furniture in the classroom and cleaning as well as meetings and figuring out curriculum.  Makes me glad I am retired.

I don't like to discuss politics on my blog but I did notice something I kept seeing on social media this week.  So many people were talking about how the 4th of July was not a holiday that some people should celebrate because lots of people are not happy that they don't have this or have that and that we shouldn't believe in the Constitution or Bill of Rights anymore because  things are different now.  They also want to change the National Anthem because they don't believe in it anymore.  Some people have even written that they don't like America anymore.  The only thing I say to this is that I am very proud to be an American, it is just some of the people in this country I don't particularly care for.