The worst 4th of July ever

I’ve been trying to get my thoughts down on just what made 4th of July 2026 so awful for a week. I think I’ll just blame it all on Trump. He wrecked the 4th of July, and during the week since there’ve been so many other egregious acts on his part, it’s hard to focus. Like sticking his fat face (as my brother put it) into the US team’s World Cup elimination game. If you’ve been hiding under a rock, the summary is one of the US players, Folarin Balogun, got a red card and was suspended from the playoff game in Seattle on Monday night. So Trump called up his buddy, the FIFA director, the equally corrupt Gianni Infantino, and asked to get Balogun un-suspended. Infantino is the one who gave Trump that phony peace prize last year. And the US players were so disgruntled at the on-again off-again suspension, they did not play well, and lost. Again, my brother put it best, if “the team was playing FOR Balogun instead of WITH him, things woulda gone differently, I’m sure.”

Not to mention the war with Iran. 

 

But back to 4th of July. It was way too hot because climate change is real and we as a country are not doing enough about it. In DC it was hot and people stood in the heat for hours waiting for Trump & fireworks, and they got evacuated and there was no where for them to go and except into some of the Smithsonian museums, you know that agency that Trump keeps saying is so awful and un-American.

Many of the Madison fireworks displays got cancelled too, some due to heat, one due to nesting eagles, and the others were ticketed events, like go to the baseball game or soccer game and see fireworks after. The Monona fireworks were still a regular community event and we thought about going to one of the couple places where we could watch  the Monona fireworks from across the lake, but in the end just stayed in and watched the New York and DC fireworks on TV. The New York show was better – more variety of the fireworks, better synced with the music, better music. More diverse crowd, too, at least as far as we could tell on TV.

Earlier in the day, I volunteered at the Farmers’ Market info booth. People did seem to be appropriately festive there, and there were a lot of red white & blue themed shirts and clothing. Jasper dressed the part, too. 

I made a cake for the cake walk at the Regent Neighborhood Association 4th of July picnic, run this year by our neighbor who also manages a local chamber music group. The kids chose the stuff with sprinkles, rice krispie treats and cupcakes, first, over my cake. I mean they wanted stuff in pieces so they could just take the wrapping off and eat it there. But eventually my cake got selected, although it might’ve gotten dumped into the trash for all I know.  

This picture kind of says it all for me: red, white, & blue jet trails over New York Harbor, with a note that people are getting evacuated from the National Mall.

Since 4th of July besides trying to finish this post, I worked on a recipe for blueberry tarts. I made them the first time on July 5th, for our Sunday night dessert. Then I made another batch on Tuesday so I could take them to Concerts on the Square. We’d been invited to join some friends who have a table. Everyone who’s tried the tarts, so far, has liked them.

Besides the tarts, this weekend has been all blueberries. I bought a 10-pound box at the farmers’ market yesterday. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning. And I left out at least a quart to eat, and froze the rest yesterday and bagged them up today.

Just in case you are wondering, I stocked up on Costco ziploc bags over 10 years ago when I still had my supper club, and haven’t bought them ever again since.

And I’ve been ignoring lots of other stuff I should be working on, paperwork for various orgs, sorting the linen closet, going through drawers and closets to send stuff to Goodwill, sewing projects like that hallway door curtain. Computer stuff – like a new retired blog and straighten out my email, so I’m using Outlook less.

Summer brain.