Despite neighbor Shawn’s phone being broken, word got around that we would have a cookout on our street. People converged on Shawn and Bob’s lawn, because they had the largest flat, shady space.

Logan had a grand view of us all.

We had a three-armed toy that Nathaniel threw with Logan, and it sailed into our Bradford pear tree. Nate and John carried the ladder around and set it up, supervised by Sufi.

The first retrieval attempt failed, so Bob and Nathaniel extended it before Bob climbed up with a long pole and knocked the toy out of the branches.

Lise asked Logan to show us his pond down a steep slope behind his house. We knew Bob had cleaned out the weeds and that they had been swimming there. Water flows into the pond via a pipe from the creek and out again through an overflow drain.

Logan ran down to the dock as Lise and I watched tadpoles swimming in the water.

Logan was looking for Herbert, the turtle, under the dock. Lise stood beside Logan and took a photo from above as he fed Herbert some bread. I also liked Lise’s selfie with her feet.

As the sun moved, we picked up our chairs to get in the shade again. People stayed outside a long time. When thunder moved closer, we took the food back to our houses. Only when the first raindrops fell did we fold up the table and take our chairs home. As heavy rain fell, Shawn, Bob and Logan stayed on their porch, while Lise, Nathaniel, and I retreated to ours. (David was working.) It was fun to share that storm from a distance. It had been a most satisfying party.

We had a small continuation of the party after the power went out. Joyce came to recharge her phone, since our generator was running. The rain was over by then. It was fun to chat with her in a smaller setting. Her phone was charged, and she went home when folks up the mountain began shooting fireworks. Most public fireworks in the area had been canceled, so we were thrilled to have a free show that we could see from our chairs on the porch.

Happy Birthday, USA! God bless America.