Hope y’all had a nice holiday. Our Fourth was nice and relaxing, unlike the holiday of Sister of Uncle Crappy, who apparently suffered loss of vertical hold shortly after we spoke on the telephone Wednesday afternoon. She’s blaming a lack of preparation — and several yummy cosmopolitians — on her issues; she’s also proven to me that passing out on the bathroom floor is a family trait.

See, I’ve always found the bathroom to be an oddly comforting place when one reaches a certain level of, uh, toxicity. The tile floor is nice and cool, and bathmats can easily be balled up to make a pillow. And there’s no question that proximity to the commode is a plus as well. So, E — no worries. I’ve been right there with you several times.

Here in Pixburke, the Fourth consisted of golf in a light rain shower during the afternoon, followed by beer and grilled hot dogs — with all the toppins — in the evening. I also got my third fireworks show of the week, although I had to walk downtown by myself to see them. At least we weren’t sitting in the community park in Cranberry, where their show’s finale was inadvertantly set off about three minutes in. The rest of the show went off as planned, and apparently there was some confusion as to when it actually ended, since the big bang had come at the beginning.

The Wife promised one additional fireworks extravaganza, this coming Saturday at New Castle’s annual Fireworks Festival, where the town’s fireworks companies — which include Zambelli Internationale — set off a Really Big Show at the end of their community party. We’ve been before; the party isn’t anything special, but the fireworks show is spectacular. If you dig ’em as much as I do, you should make an effort to catch that show sometime.

The music component of our summer picks up this week as well. We have tickets to see Railroad Earth at the Rex Theater on Thursday, and we both took Monday off so we can head to Cleveland to see Keller and Ratdog with HP, who will have to miss part of the show because of work commitments.

So. Anyway. Kewyson’s comments aside, I appreciate the break. I’ll be fully engaged this week, so you can check back without fear of the crushing disappointment I’m sure you felt with each visit last week.

Right?