This was the first 4th of July I have had off in about 5 years. So I ran in the Brentwood 4th of July Firecracker 5K race. I trained for the race by drinking rum and beer the night before at dinner. I topped the alcohol off with a lobster dinner. A one pound lobster really does not provide all that much food. And it takes a heck of a lot of work to extract the meat from the shell. Which is not such a bad thing. It prevents you from really shoveling too much food into your mouth at once. You have most of the meat under the tail and then you have the meat in the pinchers, then the negligible meat in the legs. My rum came in the form of pina colada which was a slurpee mix with Barcardie rum. After two of these I switched to light beer because I knew that I would be running the next morning. They gave me coleslaw and clam chowder soup with my lobster so I was pretty full by the end of the meal. We ate in a place in the Strip District that had outside seating. About ten minutes into our meal one of the waitresses started bringing guys out to see why her car was not starting. Finally by the third guy, the engine was turning over but would not start. So I threw in my opinion of why it would not start. I told them that the fuel filter might be clogged dirty. I asked her if the engine had been hesitating going up hills. But she said that she did not think so. So we ruled out that theory. Then another guy came out and it started, which had us thinking. This all went on while I was eating my soup and Laura worked on her salad. She was parked directly in front of our table. Spontaneous social interaction like this can be the best sometimes. Because nobody has to suffer the consequences of being late for it. And you do not have to be on time for it either. Anyhow the only conclusion that we came to about her car was that Japanese cars rarely fail. After the meal Laura and I walked from the Strip to the newly built convention center along the river. It is a beautiful structure. There is an elongated fountain that runs down both sides of a walkway that stretches the entire length of the building that helps to cool the building. We then walked back to the car that was parked near the restaurant. We got home and I kept training for the race the next day by drinking a couple light beers. Since I could not sleep because I just finished working night turn, I watched the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks. The next morning after having only 5 hours of jet lagged sleep I felt lousy. The last thing I wanted to do was run in a 5K race. But I told myself that it was the same deal when I teach on my days off. I never feel like doing it but something always keeps me going back. So we walked up to the race and Laura, me her nephew and his friend lined up in the back of the pack where there were a lot of beer guts and women with babies in strollers. It was a pretty hot day and people who lived along the race sprayed garden hoses to cool down the runners. We had to run down the main street for 2.5 kilometers turn around and come back. It was a little frustrating because the competitive runners were already turned around and heading back to the finish before I was half way to the turnaround point. At some point I lost the jet lag and the fatigue and was glad that I decided to run in the race. When I ran past the house of the holiday party where people knew me I raised my shirt and stuck out my gut and patted my flab. Some picnickers laughed at this. Some runners vomited from the heat. I stayed pretty hydrated from volunteers who handed out paper cups of water. Near the end of the race some lady pushing a baby in a stroller passed me which gave me a boost of confidence. But I kept my pace and finished the race in 33 minutes. It always feels good when it is over. I did not get to see who the man was who won the race at the awards ceremony but the woman who won had a pretty good sized set of tits and a pair of legs that looked like they were made of steel. Usually women who run competitively are flat in the chest. Some of the competitive runners headed over to the beer wagon to drink. I just wanted to hang onto the feeling you get after running. I picked up a banana but I did not even eat it. After all the prizes were given out, we headed to a parade picnic to put on the feed bag. Every 4th of July my friend, Manny, puts out a great picnic. And when I am off I can see some old and new friends. My dad came to the picnic this year. And since he grew up in this area, he had some nostalgic stories to tell. The food is always over the top. This year we had roast beef, 3 kinds of pasta salad, meat balls, ribs, coleslaws and salads and chicken. I built a pyramid of food on my plate. And gave half of it away to the people sitting under the tent that did not feel like standing in line to eat yet. My wife’s aunt handed me a non-alcohol beer after I inquired about her O’Doul’s that she was drinking. After eating, Laura and I socialized for a while and then we headed home to rest up for the evening 4th of July blade. Yes since I get so few holidays off from my job. We decided to make the most of the day and rollerblade in the evening. It was to be a informal rollerblade without much stopping or patrolling. We all met at the Giant Eagle supermarket in the Southside of Pittsburgh. About 25 of us showed up. It was still pretty hot with temperatures in the high 80’s. We decided to head into the eastern part of the city and then to turn around and head back into the center of town. Starting out we went over the Birmingham Bridge. There was no sidewalk, so we had to compete with cars on the bridge. After crossing we ended up on the parkway skating with cars going by at 65 miles an hour. The road got pretty steep and the going got tough. Everybody was pretty spread out. Like always I was pretty close to the back of the pack. I was feeling good, strong. The 5k race in the morning did not tire me out but made me stronger. Which falls into my belief that the more that we do the more we want to do. At the top of the hill about half of the group was really hurting from the hill climb. Many were laying down on the sidewalk. At this point the group broke into two and Laura, my wife, went ahead in the first group. And I stayed behind with the stragglers. When the leader of the second group decided to take a different route into town, I took off by myself to try and catch the first group. I ended up flying down 5th Avenue, the main drag in Oakland where all the Universities are located. I went over to Carnegie Mellon University hoping to catch up with my wife. Since it was a holiday there was not many people around and it felt good to fly through the campus on blades. There was nobody to be found. So I turned around and headed back towards town. All the while moving at a pretty good clip. It was a good work out for the second time that day. Heading back near the University of Pittsburgh, Otto, the guy leading the first group came out of nowhere to tell me that my wife decided to abandon the outing and was waiting for the bus by Hillman Library. I headed for the bus stop and there was Laura, when seeing me acted like she was crying. Turns out the first group went inside the University and took the escalators to a long hallway to blade through the corridors. My wife did not feel like going into the school with roller blades on. I could not blame her for bailing out. I thought it was a silly idea not to mention probably illegal. At the bus stop we decided to skate into town by ourselves and try and catch up with the group. Going down 5th Avenue again into town is the better part of the ghetto. People were sitting out on the steps of their row houses like they do when it is hot .All these people got a kick out of us skating past their homes. I hate to use the word poor when it comes to people because everyone in the ghetto looked pretty well fed. But these inner-city neighborhoods are a lot different than the surrounding areas. People always seem to be friendly when you pass by or show up on skates. We never did catch up with the group and when we got to the lower end of the South Side we started making our way back to the car. But first we stopped for a beer along the way at a bar next to Hooters. We took our skates off and sat on the outside deck. Beer never tasted so good. After the beer we took a path along the river and it was surprising to see so many people sitting along the railroad tracks waiting for the fireworks to begin, as we were skating in the opposite direction of the people who were walking towards the fireworks. Soon the fireworks began going off in the sky. And as we skated through the darkness we could look back and see the bright lights from a distance. And the further we got away from them the further apart people were. And it was a nice ambiance to be in. And one I will remember for some time to come…