Taylor Heritage Festival fireworks

Every year about this time, the city of Taylor hosts their annual heritage festival. They have some entertainment (this year, the headliner was Charlie Daniels [Devil went down to Georgia]), and on Friday night, the put on a pretty good fireworks show. The show can be seen from a local shopping mall and several restaurants. So, each year, several friends and The Wife[tm] and I head on down to one of those restaurants, have a decent steak dinner, and afterwards, sit in their parking lot to wait for the fireworks. Well, we were at a steak house, but I actually had the salmon, which I enjoyed quite well.

While awaiting the start of fireworks, we were sitting along an entrance to a large retailer. So, to amuse ourselves (and the people entering/exiting the store's parking lot), we would wave to the people driving by. Some would smile and wave back, others would (seemingly) turn and look away. A couple looked around at who we might have been waving at before realizing we were waving at them.

The fireworks started off with almost all red shells, the big starburst-type. Followed by several white and blue ones. Appropriate for this time of year. They had several that looked like water flowing over a waterfall. These seemed to be the favorites of the group -- they did look pretty cool. The Taylor fireworks show seem to have a wide variety of fireworks, and no "duds" (the type that go up and just go BANG with a white flash).

After the Grand Finale, we just picked up our chairs, tossed them into the car, and headed home. One of the advantages of watching from where we were is that getting out is pretty quick. You can get out before the bulk of the traffic.

Supermarket shoppers

Been shopping at a supermarket recently? I wonder if people drive their cars on public streets like they push their shopping carts through the supermarket?

First, they just wander around as if in a daze, apparently oblivious to other customers (and they get cranky if you run into them). If an aisle has a constriction, like a free-standing display, where do you think that people stop and make a phone call, or peruse the products on the display?

Did you know that the aisle at the local Meijer in front of the refrigerated coolers (where the milk is located) is exactly four shopping carts wide. How do I know? There were three carts parked side-by-side across the aisle while the shoppers went off to gather something. There was room for one cart to get by in that aisle, when one shopper parked her cart in that one spot, thereby blocking the aisle completely. My wife prohibited me from commenting loudly about the idiocy of the situation.

The parents with lots of children who allow them to run around all over the store, picking things up and putting them down all over the place. Of course, the parents do it, too. How long do these people think that frozen foods will last in the canned goods aisle? And, who pays for the lost goods (no, it's not the store)?

Happy birthday Mom!

Today was my mom's 80th birthday. Now, she and Dad are the same age again.