And on the seventh day...

I woke up about 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up around 6:00 and closed my windows to keep in the cool air.

Tom came in five minutes later and opened them again. I guess my timing was off.

I had the traditional college boy's Saturday morning breakfast -- cold leftover pizza. The full tradition would include finishing off a bottle of flat beer, but I don't do beer, of course. So I had the middle-aged man's equivalent -- somewhat cold coffee sweetened with Splenda.

The pizza is from a little place in Baraboo called the Eagle's Nest. I'm not sure why, but the decorations run to the patriotic, along with velvet paintings of Italianesque landscapes and -- for reasons totally beyond us -- condiment racks on the wall that are shaped like elephants and look like refugees from an Indian or Pakistani place. Tom says it looks like they bought everything up at a garage sale and just put it on the walls. Good New York-style pizza, though, and HUGE. We always being home leftovers.

Coming back last night at dusk, we saw lots of fireflies. There are more and more each evening now.

As I write this at 6:45 a.m., it looks like a beautiful morning for the parade, although the weather report calls for thunderstorms developing later in the day.
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(Later) Well, the parade was nice, but not too exciting. Last year -- it being an election year -- there were all sorts of localish political entries, but this year no politicians and the Republicans didn't even show up to march. The Flag Ladies weren't there, either, which surprised me a lot. The predicted rain (no thunder and lightning) came earlier than forecast, arriving just as Tom's group came to the end of the parade route, which was pretty good timing. They were near the end of the parade, too, so no one got totally rained out.

I watched it surrounded by young families with kids in the four- to ten-year-old range, a perfect age for scurrying out to get the candy and trinkets being tossed from the cars and trucks. Last year it was very hot and the big and welcome favorites were the fruit-flavored ice pops one group had. So this year lots of people were giving those out. Naturally, it was cooler and overcast, and there was not the same excitement about them. A few groups were tossing Mardi Gras-type beads and one insurance company had rather nice Frisbees. Best giveaway, in my opinion, were small blooming marigolds potted in plastic-lined butter boxes for replanting. To be honest, though, I don't even remember who was giving them out. So much for their advertising value.