Fire Hot Pavement, Fancy Cars, and Fireworks

 

Wow. Here we are at the Fourth of July! Time is flying by it seems. I think the older you get, the more it feels like time is passing so quickly. If you don't stop and enjoy your life once in a while, it will be gone before you know it. I believe this is true at any age really, but like I said, the older I get, the faster time flies. 

Well, tonight is the night to enjoy fireworks, barbeques, fun, family, and hopefully no flames. I like fireworks or at least the big displays you can attend around the area. I'm not as wild about the fireworks you can set off at home. Far too many scared pets, wildlife, and I always feel so bad for those with PTSD who want to crawl under a table as an automatic response to the loud bangs and pops surrounding them. I will probably get backlash for this, but I really wish they would ban fireworks besides the larger displays. At least it would cut down on the noise around town, reduce the fear for pets and those who cannot deal with them, and take some of the frightening sounds out of the night sky for wildlife. 

Anyway, I haven't been to fireworks displays for years and neither has Terry. Tonight, the city of Roseburg has a car show, car racing event, and of course, the fireworks display at the close of the evening. It should be quite exciting as I love cars and fireworks in the larger arenas. Terry loves cars too, so we are looking forward to an amazing evening. 

Last night, we sat under a full moon and chatted. It was a beautiful night, with warm summer temperature and a full moon to light up the night sky. Gorgeous! 

The evening was well spent, with talk of our lives, household issues, and of course, our time at the event in town on the 4th. 

I spent some time this morning doing the usual chores. Taking care of our babies is number one, but house chores are second. Doing dishes, cleaning here and there, and also hanging things I needed to hang. I started in the office. Hanging a beautiful tile type picture of Terry's in the kitchen when first moving in led to disaster. We are not allowed to put nails or pins in the walls, understandably so. This leaves us with the 3M Command Strips and let me tell you, those are fun. 😏😔😖

Terry's picture was hung with what I though was care. A few days later, I heard a crash from the kitchen. I ran around the corner, full expecting to see Kit on the counter shoving something off onto the floor. But it was the Command Strip giving way. Thankfully the tile was not broken. It's a beautiful picture in the blue and white design, which I absolutely love. He went to Delft Holland where the city is known for this style of artwork. I was almost in tears when the piece ended up on the floor. I have carried too much fear within me surrounding the hangers to make a second attempt at hanging the picture. For now, it sits on my kitchen counter where it is safe and sound.

Blue and white artwork from Denmark I thought was probably broken after it fell from high up on the wall. 

We purchased some heavier duty hanging strips from the same family of nail-less hanging options created by 3M. We'll see how those work. Meanwhile, I hung a few of the lighter weight art and even a dream catcher I purchased a few months ago. 

My dream catcher that is about three feet tall. I love the small brown beads juxtaposed those beautiful white feathers.

After hanging the dream catcher, I hung two pieces of animal art that came from my trips to Wildlife Safari before I met Terry. The canvas with the blues, turquoise and silver paints is a picture that Tava the elephant painted with her trunk. The second painting, the pink and yellow one, is painted by a lioness. It was so much fun watching her paint away, as she greedily grabbed the treats the handler was feeding her through the fence. All the money earned by selling the paintings goes to help care for and feed the beautiful animals in the park and anyone who follows the blog knows that Terry and I love Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. 

Tava the elephant and a nameless lioness painted these art pieces. I've been wanting to hang them for quite a while and figured today was my chance while hanging the dream catcher! Of course, I have one more piece I wanted to hang today as well, to finish off the look in the bathroom. We bought this sign on our honeymoon. 

Terry noticed this sign as we walked through a store while on the beach. We both loved it and figured it would go so well in the bathroom. So that was hung this morning as well. 

Our morning was topped off with some relaxation too. I felt like going back to sleep for a while just because we stayed up so late last night. We were watching movies and chatting and before we knew it, the time escaped us. The two in the morning nights are just too late at our age. See? This is another reason why getting old sucks. 

Now that I have learned how the 3M Command Strips work, watch out Terry! Everything in the house will be hung on the walls now! 

Meanwhile, it is hot in Roseburg today. It has been all week, but today there is a red flag fire warning in the area. I'm not sure what this will mean for the people setting off fireworks in the venue mentioned above but we will have to see how this plays out. 

The fire warning lasts until 8 PM so far in their prediction, so we'll see. Fireworks do not begin until 10 PM at the fairgrounds. But the advisory does not pertain to the Umpqua Valley area alone. Eugene and surrounding areas have the same heat advisory. Bottom line is, please be cautious tonight! The best bet is to not light off fireworks! 

Leaving the house at 2:30 PM would give us plenty of time to get to the fairgrounds for the car show. I have to say, Terry and I were both disappointed in the number of cars there. 

Roseburg is a small city, that's indisputable, but wow. There were a couple of rows of cars and that was it. A let down to say the least. A few of them were very nice, but nothing that made me want to come back next year to see the car show. 

That was about it for the car show. As you can see, the parking lot was scantily spotted with cars. See what an exciting, overwhelmingly great time we get to experience? I did really enjoy a couple of the autos sitting in the sweltering hot parking lot, but other than that, we moved into the shade of the overhang in the bleachers. The bleacher area was where the car race was supposed to happen, but that wouldn't be for another couple of hours. 

Terry and I had stopped to eat before we came to the event and the cup came in handy for holding water I could pour over my head, down my legs, and drip onto my arms. I was hot! Yes, I have become quite sensitive to heat over the years. I love spring and summer but yesterday got to the predicted 97 degrees and that will not do. It sucked. Even in the shade. Two hours of sitting in the heated shade was making us hot, but also, we could not get comfortable. Our backs and butts hurt! The seats were made of a hard plastic and just didn't conform to the body.  

The two hours finally passed, and the cars began to spill out onto the track. Sporty "old-style" racing cars revved their engines as they passed visitors in the stands. The races were cool, but there were so many pauses when the cars would spin out too much on the corners and bam! There's a 10-minute break to get it going again or tow it off the track. Now, I understand you want to clear out any stalled vehicles or damaged ones, but it was constant. If this is what car racing is about, no thanks. 

The race carried on for about three and a half hours. My legs were numb. My butt was definitely worse for the wear, and my back was killing me. Terry and I were both shifting positions constantly and trying to keep our composure to take in the event but also to switch positions to relieve our aching bodies. 

One thing I loved about the races were the "dwarf" cars. Now before anyone sends me nasty emails or makes comments on this post, I did not name the cars that nor did I consider they would be called that. Terry and I were both a bit shocked when they used the name, but hey, I didn't invent the wheel either even though it is still called "the wheel" and thank heavens the wheel doesn't sound a bit offensive. Anyway, I loved the small cars. They flew around the track at a shockingly fast pace. 

The tires were squealing, making an attempt to grip the dirt track while maintaining the fast pace. 

Some even spun out on corners so fast they lost control, losing it on the bends in the track. They usually ended up facing the other direction of the track, needing to get their bearings again. One car even flipped over during the turn on the bend because of the speed he took it at. The driver was okay, which was the most important factor, but the car had to be removed from the track by tow truck, causing another 20-minute pause in the race. 

Cars may have been moving very fast around the track, but the speed in which the race was completed was dragging. The race itself was awesome though and enjoyed by both of us. We took videos and photos of this event. 

Proving to be fun in between all the pauses, we were glad we made it to the races before the firework show began. At the end of the race, the wind must have shifted. I began to get blasts of dirt and sand in my eyes. Closing my eyes, I was still able to hear the race but viewing it was becoming difficult. Fireworks began to shoot into the air and explode, sending beautiful colors into the night sky. These were coming from beyond the east side of the track, from the surrounding hills. We had a firework show before the fireworks! Fireworks were slated to begin at 10 PM and that they did. 

 

We hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July experience! Our time was spent well with each other, no matter the venue we visited. Beautiful fireworks, awesome car racing, and of course, the skimpy car show that still gave us a glimpse into a few cars that were pretty cool. But the best part of the day was spending time with my sweet man, as usual. We cracked each other up, laughed a lot, and enjoyed each other's company. 

Happy 4th of July everyone!