I don't normally get nostalgic on the 4th of July -- I don't get nostalgic anytime, really, but Independence Day just never struck me as a time to reflect. Until today, that is. Maybe it's the disease. Maybe it's being a new grandpa. I don't really know. But I've been thinking about my favorite Fourth of July's past.

The most harrowing was 35 years ago, when I went to the River with a gang from work (McDonnell-Douglas, at the time). We stayed in a rustic campground called "Anchor's Inn," whose owners put on a "fireworks show" by shooting some rockets off the end of the "T" dock. We all sat on the shore to watch. I was on the front row. Unfortunately, the first rocket up knocked over the rack holding the rest of the lighted rockets -- aiming all of them back at the shore! As we all scrambled up the bank, a fireball nailed me right on my b-- that is, ahem, on the back pocket of my Levi cutoffs. If my wallet hadn't been in that pocket, I'd have suffered a nasty (and most embarassing) burn! I also learned a valuable lesson that night -- it's much better, in the long run, to face trouble head on, rather than run from it.

But my favorite Fourth of July was one I spent with my family tubing down the Salt River. The boys were young, and we wanted to do something fun and memorable. So we went to Phoenix on the advice of a friend, Rich Wise, to go tubing. You rent an inner tube at a concession stand along the Salt River. Then a bus takes you and your tube to a good place to enter the river and begin your "run." Sometimes the current is slow and lazy. Sometimes it's fast and exciting. The rapids are almost always shallower than the rest of the river, and as a courtesy to those coming behind, the first person alerts the others by yelling "butts up." That way you can lift up and avoid accidentally hitting a rock. We had a ball, Jenny and the boys and I. And that night, from our hotel room on Tapitio Mountain, we saw a pair of fireworks shows. And then, just to show us what a fireworks show should really look like, God covered the Valley of the Sun with a thunderhead, which sent long fingers of lightning across the sky, and claps of thunder you could feel in the pit of your stomach. All I could think of was the passage in Job where his young friend Elihu marvels at God's loving power by saying, "He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them. At His direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever He commands them." (Job 37:11,12)

It was an awesome 4th!

Today is the last day of the fair, and we're going to take advantage of it. Seems like a good thing to do, since that's the same thing we did the day before my last chemo session. That way I can stock up on all the food which I won't be able to eat after Tuesday. By the way, I'm still looking forward to seeing everybody on the Morning Edition Tuesday. That's the last time I'll be out in public for several days. Unfortunately, next weekend has a lot of things happening I wish I could take part in. The Summer Pops concert features Blood, Sweat and Tears and The Association performing with the symphony outdoors on the Embarcadero. For those of you born after 1965, those were two hot-selling groups (BS&T did "Spinning Wheel," and "You Made Me So Very Happy." The Association did "Along Comes Mary," "Cherish".) This is one week when I really wish I were doing my "What's Hot" segment. I could really have some fun with puns.

Another thing happening this weekend, which I'm going to have to wait to see, is the debut of the new movie "Anchorman," in which Will Ferrell very closely resembles an old co-worker of mine. It's about a self-absorbed, egotistical San Diego news anchor from the 70s named Ron Burgundy. Preston Turegano wrote a very good background article on the film for Sunday's Arts Section in the The San Diego Union-Tribune. I'll just have to see it when I'm better again and needing a good laugh.

-Bill