Independence Day

I was invited by the Pioneers to come along on a family outing to the Coeur d’Alene casino for a Fourth of July barbeque, fireworks display, and go at the slots (which are depressingly high-tech. They don’t take coins or even tokens; you can use dollars, or you can use bar-coded printouts. Or, as I believe I very disturbingly saw, at some machines you can actually draw money directly out of your bank account and into their coffers). I paid my $14 for the fireworks (not directly assessed, but rather in the form of a stupidity tax), and had truly a lovely time with N, G’s mom, G’s younger son C, and C’s friend J. We lay on the grass to drink beer and watch the 30-minute fireworks display, which was quite spectacular, although it took place across the freeway from the parking lot where everyone hung out to watch, and cars passed periodically until the last five minutes or so, when a steady stream of cars leaving early lit up the ground while the blasts lit up the heavens. Compared to the bulk of my stay here (not counting Kit and the ineffective herding), it was a very noisy 7 hours, including casino beeps (no ka-CHINGs here), a live band (quite good), a parking lot section to shoot off “personal fireworks” which, since we were on Reservation land, were pretty much the same as the display only less safely organized (in fact, one poorly aimed rocket set off a whole stack of other rockets which then became particularly poorly aimed . . . and “personal” became “closed”), and almost three hours of animated conversation with five people in a car that seats five. I was almost glad to have the excuse of a lost wallet to drive up and see them all one more time this morning, except that the lost wallet seriously stressed me out when I was already seriously stressed out about Shadow and getting her to the vet. But my wallet was there, and everyone was just as charming in the rushed morning light.