Monday ...

  I walked into town yesterday afternoon to watch the 4th of July parade.  It was sponsored by The Greenbrier Resort, so was a little bit larger than the Dandelion Festival Parade.

  The big celebrity was a bulldog.  Yes, a bulldog.  If I'd known who it was at the time, I would have rushed to get a selfie with him as some people did.  But "Babydog" was unknown to me until later.  He is the state governor's dog, and the official mascot of the "Do it for Babydog" campaign to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

  There was a jazz brass band playing When the Saints, Come Marching In which would have been a lot more fun if they'd stayed long enough to play the full song and encourage dancing in the street, but I think I would have to have been in Louisana for that to happen.

  Every single golf cart from the resort must have been there, and since none of them appeared to carry beauty queens or veterans, I think they were driven by guests of the resort.  Free candy, nonetheless.  There were ponies, horses, and loud fire engines.

  While waiting for the parade to start, I stopped in a coffee shop [The Local WV] that recently reopened after the flood of 2016 and got a (larger than expected) scoop of butter pecan ice cream, and a chocolate chunk with PRETZELS cookie.  My new favorite cookie combo!

  Fireworks started shortly after sundown, with my landlord setting off almost as many as The Greenbrier Resort did, only much (MUCH) closer.  Fortunately, Charlie is unaffected by the sound, altho the cats aren't fond of it.   It reminded me of the year in Wisconsin that I was on the dock where they were actually setting off the city's fireworks.

    While I waited for the rest of the neighborhood to run out of pyrotechnics, I picked up a book I had started reading a chapter a night last week.  The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes.  Before I knew it, it was 2am and I was ten chapters into it.  I was tempted to finish it, it had been so long since I was that involved in a book, but I decided to save the rest of it for today.  

   The book is set in Depression-era Kentucky ~ coal mines and mountains ~ and is based on the true story of the Packhorse Librarians.  Women who were the first truly mobile library, riding horses and mules, packing books in saddlebags to take them to the ruralist of rural residents of the Appalachian mountains.  Helping children learn to read, and one woman find where her heart belongs.