Parades are the best celebration, especially when they are local.

We had lots of fireworks going off around us. We've been holding the trembling dog for several days now. She does not express it by acting out; instead she draws into herself and shakes and pants hard. There is nothing we can do but project a calming presence. I expect it will continue for some days to come, even though fireworks in the city are illegal. I found one spent rocket right up next to our house.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

A very belated Happy 4th to all. I spent the weekend working since it's one of our busiest weekends. I'm exhausted, but as I tell people, it was my own fault since I volunteered (paid though) to work banquets on the 4th as a cashier. Silly me, I thought that meant sitting down, but as a cashier at the bar, it's standing up (an 8 hour shift) after my morning at work. Large group but nice people and I'm always learning. From our post we could see the fireworks through a sliver of the trees. They were right down the beach from us. I've been very remiss about posting - will write about that over at Zen's site on BakerAunt's post.