Fourth of July

 I will confess I am not feeling it much this year. It does kind of feel like the people who won are the people who want to inflict maximum pain in the name of "saving money" and while one of the worst people is apparently out, still, a lot of damage has been done. And I'm waiting for shoes to drop downstream of things that may affect state budgets (I am a state employee) and people on Medicare or Medicaid (several relatives of mine)

And I guess I'm not the only one. Matt Laney, in his UCC Daily Devotional (I get these e-mailed to me every day; some days the devotional is more useful to me than others) commented:

"If fireworks ring hollow, you’re not alone. Light a candle instead. Celebrate a deeper kind of freedom, one granted not by documents or borders but by the Spirit who moves through protest songs and communion tables alike."

Yes.

And so I did that this evening as the loud booms* started up. But not just with his "light a candle for freedom" idea, but, also coming through the news - truly catastrophic flooding near San Antonio, including at a camp kids were at, and at least six people died (as of this writing) and more are missing.

I hope they find at least some of the missing alive and in a state where they can recover.

So I lit a candle.

 It's supposed to be scented like "Petrichor," which is described as "the smell of rain" (I think in older lore, it was the blood of some of the old gods?). I don't notice a strong scent to it myself but there seem to be a few scents I don't pick up. 

The two little figures next to it are a lepidolite Moomin and a smaller sea jasper Moomin, bought from an Etsy seller. I have a few of these; I just think they're neat.

(*I don't like loud unexpected noises; I startle easily and there's someone in the neighborhood who apparently bought some kind of "shell" that sounds almost as loud as an electric-line transformer exploding - it's happened several times so far and my lights have stayed on so I don't think it's that.)

 

I also made macaroni and cheese - I had been thinking of it the other day, then wasn't sure if I had the amount of cheese needed (at that point I was planning to run to the supermarket after getting done at work) and I didn't want to buy  cheese if I had what I needed, but also didn't want to NOT buy cheese if I didn't have enough. So I postponed the trip to this morning (and anyway, I had enough cheese).

It's a recipe from a "Taste of Home" (I think it is - it's a magazine) cookbook-for-two. I doubled the recipe because mac and cheese is good left over.

My one departure was to add a glug (maybe a teaspoon and a half to two teaspoons of chipotle sauce (Cholula brand) because I find a little hot sauce makes the cheese seem less rich and cloying, and chipotle is my favorite of the hot sauces because it's less hot.