Dear Kid,

What a wonderful 4th of July weekend.

There was so much going on this weekend—celebrations in different cities with different families of different times in our lives.

Shout out to those at #Kutz50 this weekend–Love you guys! Sorry we couldn’t be with you.

One of these days I will figure out how to clone myself and be all places simultaneously. In the meantime, I’m grateful for Facebook and people who share photos.

Shout out to those at Red, White, and Blue Ash–Thank you for enjoying the evening for us!

Shout out to family gathered in Cleveland–Oh wait. I’m here. No shouting necessary. Yay!

We watched fireworks from the rooftop in Cleveland last night. It was absolutely amazing to see all the fireworks from countless localities all at once. It was a panorama of pretty. A kaleidoscope of kaboom (without most of the noise). Very, very cool.

And just when we thought the show was nearing its end, the City of Cleveland started its fireworks show. Spectacular.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a small moment for a Public Service Announcement.

Dear ‘Murica,

No, it’s not better when you take a photo of fireworks using your iphone with the flash on.

No, it’s not better when you hand your nephew a burning sparkler and tell him to stick the end through the chain link fence so he doesn’t get burned.

No, a few more beers does not improve your ability to set off fireworks. Let the professionals do it. You should stick with saying “ooh” and “ahh.”

No, it is not funny to try to convince your dog that fireworks are fun. Let him go inside and cower in the privacy of his own home.

Sorry. Some things just have to be said.

Hope you enjoyed your fireworks show last night and you have a great day today.

Get some sleep, kiddo. Pretty sure you need it.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

I had a great day yesterday.

I renewed my driver’s license, and against all expectations it took only 12 minutes from the time I walked in the door until I had a new license (terrible photo—duh).

I went to the post office and in less than 2 minutes I was done. Very different than earlier in the week when half the population of Cincinnati was partying with the USPS.

And that’s how the entire day went.

So I thought about buying a lottery ticket.

I dug up some (not very surprising) facts about the lottery.

• You are more likely to be struck by lightning 5,000 times than win the lottery
• You are 146 times more likely to die in a fireworks accident
• You are 8,000 times more likely to be murdered

Here’s what I find particularly interesting. I’m more likely to be struck by lightning 5,000 (count ‘em, 5K with a comma) times than to win the lottery but only 146 times more likely to die in a fireworks accident.

Is there a fireworks-injury epidemic I don’t know about? How is it even possible that that many people get killed by fireworks? Are people eating fireworks or something?

(Does quick research.) According to MFTI (My Friend The Internet), there are four deaths per year from fireworks, and the most times anyone has ever been hit by lightning is 7 or 8.

Which, as far as I can tell, means I don’t have to worry about death from fireworks, overly fried hair from multiple lightning strikes, or winning the lottery.

Guess it was a good thing I didn’t buy a ticket. But I digress.

Back to yesterday.

Later in the day, I went to the gym. There was virtually no one at the gym, so I was able to use the machinery I wanted without waiting. And my FitRadio was playing great music with no load-time issues.

By working out I burned 225 calories. I celebrated by eating 7 servings of salmon and an entire cheesecake.

See what I mean about a great day?

Love, Mom