Rolling Thunder Passes the Archives

It was scorching hot and noisy in front of the Archives building on the day before Memorial Day as hundreds of glossy motorcycles gladiated by us as we tried to cross Independence Avenue. It was "Rolling Thunder" riders blaring music and yelling some things at the crowd and stressed out policemen shouting at us not to cross the road. We gawped at these mostly large machines ridden by the mostly overweight out-of-towners who come to DC each year for their own special parade. We kind of wondered what exactly was going on and what it was all about. So I looked them up -- again thank God for the internet -- and discovered it is an event that started in 1988 as a call for the government to recognize prisoners of war (POWs) and people missing in action (MIAs), sort of a tribute thing but seems to have morphed into something else. It seems now to more honor veterans and fallen soldiers, a more generic tribute to military men. The first one had but 2,500 participants but now it has hundreds of thousands of participants. Well, I saw a few thousand of them that weekend and a whole bunch of them in front of the Archives building. I'm trying to connect Rolling Thunder's causes and issues with the Archives building which holds the Declaration of Independence so I read it to see how it might pertain. Hmm. Seems that the governed are exercising some life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in their own way.

 " ... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Hot Times in the City Neighborhood

We've decided to forgo air conditioning as much as possible so we only turn the AC box on in the bedroom where we sleep if it's just too hot and sticky but the rest of the house we leave the windows open, fans on and wait for the breezes. And drink A LOT of iced tea or beer. This is partly because we are frugalistos but also because air-conditioning really dries you out and as we are aging, we don't want to speed things up.I don't know where we got this idea from but it seems to make sense.
Of course, I'm leaving out the car which is new and has the iciest full blast chill- you-to-the-bone-in seconds air conditioning. Any excuse will do: "Honey, do we need anything? I'll go get some milk (or chocolate, or ice cream or take some mail to the post office or return the library books early)?"
We're doing pretty well with this here in late June but things might change in the muggies of August... I asked hubster "What would God say?" and he said "Why of course, 'Welcome to summer!'"

Pizza For Friday Dinner in DC

I made homemade tomato, onion, and cheese pizza this evening using a dough that was pre-made that I pressed out to make a Chicago-style pizza crust. First, I brushed both sides with olive oil and then added on the ingredients. These were chopped fresh tomato and diced onion, grated mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and Italian spices. I then cooked it for 15 minutes at 425F in our gas oven. We ate it piping hot and it was delicious, said my husband. It also looked very good.