{"id":2190,"date":"2012-07-04T04:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2012-07-05T07:19:49","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T11:19:49","slug":"independence-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=2190","title":{"rendered":"Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?attachment_id=2191\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2191\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Bootforbike2-300x204.jpg?resize=300%2C204\" alt=\"\" title=\"Bootforbike2\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Bootforbike2.jpg?resize=300%2C204&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Bootforbike2.jpg?resize=150%2C102&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Bootforbike2.jpg?resize=440%2C300&amp;ssl=1 440w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Bootforbike2.jpg?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Happy Independence Day in the good ol&#8217; USA!  Yes, this holiday occurs on July 4, but the greeting for the holiday is not &#8220;happy fourth.&#8221; That&#8217;s just as silly as saying &#8220;happy fifth&#8221; tomorrow, especially when the Declaration of Independence did not obtain its final signature until August 2!   <\/p>\n<p>Today will find me doing what I usually do on this holiday &#8212; swearing and crabbing.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nYep, I will be attending a swearing-in ceremony of new United States citizens at our state capital, Annapolis.  I have worked with two very hard-working men, one from Honduras and one from Guatemala, who for the past nine years have studied to become naturalized U.S. citizens.  I have taught them civics and coached them through the arduous process to become a citizen of my home country.  I will be at their citizenship ceremony this morning to wave the flag, cheer, and celebrate.<\/p>\n<p>After that, I will enjoy my first-of-the-summer Maryland crab feast with family and close friends. This is another tradition I enjoy every year.  <\/p>\n<p>Tonight, my partner and I will curl up on the sofa and listen to the concert and watch the fireworks in Washington, DC, on television.  While I had been there in person many years, they ruined it with all of the added security since 2001, so I have not returned since then. Plus, we are experiencing another heat wave, along with high humidity.  Blechh&#8230; I would rather be in air-conditioned comfort of home rather than among hundreds of thousands of sweaty, smelly people in 98F (37C) heat.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?attachment_id=2192\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2192\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/RideLaborBOL-300x265.jpg?resize=300%2C265\" alt=\"\" title=\"FlagHarley\" width=\"300\" height=\"265\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2192\" \/><\/a>Let&#8217;s hope storms hold off and I can ride the Harley to Annapolis and to the crab feast &#8212; classic transport on America&#8217;s 236th day of celebration in declaring independence from Great Britain in 1776.  Traditionally, we call this &#8220;America&#8217;s birthday,&#8221; though technically the United States wasn&#8217;t &#8220;born&#8221; until many years later when its constitution was ratified after winning a nasty little war with the Brits to secure our independence.<\/p>\n<p>Life is short: love your country and celebrate!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Independence Day in the good ol&#8217; USA! Yes, this holiday occurs on July 4, but the greeting for the holiday is not &#8220;happy fourth.&#8221; That&#8217;s just as silly as saying &#8220;happy fifth&#8221; tomorrow, especially when the Declaration of Independence &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=2190\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}