Rain On Our Parade

       So, what did you do yesterday?? Normally, we would look forward to the lighting (by this, I mean the accidentally setting of on fire) of S Mountain (you know, the one I almost died trying to climb).  But, due to all the fires and dry weather we're having, our county is under an extreme fire ban.  This means no open flames outside, whatsoever, including grills (unless it's gas), lawn care equiptment (unless it has a spark stopper or something-I do not remember what it's called), even cigarrette smoking.  That's right-no lighting up in public.  Not only will the dry grass be safe, but the air will be cleaner too! (ok, except for the smoke from all the wildfires in CO)
       Did it rain on your parade yesterday??? It did on ours!!! And we accepted it Salida-style: by standing in the rain so the kids could get candy & HotWheels! I saw this as an opportunity for some free therapy for Josiah...One of the sensations he seems to strongly dislike is the feeling of raindrops on him.  It doesn't help that we rarely see rain in the mountains, and down it came.  I kept urging him to leave the refuge of the tree he was under to grab more candy....He took a few trips out, and his efforts were rewarded with a HotWheels car!  We've never seen those handed out, and I have no idea who the sponsor was, but, he sure earned it!
   A few summers back, my friend talked me (more like pushed me, lol) into joining the Ark Valley Freedom Choir.  This is a random volunteer group led by the Noteables director that meets for two hours on three Monday nights before July 4th.  And they pull off a crowd-pleasing, twenty minute vocal performance.  This year, I had a line to say! Yay, me!!!  The vid of my one line prior to a song will be posted on my youtube account (look for the "^Watch This^" link on the right-hand side!) soon.  Did I mention the director has an "anything goes" (as long as it's red, white, and/or blue) attitude towards attire for this choir?  He'res a few pics of what I pulled off this year:
                           
                                         AWESOME WIG!!!

    I didn't have glitter make-up, so I took super-fine craft glitter (Martha Stewart brand) and mixed with water.  Apparently, glitter floats, so you can only use the top layer, then mix in more.  I used a tiny make-up brush to apply.  I drew a glitter star on my left cheeek, but by the time I took the pics, it had disinegrated all over my face.... I also applied the past to my eyebrows & as eyeliner.  Tip: glitter is *VERY* hard to get off.....

                                                   Me & the Hubsters!!!