This year has flown by. I can’t believe half of 2010 is already gone. I had a conversation with a person earlier today and they ask me about a specific thing I had done not too long ago. I told them it was about 6 or 7 months ago; when this happened. It turned out I was a little off and it was actually over 1 year ago. I was surprised at just how far my guess was off and then it got me to thinking about the 2010 year. Today is the last day of the first half of this year. We start July tomorrow and this Sunday will be the 4th of July for those that live in the United States and celebrate Independence Day.

I don’t have any 4th of July plans yet. A nice cookout on the grill would be a nice treat. I’m not sure how wise it would be to have a cookout at my house on the 4th. There is so many wasps, yellow jackets, bumble bees, and other buzzing pests at my house right now. Going to a park that has a bunch of big shade trees would be a better place for my 4th of July cookout.

I don’t think anyone can talk about celebrating the Fourth of July without mentioning fireworks. I guess if my family wants to travel to an area to have an early evening cookout, we better choose a place we can see the fireworks going off. I have always loved the fireworks on the 4th of July. It just wouldn’t be the Fourth without a few bright colors and loud bangs filling the night time skies.

I’m not sure if the work force in America is too happy with the 4th of July being on a weekend day this year. Most people work Monday through Friday jobs and have the weekends off. The 4th of July is a paid holiday for most people. A few companies could avoid the holiday pay this year, since it does fall on a Sunday. I use to like working on the 4th of July and getting paid double time.

For some reason, it seems summer goes down hill after the 4th of July. I guess in a way its the midway point of the summer season. It won’t be long until school starts back up, the fair comes to town, and the wind begins to blow all of the leaves off of the trees. We then get to celebrate Halloween on the last day in October. After that, we do a little voting in early November for some political turkeys and at the end of November we eat turkeys. With our stomachs still full from our Turkey Day on Thursday, we all wake up early to go shopping on Black Friday. The official first shopping day of the holiday season is that Friday after Thanksgiving. Our TV programs change to all Christmas stories and the radio stations play mostly holiday and Christmas songs. We greet good ol St. Nick on the 25th of December and eat another huge meal for our Christmas dinner. One week later we gather up the fireworks for the last time and get ready to set them off on New Year’s Eve; when the clock strikes midnight. Finally New Year’s Day is here and we welcome 2011 in with a bang; while saying good bye to 2010.

It kinda seems sad how everything just flies by. The good news is, we haven’t began the 2nd part of 2010 yet. So to limit the amount of regrets we might have on New Year’s Day 2011, we still have a full 6 months to change our futures. Yes, we have probably wasted some valuable time for the first half of 2010, but we have just as much time left to make up for it. I hope you and your family have a wonderful 2nd half of the year and you will have nothing but smiles in 2011.