Thursday, July 2, 2009

Go Speed Racer, Go!


Is this week, the one leading up to the 4th, considered Fourth of July Week? Or is next week - the week after the 4th? It's hard to tell with the 4th falling on a Saturday. Regardless, I don't know where June went and I feel like summer is starting to slip away...

We are staying put this holiday weekend. At least, the kids and I are staying put. My husband is taking his super-charged Batmobile to the track with his buddies for BMW driving school. That's racing to you and I, but he refers to it as "driving school". It's his passion and I do not begrudge a single minute of the joy he gets from changing brake pads and tires, souping up the M3 and taking his baby around the track at speeds that I simply cannot comprehend. I don't have the need for speed, but I totally respect his. But, let's call it what it is, shall we? It's racing.

So, a couple of times a year he heads up to VIR; this just happens to be one of those weekends. It's a shame it falls on the 4th, but that won't stop the kids and I from celebrating our nation's birthday without him.

I bet that the population in Charlotte goes from nearly 700,000 to about 350,000 this weekend. Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit, but in my 'hood, many neighbors have flown the coop. As much as I enjoy them (most of them), I do love when my fellow Charlotteans vacate the premises and head to the mountains and beaches (and VIR). I love having the grocery store to myself, I love driving down East Boulevard and being the only one in the left-hand turn lane, I love reading on my back porch and not hearing a sound (I think even the birds fly to the beach for the weekend), I love going for walks and bike rides and not passing a sole.

But, it's Thursday afternoon, two days before the 4th and it's not completely dead around here...which leads me to believe that next week is the official Fourth of July Week. Who knows? I just know that I'm looking forward to smaller crowds this weekend. And then when folks start returning to their homes (and to the grocery store and to the left-hand turn lane on East Blvd), I'll resent the hell out of them.

Happy Fourth of July!