The Fourth Of July Should Never Be On Hump Day
The Fourth Of July is generally one of my favorite holidays, but this year, it just didn't seem like the 4th of July. Granted, it's been a lousy year. And it didn't help matters that Andy Griffith died the day before; that really bummed me out. However, I think the big problem was it was on a Wednesday.
No matter how you slice it you just can't have a four-day weekend when July 4th falls on a Wednesday. It's the only day you can't have a four day weekend. If it were to fall on a Tuesday, you'd have: Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. If it's on a Thursday you have: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But on Wednesday its: Saturday, Sunday, go to work, Tuesday and Wednesday. It just disrupts the whole flow of the holiday.
So the lack of the true four-day weekend seemed to help in not giving me the ambition to have a barbecue this year when I like having a barbecue every year. But I wanted to do something. I couldn't not do anything, so I decided to cook a sort-of July 4th meal. I made some potato salad and by Barbecue Beans and tried a recipe for making fried chicken in the oven.
One of the things I can't make well is fried chicken. It came out okay, but wasn't as brown as in the recipe picture. I cooked it for 30 minutes, but I'm thinking I needed to cook it for 40 minutes instead. It was pretty easy. You just shook it in some Biscuit Mix with whatever seasonings you put in the mix and cooked it in the over on 450. It tasted good, but the skin wasn't as thick as Kentucky Fried Chicken or the Banquet fried chicken you get in the freezer section of the store. My neighbor showed me the trick to breading food. You coat it with flour, then dip it in egg and then coat it with flour, again. So I think if I'd done that the skin would have been thick like I like it. It wasn't cooked on the barbecue, but I enjoyed it.
To make matters worse some telemarketer or whatever kept calling me up. I was like, "Dude, it's the Fourth Of July. Take the holiday off." She kept calling all day long. Talk about killing someone's non-existent holiday buzz. I swear, these people don't let anything stop them when it comes to calling up someone and bugging them. It used to be they wouldn't do it on holidays or Sundays but now they stop at nothing.
It just got better. Just as night began to fall we got hit by a severe thunderstorm. The thunder and lightning was pretty scary. After it was over, I heard someone trying to set off some fireworks. They gave up after five minutes and waves the white flag of defeat. I think it was just too wet to set off fireworks.
Granted, the fourth landing on a Wednesday isn't to blame for the bummer holiday it was, but I think by disrupting the flow of the traditional four-day weekend it seemed to create a rippling affect. It really didn't seem like the Fourth of July. Most of the TV stations played the same programs they usually play usually. A few had holiday marathons: TLC had a Cakeboss and Undercover Boss marathon, TV Guide and TBS played action movies, WGN played a Matlock marathon to remember Andy Griffith and ABCFamily had an all-day marathon of America's Funniest Home videos, but none of the programs really spoke Fourth Of July.
In short, it was a really crappy Fourth of July. Well, we always have Labor Day, I guess. Since it always falls on a Monday, the four-day weekend flow won't be disrupted.
