Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Thank God, we're alive and well, and celebrating today our country's 237th Independence Day with the rest of US. Hope and pray that we're all doing great as we live our life of faith and freedom, trying to have fun, and have a great time with our families, folks, and friends, near or far.
This opportune time, we pause for a moment, especially on today's holiday celebration. to pray or thank God for all the blessings we have, and that includes our veterans and armed forces personnel who sacrificed their lives fighting for and preserving freedom we cherish and enjoy.
This morning, my wife Freny and daughter Tintin, and I decided to get away from Hampton Roads, for a while, to celebrate today's July 4 at Tintin's in thriving D-ville. This is our first time, in 19 years of living in the Old Dominion, aka Virginia, that we're spending the July 4 holiday here in D-ville. Just the three of us. Son Andrew, although off today, is in The Land of Mary but working in The Capital. Sis-in-law Rose has her part-time work that's why she couldn't join us.
As usual, Freny was on the wheel of our 7-seater Sienna while I on the passenger side, and Tintin at the back. We stopped by quickly at a grocery store to get free copies of our local city/community newspaper at a designated area there where those newsstands are located. (Just to let you know, my dear folks and friends, as a frequent guest "columnist," I have an article published in the Opinion page section of Suffolk News-Herald today. It's entitled, Celebrating Independence and Freedom, in which I featured my already published poem "The Fourth of July.") Then, Freny drove to the nearest gas station where we filled up gas for our van. There, price for gasoline per gallon today was $3.29. Now, we're ready and set...
On the road again as we left 757...while Freny did the driving, I took time to capture moments of our roadtrip using her digital camera. (Btw, mine requires a new memory card because each time I tried to take a snapshot it reads on the viewing window this note: Memory is full!) We had one rest stop at Raceway's where we had "to leak" and bought three bottles of sweet iced tea. That's also the time we got to see or get acquainted with the lady store employee there by the name of Jacki. I took a couple of photos with her. Likewise, I shared her a copy of our city newspaper, informing her of my published article in there. She was glad to read it, she said, as we wished her Happy Fourth of July! "See you next time," I said as we thanked her. She was smiling as we were leaving her store.
It was past twelve noon. We encountered scattered rainshowers which turned to a brief downpour while still on the road.
As we were approaching our destination, we decided to stop by at Hardee's where we bought sandwiches and fries, and sweet iced tea for lunch. Afterwards, I tried to import/upload photos I've taken so far. Shhh...There wasn't access to the Internet there. So, we tried getting closer to that hotel where we used to stay each time we visited Tintin last year. Lo and behold, I got lucky this time. Immediately, I visited Facebook and. then, I shared them with our FB friends afterwards. So, they're out there, my dear folks and friends.
From there, we stopped by at a grocery store to buy some groceries like watermelon, milk, orange juice, cheese, turkey meat deli for sandwich, a loaf of bread and a bag of mixed vegetables, and a bag of potato chips/crisps.
At Tintin's apartment, we were just chilling out after unloading our stuff. While Freny was preparing something for our dinner, I was busy composing/writing this blog post and at the same time listening to Amy Grant's music, and classical music after. We decided not to go watch the concert and fireworks, later on at night, in the park. "Quite lazy and too tired to go there," Freny said. "Whatever you, two, decide," I quipped, although I sensed that Tintin wanted to go. I might be wrong with my presumption, though. We didn't go out, anyway.
Dinnertime came. Tintin helped Freny set the table. well, my dear folks and friends, I'm signing off for now. Talk to you later and/or I might continue with this blog post.
After dinner, Freny and Tintin called attention to the latter's next door neighbor, a middle-aged black lady who's a special education teacher. Freny said she has something to give her for being Tintin's good neighbor. (I told Freny to give her also a copy of SNH.) I learned they look out for each other when one is away. So, when Tintin's neighbor came in, we exhanged pleasantries. She certainly seemed to be a nice lady, with that pleasant personality. As they were talking, Freny and Tintin offered her something to eat, like a slice of starwberry cake and a bowl of watermelon, and a bottle of water and/or soda pop. She was gracious and thankful to accept what's offered/served her. Freny did try to show her our "Filipino" hospitality. As I continued with my writing, the three engaged in conversation and tried to get acquainted and know each other better. Once in a while, I tried to engage, too, in their conversation. Fifteen minutes to 9 p.m., Alese, that's the name of Tintin's next door neighbor, excused herself, thanked us, and bid us "goodnight." We did the same, and said, "thanks for stopping by." And, again, wished her Happy Fourth of July!
Well, I've wanted to share this blog post to you guys today, July 4th, but since Tintin doesn't have internet installed, I'll try to do it tomorrow. Our plan is that we'll go to COMCAST office and let them know our intent to have cable TV and internet in Tintin's. (I said to Tintin we'll take care of the monthly service premium payment.)
This is all for now. Thanks for reading. Until next time around, my dear folks and friends. Take care and have a wonderful day-night, everyone! As always, I pray, "May God bless US and keep US all safe from harm always!"-chris a. quilpa, 04 July 2013
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