Is anyone else in a part of the US where there are a ton more fireworks this summer than ever before? It can't be just my neighborhood. Literally every night since the beginning of June, someone is setting fire to their (presumably inversely proportional, that is to say, increasingly diminishing) disposable income. The prices of everything are higher than ever—gas, food, housing, everything—and yet. What is going on out there??

Went on a guys trip to Johnsons Shut-Ins the last week. Go ahead and Google what happened there last night. I don't really know the point of posting this here but I feel like sharing.

It started raining around 11pm. The tents held up fine for a while.

I remember waking up at one point to hard rain. I checked the tent but things seemed fine. That was probably about midnight or 1am. Around 2am I woke up cause something felt wrong. The tent was moving and shaking.

I opened the door and saw chaos. It was like looking at the sea in a storm, and I was being carried off by the rushing water. We were swept into a shelter, where I was able to find footing to grab my kid (I was telling "GET UP, GET UP NOW" the whole time) and toss him onto a table out of the water.

I managed to grab quite a bit from the tent and toss it on too and then wedge the tent between two trees.

I then saw the other tent from my group float past. I couldn't help them.

My kid is crying, a torrent of rising water is at my feet, and I spotted that the bathroom shelter nearby was higher up. I grabbed my kid and had to fight my way through the raging water worrying I'd drop him with any misstep. I made it across and we were the first ones there.

Slowly others came. First my FIL and then other campers tricked in. We didn't know what had happened to my bil or my nephew, just they they'd been swept away. My FIL had been sucked out of the tent when he opened the door.

Another family we could hear yelling across the water. A father and son stuck in the trees. They showed up later at the shelter, apparently the son had been pulled away from his dad but wedged on a tree and was able to escape. The dad went back to find the rest of the family. They were all ok.

A few hours later, my bil and his son showed up. They'd been pinned by the current to the trees for at least 2 hours. Hypothermic and exhausted, but safe.

Dawn came and the rain stopped. We gathered what ever else we could find and then left through flooded roads.

May we spend the day CELEBRATING TOGETHER THE MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE WHO MAKE US WHAT WE ARE, and also THE ALLIES WHO PROPPED US EVERY TIME WE NEEDED THEM, and finally in remembrance that 250 YEARS AGO WE DECIDED DEMOCRACY WAS COOLER THAN BEING RULED BY A SINGLE PERSON.

That is all :)