Will it jinx things if I plan for the 4th of July?

[lauradi7dw]

We are mostly living day to day, with plans that don't go farther ahead than a week or two. There are regularly scheduled things (mostly classes or other online gatherings), but that's it. Our really big plan is to order ahead from Drumlin Farms and pick it up at the Union Square Farmer's Market on Saturday. Great excitement! It won't be like usual, but still fresh and local. Yesterday's holiday made me think of the *next* national holiday (Memorial Day, not National tap Day, which was observed online just like almost everything else). In this case I mean Independence Day. Most years there is ringing at both Boston towers, eating with ringers twice, and the public obvious stuff like concerts and fireworks. And crowds. And dealing with the T. This year my plan is to listen to the NPR recitation of the Declaration of Independence (true every year), watch the Pops TV show in the evening, and in between, I am probably going to weave crepe paper through my bicycle spokes and ride around the neighborhood, a tribute to my childhood. I don't want to do anything more complicated in advance, in case I am in NC instead of here. I keep expecting to get a call, saying that a caregiver is sick and I have to come take over. So far, so good, but it's hard to imagine it will last.

Comments

[sorcyress]

This year was going to be the first year where I could actually come ring for July4th! Pinewoods finally recycled so that ESC started after the holiday.

Damn.

[lauradi7dw]

ON is closed "until further notice," but I wonder whether the 4th will end up being a time to try the odds only or evens only ringing - four people total in the tower, spread as far apart as possible, masks, sanitizer. We'll see what the the world is like in a month. Maybe I should add "stand on the porch with cowbells" to my celebration list.

Clever of Pinewoods to rotate who is there on the 4th.

[sorcyress]

I am much less excited for small ringings --it would be nice, but just not the same as "let's have a big ol' party and picnic and hang out together in the tower and listen to fireworks"

Pinewoods technically has a list of sessions, and the order they come in based on whether they start on Fridays or Mondays, but because the days of the week aren't the same every year, they drift. ESC was drifting earlier and earlier (pushing "July 4th weekend" into a weekend that ended well before the actual 4th occurred). This year reset it --ESC was gonna start Monday the 6th!

[lauradi7dw]

>>I am much less excited for small ringings --it would be nice, but just not the same as "let's have a big ol' party and picnic and hang out together in the tower and listen to fireworks"<<

Well, pretty much nothing is the same as that, but there has been 4th of July ringing at our towers for decades, and I'd like some kind of observance. I'll be OK if it doesn't happen. I also worry a little bit about the atrophy of my handling, but people go back to ringing after years, not just months, so that's probably a needless worry.

[negothick]

Your Independence Day plans led me to the Boston Symphony's website. That Pops TV show sounds ambitious. But what is "Bloomberg Television"? And apparently it won't be on PBS! "Featuring newly created content from the Boston Pops and guest artists, as well as traditional Fourth of July favorites and other highlights from recent broadcasts of The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, A Boston Pops Salute to Our Heroes will air on Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, and Boston’s WHDH-TV, on Saturday, July 4, starting at 8 p.m. ET."

[lauradi7dw]

Bloomberg television is a cable subdivision (right word?) of the Bloomberg network that mostly covers business news. They took over in 2017, but it hadn't been on PBS for quite a while before that - it was on CBS (?) for a long time. The Pops (Lockhart and hosts, anyway) had to kind of vamp during commercial breaks, and there were years that they just started the national broadcast in time for the last bit of the concert and the fireworks. I think PBS shows the DC concert and fireworks.

[negothick]

Right--I guess I was confusing it with PBS coverage of both Memorial and July 4 DC concerts. I don't think I get Bloomberg in my cable package. Thanks for the clarification.