Barbeque chicken, hamburgers, two jello salads, corn on the cob, watermelon, fresh veggies with various oleaginous and spiced dips, a Vlasic pickle. Some mini-cupcakes and half a whole-wheat gingerbread cookie.

95 degrees and 80% humidity.

Indoors, the incredibly noisy marathon of "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" competing with a colicky three month old baby girl.

Outside, hot, smoke, inadequate shade, more smoke, sun trying to creep up on us all.

Dinner an hour later than expected.

At 5:15, I black out deliberately. At 5:20 I wake up enough to be alert and do stuff. Just before 6pm, heading home. Freeway uncrowded until halfway there, when it starts being moderately crowded and infested with one or two speed freaks who have to do 85 where everyone else is doing 73, and they have to cut in and out of lanes where people have exactly one car length between them at that speed. I slow so they can fit in and get ahead and as far away as possible. Alas, none are pulled over by police and mocked in passing.

I got here at 6:45 more or less. Fed the cats. Turned on the fan. Cold cloth on neck.

All better. I hate hot weather.

I will not be bothering to see fireworks.

And, having unavoidably listened briefly to our Esteemed President-Select as I hit the OFF button in three separate instances upon hearing his voice, I was struck by the Zen question:

Are his words stupid and banal because he says them? Or is he stupid and banal because of what he says?