As far as I'm concerned any week with a holiday in it is a good week.

Monday was Labor Day here in the USA and after the tradition that has arisen in these parts, we had a big barbecue at the Denby's house.

I had thought that since we've got the spacious new domecile, we would have it here, but in the middle of last week Ruth told me that her mother has suggested we have it at their house. I began to express a somewhat balkish attitude when Ruth pointed out that if we went there we wouldn't have to clean our place up before and after. I promptly acceded my consent to the proposed location. This turned out to work especially well since several of the Denby's friends had already been added to the guest list.

Saturday was highlighted by my mowing of the grass and a wedding.

Saturday was hot and humid and that wedding was outside. There weren't many there, and thankfully it was short, but man, it was a test of endurance.

It was a good thing we had dropped Isaiah off at Aunt's house because the conditions were extreme. The folding chairs that had been set out in the sun could probably have been used to fry eggs.

We had RSVPd that we would attend the reception, but byt he time the wedding was over, we'd been through the proverbial ringer and made a discreet disappearance.

If you had told me one year ago that I would be spending fully 1.5 hours trimming my yard on Sunday September 3, 2000 I would have laughed at you and yet- that is exactly what I did.

I had spent a long time mowing the grass the day before since it hadn't (for numerous reasons) been done in three weeks. Well, the trimming also hadn't been done for three weeks.

One of the reasons trimming is a little more important in our yard is that there is a flat space about 20 feet square in the back yard that, judging from the junk, crap, and ashy remains strewn about in this space, must have been used as the trash burning area in the past. Due to all the stuff in this space, mowing is not recommended and a trimmmer is used.

Well, as well as the grass had prospered in the three mow-free weeks, the weeds in the abovementioned square area had outshined it in sheer proliferation and vertical increase accumulation at least 2 to 1.

Then once I'd finished the patch in the back and had moved on to general trimming around the base of the house, I noticed how the grass at the edge of the yard slopped over onto the sidewalk in a very shabby looking manner and I felt an odd compulsion to use the trimmer to impart the closest thing to a nice sharp edge to the yard.

This took a while, but yielded results that were at least acceptable and hopefully will last.

Monday morning started late.

Actually, it started right on time, but that time was just a little farther around the clock than it usually is for me. After all, what is a holiday for, eh?

We showed up at the Denby's house about a quarter after 1 and the shindig was suppose to kick off about 1:30. My first item of business was to get the grills hot. That's right, grills. I had two of'em crankin' at once and once they were hot I had both of them at full meat capacity.

One grill was full of marinated chicken breasts and the other contained hamburgers and hotdogs with a minority of bratwurst. Due to certain logistical miscalculations, at one point I had to perform open grill surgery.

One fire had gone down and was not giving out enough heat and so a fire transplant was required. As meat was cooking on one grill, I removed the charcoal from the other and put it in the one with the meat still cooking.

Evidently the operation was a success since according to the response of the eaters I did a fine job.

Another holiday fades into history.