It was a late start this morning... everyone is taking time waking up and getting ready for the day.

Diane & Melinda whipped up a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Mom swept the deck to try to get the rain and debris off of it. I skimmed the pool, which was a mess due to all of the huge trees surrounding their back yard.

We're starting to find out about the sirens yesterday - 7 people drowned in Lake Michigan (one at the beach at the end of the road). Apparently the storms were really bad and caused huge waves with a hellacious undertow. They haven't found all of the bodies...

Carol & I stayed "home" while the rest of the crew went to Michigan City to the Lighthouse Outlet Mall. Around 2pm, we all met at Redamak's for a lunch of greasy burgers with fries and onion rings. Then it was back to the house to get ready for our full evening of events.

We're off to Dewey Cannon Park in Three Oaks, not too far from the house. Tonight is "Milly's (mostly music) Hootenanny II". Milly is Milly May Smithy, the alter-ego of Chicago-based performance artist (and also former alto saxophonist of Poi Dog Pondering) Brigid Murphy. She's been putting on these revues since 1987 with "Milly's Orchid Show", comprising mostly of friends that's she's met along her way (tonight it's Robbie & Donna Fulks, Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospel, The Rip Tones, Jane's Kountry Kin and The Village Square Dancers, for starter).

What really got me tonight, other than Milly's entrance on the back of a huge chicken in the back of a pickup, was the overwhelming sense of community at this event. It's a small park, next to some high-speed Amtrak tracks that cut through town. It takes place in the gazebo in he center of this small park. Milly's entrance was preceded by a parade of kids in dress-up clothes (that they got to keep). There also was a Bake Sale and Barbecue for the Little league.

The show was over two hours, was a bit uneven with some of the acts, but was just an absolute wonderful time that I could not imagine missing.

After the show, we headed over to the 6th Annual Harbor Country Blues Festival at Watkins Park in Three Oaks. Well, actually, we didn't go in. Watkins Park is where the fireworks were scheduled to go off at 11:00. Diane and I scoured the area to find a good spot outside of Blues Fest, and find a spot over the centerfield wall at the ball fields there. We were basically alone and just waited for darkness, and then waited for the fireworks. Blues Fest didn't sound all that great - we were able to hear it from out location. I'm glad we saved the money. Anyway, the fireworks were pretty cool - there's no music, no other sound since there was no one else around us. Just the sound of the motor igniting and the fireworks igniting. Weird. Quiet. Eerie, in a way. They lasted almost 20 minutes and then we went back home and crashed.