Welp, you can take the man out of America, but this man will always be an American. Naturally, I celebrated the anniversary of our independence in the traditional manner–I fired up the grill! More on that in a minute.
Interestingly, it was 75 years ago, July 4, 1946, that the USA granted independence to the Philippines. The Philippines, however, doesn’t celebrate that independence day. Rather, it chose to call June 12, 1898, the date it made a meaningless declaration of independence from Spain, the date the nation was born. Whatever.
That’s the nice thing about grilling out–you can ignore the politics and just enjoy some good food and cold beer. Granted, it would have been fun to be celebrating with other like-minded Yanks, but everyone seemed to have other plans that didn’t include me. Ah well, living a solitary life is a whole other kind of independence I suppose. I’m not complaining.
My Fourth of July menu: Ribeye steak, corn-on-the-cob, broccoli, sweet potato, and a cornbread muffin. Apple pie a la mode for dessert, of course.
I bought the steaks during my visit to the S&R store last week. Aussie beef, and came in a box, so I couldn’t really see what I was getting. The meat turned out to be okay, tender like I prefer, but still too thin. I’m going to have to choose a different kind of steak in the future. You can also probably tell I need a new grill. I couldn’t control the flames on the left side, and couldn’t get the heat I was looking for on the right. Anyway, the steaks turned out okay–medium-rare to medium.
I did do a brief visit to Cheap Charlies. Only one of my “regulars” was working which reduced the drink pressure to a manageable level. Quite a few other customers as well, which I was happy to see. I bought some Filipino food for some of the girls seeing as how I knew it was also their independence day, even if their silly leaders don’t want to acknowledge that fact.
And that was how I spent the day. I’m happy to be living in an English speaking country, otherwise, I’d miss out on things like this:
It’s another Hash Monday. I got a taste of the trail on Wednesday, so shouldn’t have any surprises in store. Then again, it’s been a rainy morning so things might have changed. Full report tomorrow.
Looks to have been a tasty Fourth. A belated happy holiday to you. And clean that grill!
I wonder how Filipinos ended up celebrating the wrong independence day. Must be an interesting history.
Any erection that closes a street must be massive.
The link above for “June 12, 1898,” tells the story from the Filipino perspective. Reading between the lines though, it was a politically motivated attack on the USA.