Bang. Ka-pow. Boom.

For the next couple of days the temperature in North Texas, where I live/love/laugh, will be hovering right at 100 degree mark, with a humidity factor of about a zillion-and-a-half. This climactic situation is normal for this area of the world this time of year and is also why we Texans regularly offer sacrifice to Lennox, Trane and Carrier... the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego of HVAC.

(FYI, those three Biblical characters are famous for being cast into a furnace and emerging unscathed. So if there's a better name for an HVAC company I don't know what is.)

Unpleasant though the environment may currently be I'll be spending the 3rd and 4th swatting mosquitoes and listening to the pleasantly harmonic refrains of the Grammy-winning "atomic polka band" Brave Combo before, after and, with any luck, during the fireworks display in two different locales.

What? You say you've never heard of Brave Combo? Then check this out, the best hokey-pokey number ever to escape a bandstand. The accompanying animation ain't so hot so just close your eyes and mentally stick your foot out and your foot in.

This holiday appearance is the band's first easily-accessible 4th of July gig in many years. The last time was in Burleson, Texas, where the good citizens of that town, along with a couple of Dallas vagrants, assembled at the local ball field and boogied long into the evening, dancing barefoot in the long, cool summer grass. It was a magical night.... as long as you forget the near two-hour traffic jam that occurred at the impossibly narrow exit.

I wish you could all be with us this weekend but I'm sure you have other plans. Whatever they may be I hope they're equally as magical.

Ka-boom!

=mike=