Recently, Heather and I have been going about our daily business. Sometimes that business is in Nevada, and other times it is located in California – either way, I have either written about it, or I don’t think you will be very interested in how may steps it is from my car to the supermarket, or how many corn flakes I ate for breakfast.

However, yesterday, two things happened that I think are worth writing about. Firstly, it rained. This is significant. This is the desert. Rain is rare. It was quite refresh

Rain and Marching Bands were here

ing. Secondly, while it rained, I was stood outside Reno City Hall, getting wet, and watching a production from Reno High School called "Edge" that was very good.

"Edge" is a group of High School Students from a variety of different performing arts backgrounds – dance, music, and marching band – who have combined to create a show that is a mixture of Stomp, Blue Man Group, and Marching Band. Two things were impressive about the show – firstly, the school term ended well over a month ago, so these children had been rehearsing during their summer holidays; secondly, the talent on display far exceeded anything that I have ever seen from similarly aged people in UK – particularly from those in the Marching Band.

Marching Bands are a big thing over here. Every high school will have a marching band that performs during half time at football matches. They’ll play famous, and infamous, tunes while simultaneously moving around the field in a strictly choreographed routine. It is quite a visual and aural spectacle, and something that many people feel very proud of being involved in.

Many children will go to a school specifically because of its marching band. The skills they develop on the drum and brass instruments during that time, are really impressive – in particular, the drummers I saw yesterday were incredibly fast, precise, and had the enviable ability to make it all seem very easy.

Not surprisingly, those people who are in Marching Band in High School will also look to go to a University that has a Marching Band – so it is quite surprising that that UNR (the University of Nevada, Reno) has to decided to cancel their Marching Band program indefinitely.

Nobody is really sure why this has happened. There were about 180 people in the band, and they were well appreciated at the football games – the human pyramid made from the Tuba players was apparently legendary (I should know, my wife was at the top of it). So, it is sad to think that it might just be cancelled because the principal of university would like to save a little bit of money somewhere.

There have been Town Hall meetings to try and reverse the decision, and it has been regularly featured on TV and in Newspapers – but it might not be until UNR realise that their admissions are down that anything will be done about it.

During the winter many places get snowed in. These places effectively shut down – everybody stays indoors and tries to endure the weather by watching TV, reading books, and discussing the benefits (if any) of a nationalised health service.

Over here, in Reno, we get sunned in. For the past week the temperatures have been creeping into the 40s. This is too hot. It’s too hot get into the car. It’s too hot to chase after the ice cream van. And, due to the state-wide water shortage, it’s too illegal to spray yourself with the garden hose.

Obviously, the heat doesn’t stop everybody. Heather and I have just been in Quincy (where it has been hot and smokey – refer to my previous post), and there is a steady stream of the cars going down the road which suggests that some people are trying to brave the weather. However, any form of strenuous excercise is just too difficult and sweaty to perform.

So, Heather and I have done the most logical thing. We bought a Nintendo Wii. We will be spending the summer indoors.

Today is July 4th – Independence Day. For most in the USA it is a day off work – a chance to enjoy the sunshine, have a barbeque, and watch some fireworks. For me, it is a chance to feel very British and hope that the people I meet don’t remember the year 1776 very well. For Heather, it is one of the busiest days of the year (the Reno Philharmonic is doing two different concerts in two locations).

I followed Heather along to one of these concerts (the free one, not the one that cost $55 a ticket). It was being held in a town called Genoa – allegedly the first settlement in Nevada. The event reminded me a lot of some of the village events I had been to back in Suffolk – except that, in Genoa, the BBQs were bigger, there was a full orchestra playing, and everyone was wearing red, white, and/or blue (on quite an extreme level).

The concert was brilliant. Not because of the music that was being played, but because of the atmosphere. The orchestra was wearing t-shirts and jeans, there were people eating picnics pretty much anywhere they could find a space, and everyone appeared to appreciate everything that was going on (in particular, the lady next to me was quite overjoyed at the cannons during the 1812 Overture).

So, I’ve decided that I like Independence Day. Nobody seems to care about its history (thank goodness), and instead they just spend a day being thankful for being where they are. For this reason, I now fully support Sufolk declaring independence from the UK (think of the hog roasts we could have!).

Most of the mail we receive over here is junk. We get a lot of coupons, some of which can be quite useful – I don’t think we have ever paid full price for a pizza – but the majority of money-off specials get relegated to the recycling bin (which, at least, gives them a second chance).

We also get mail addressed to previous occupants of the house. We often put those envelopes into a mail-purgatory pile lest those people should ever show up at the door. We rarely open their post because it rarely interests us. However, today we got a piece of post for a previous occupant that implied it contained one of the greatest coupons ever – so i hope you can forgive me for opening it:

The curiosity was just too much. This morning I was excited about a coupon I received for a free avacado – but this trumped that several times over. This coupon seemed too good to be true.

It was.

When I opened the envelope, it went from being a brilliant coupon to being a weird competition:

This must be the only competition in the world where the winner will never experience the prize.