Area firefighters will put their skills on display in the 2013 Edmonds Fourth of July Waterball Competition beginning at 2:30 p.m. at City Park, 3rd Ave. S and Pine Street, Edmonds.

Volunteer firefighters from Snohomish County Fire District 1 will host the free event that has been a Fourth of July tradition in Edmonds for years.

Many families picnic in the park and watch the competition after the parade and before the fireworks show.

Highway 99 Encore: The other day as I stomped on the gas to “get through” a light turning red (I swear Judge, it was still yellow when I went through) I looked up and saw another of those horrible traffic cameras.

See, this is another example of bureaucracy run amok. The poor schmuck doesn’t stand a chance. The lights are timed so if you are dumb enough to attempt to run the light, the yellow signal is timed to be so short that unless you’re traveling at Mach 1 – you cannot make it through before red. Then that ticket shows up with your dumb face looking directly up at the camera – with your license plate displayed below (ask me how I know this).

If you are traveling at Mach 1 or above, you also get a camera ticket for speeding (again, ask me how I know this).

The only good thing here is that a camera ticket is not classified as a moving violation, so it does not go on your insurance and doesn’t increase your premium about 20% for three years (again, ask me how I know this).

Summer’s in full swing and BBQs, flip flops and sunscreen are in high demand. According to Ayurveda, Summer is the season of Pitta or the fire element. Pitta is the energy of transformation. It governs our metabolism and intelligence and is our ability to digest food, information and emotions. Pitta’s qualities are hot, sharp and intense.

Pitta is increased by excessive heat like too much hot spicy foods or a lot of hot emotions like anger, frustration and intense competition. Since the summer is the season of Pitta when it is hot outside the fire element in us increases too. We may experience irritability, skin rashes, increased sweat, red itchy eyes, acid indigestion and even be prone to road rage.

One of the main principles of Ayurveda is “like increases like” (that’s why hot things increase the fire element) and balance is achieved by the opposite qualities. So if Pitta is hot, sharp and intense think calm, cool and peaceful to bring balance.

In an effort to reduce waste and cleanup after the race, the 2013 Run of the Mill 5K has partnered with the industry-leading software platform, Virtual Race Bags® to provide their registered racers with a digital race bag chock full of goodies.

This is being done to eliminate unnecessary waste from plastic bags full of paper, and to provide a more effective way for local businesses to provide the registered racers with their coupons and offers.