Hooray for the Fourth of July! It’s one of those holidays I love, because it is one we celebrate on its actual day.

Many folks, who heartily subscribe to the three-day weekend theory, may not agree with me on this one, but I honestly prefer to celebrate the special days of our lives on the days they were originally designated as such.

In any event, this particular Fourth of July, popping up in the middle of the week, as it does, gives many of us a chance to kick back, relax for a day and enjoy festivities and fun with family and friends.

From dawn to dusk, in places ranging from the Greater Bangor-Brewer area to Pembroke, where Pembroke Historical Society member Bonnie Hunter invites you to attend Yankee Peddler Day and all the attendant Fourth of July celebrations, folks will be out and about today, rain or shine.

And Mainers can take pride in the fact that their national, state and local public officials will be participating in many of those festivities with them.

For example, it was fun hearing from Felicia Knight, former local television news personality and current communications director for Sen. Susan Collins in Washington, D.C., who called Tuesday to let you know where the senator will be today.

Knight reports that Collins will march in the Millinocket Fourth of July parade, which begins at 11 a.m. at the Ames parking lot.

Collins will next fly to Eastport, where she will be among the marchers in that parade which begins at 2 p.m.

Then, Knight said, Collins will fly home for a well-deserved rest.

Wherever you are today, and whatever you do, please do so with care.

Protect yourself and those you love, by acting responsibly, in every way, so that everyone who begins this day will end it well.

Happy Fourth, folks.

Do you want to participate in the Maine Audubon Society’s annual Loon Count on Saturday, July 21?

If so, Maine Audubon wants to remind you that in order for the count to produce a reliable estimate, you must follow careful instructions, all count at the same time, and mark on a map where the loon was and where the counter was at the time.

In order make this count work, you need to obtain a packet of instructions from the Audubon Society ahead of time.

Patricia Sprague will present a slide show about loons at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 5, at the Fields Pond Nature Center, 216 Fields Pond Road in Holden.

Pat Sprague will discuss how to participate in the Loon Count, and Debi Blank, the future volunteer coordinator for the Penobscot County Loon Count, will be present to answer questions about loons and the count.

If you’ve always wanted to participate in the state’s Loon Count, but weren’t sure how to go about it, this free program will provide you everything you need.

For more information, call the Fields Pond Nature Center at 989-2591.

In conjunction with the Maine Shakespeare Festival, which runs from July 17 to Aug. 18 at the Bangor waterfront, the Bangor Public Library is offering two discussion groups on “King Lear” and “Twelfth Night.”

Group members can read the plays, discuss them, and then view the performance.

Each discussion group attendee will receive a coupon to purchase tickets at a reduced price, courtesy of Penobscot Theatre Company.

Kathleen Ellis of the University of Maine will lead the discussions.

The group will discuss “King Lear” 5:15 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 24, and “Twelfth Night” 5:15 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7.

Copies of each play can be obtained at the Adult Circulation Desk of the Bangor Public Library at 145 Harlow St. For more information, call the library at 947-8336.

On behalf of the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society, John Dudley invites you to attend the 12th Annual Genealogy Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 7, at the Alexander Elementary School on the Airline Road in Alexander.

Dudley writes that “everyone brings information to share or questions to ask.”

And three “area experts on local families” will be present to assist you.

Dudley reports that Sharon Howland “will have a carload of research to share,” and that Valdine Atwood and Frances Ray “will have records of our coastal communities, where most of our ancestors lived before moving inland.”

An outreach program of the historical society, back issues of its Newsletter will be available as well as area cemetery records and census records to 1920.

For more information, call Dudley at 454-7476.

Speaking of history, Maine residents may know, but our visitors might not, that Arctic explorer Admiral Robert Peary’s ship, the SS Roosevelt, was completed in 1905 on Verona Island.

A model of the ship, crafted by Earl Morrill of Brewer, is in the Reference Room of the Buck Memorial Library on Main Street in Bucksport.

Also on exhibit there are models of the Allanwilde, a barkentine built in 1884 in Bucksport; the Herbert L. Rawdling, a four-masted schooner built in Stockton Springs, and the two-masted fishing schooner, Hunter, still under construction in Orland.

Morrill will exhibit photographs and explain the construction of a large schooner, and entertain you with some humorous maritime facts he has collected during this model ship research, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 7 at the library.

The public is invited to attend.

The Sixth Thompson Family Reunion is part of this holiday week, beginning with a Memorial Graveside Service at 10 a.m. at the East Millinocket Cemetery.

The reunion begins at 11 a.m. at the Sno-Rover’s Club in East Millinocket.

Families are asked to bring sandwiches, a salad and desserts to share.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.