Happy Holidays everyone!
For my Canadian friends: Happy Canada Day (several days late)!
For everyone else: I hope y'all had a good 4th of July (and today, the "observed" holiday).
My 4th was interesting. Mom had to work, so Sis and I were stuck at home, as per usual on the 4th. Mom told me that I should really go out and see some of the fireworks that EVERYONE IN THE SUBDIVISION sets off on the 4th and New Year's Eve. (I tend to discuss both holidays like they're war campaigns... the neighborhood always looks a little like those scenes from the first day of the first Gulf War where you could see all the anti-aircraft artillery tracer rounds fired into the air. "Hostilities between the North and South sides of the neighborhood intensified as the first rounds were fired at 8:34pm local time this evening...") I decided to head out and see what all the noise was actually about. One of the families in our cul-de-sac was setting off stuff - they must have bought at least $1000 worth OMG - so I walked outside and stood in the driveway. (We don't talk to the neighbors at all... they don't like us because we don't manicure our shrubs.) They had two giant boxes of stuff that they were setting off in the street. Once I saw how large the things were, I went back inside to grab my phone, because I was SURE that someone was either going to set themselves on fire, or ignite something else and I wanted to be able to call 911.
A little background about me and fireworks: one of my very first full-fledged memories is from when I was 3 1/2. Mom, Sis as an infant, Dad, and I were sitting on a blanket in the park watching the fireworks. I remember that I thought the fireworks were really really close and very loud. Mom and Dad kept saying that while they were loud, they weren't dangerous and I shouldn't be scared. I remember feeling the BOOM in my chest. Then, all of the sudden, something dark and smoking dropped onto the corner of our blanket. Mom grabbed me and started yelling at Dad that it was a firework shell and it was going to set the blanket on FIRE!!! Dad wasn't moving, so Mom, still yelling at Dad, leaned down and flicked the thing off our blanket. On the way home, there was a lot of yelling about how Dad didn't do his job of protecting us, and that we weren't going to sit on that side of the river (that bisects the park) from then on. I learned to love watching the fireworks once we moved away from the danger zone, but the BOOM still would make me cringe inwardly just a smidge. To me, fireworks = FIRE DANGER OMG, so the only way I could watch was where I couldn't get hit by the shells (though we ended up sitting on the side with the cannons, so after the show, we would always get inundated with the smoke). IMO, large fireworks should always be handled by professionals, though sparklers and tiny things are ok.
So, back to last night. The neighbors decided the best place to put the fireworks for safety was at the mouth of the cul-de-sac. This meant I was about 30 feet or so away from the box. This already had me a little concerned, but I'd been around other minor fireworks before and had no problem, so I wasn't that worried. The father was sitting next to the first box trying to read the directions. I kept thinking, "This guy is a fucking idiot, and is is going to set himself on fire." He didn't, and the first box launched some small aerial bursts, which were a little startling, but not that bad. However, the shells were landing all around me and I was FREAKING OUT. I kept thinking something along the line of, "OMG it's RAINING FIERY DEATH!!" So I was already a little not-okay when they set off the other box. This one was SO MUCH WORSE. Not only did it shoot stuff into the air, but it shot out 15 feet of sparkle in a fountain, too. The fire fountain was hitting the oak tree on the corner, and I could only sit there and pray that it didn't start a blaze. Then the aerial stuff fired. These weren't tiny little blooms... these were the giant Chrysanthemum ones. But, instead of being several hundred feet in the air like the ones I was used to, these couldn't have been more than about 100 feet into the sky. These were the ones with the giant BOOM that makes me inwardly cringe. By the time the whole box had fired - which maybe took 2 minutes - I was almost totally discombobulated and completely apoplectic. Every boom had me cowering more and more, and I came away shaking and scared out of my wits. I went inside and immediately texted Mom at work (while glugging a beer, because I needed to CALM DOWN OMG).
-"Fireworks viewed from 30' away is NOT AWESOME AT ALL. There is NO WAY IN HELL the thing the neighbors just set off should be set off in anything but a giant parking lot. I kept waiting for the tree next door to catch fire. I much prefer seeing them burst several hundred feet in the air instead of 50. My hands are still shaking."
- "The neighbors are fucking CRAZY PYROMANIAC LUNATICS bent on setting fire to the circle and blowing themselves up. And they had a whole lot more like the ones I saw. They must have spent several thousand dollars. Insane, stupid, AND dangerous. The "oops, your tree's on fire" trifecta."
- "And [Sis] is asleep. *eyeroll*"
- "I think it was better when I didn't know just precisely how close we are to catching fire."
Lesson learned: leave the house on the night of the 4th and go see fireworks somewhere where there's fire department supervision and professional fireworks techs.
Anyways... I hope y'all had a fun one, no matter what kind of celebration you had.
For everyone else: I hope y'all had a good 4th of July (and today, the "observed" holiday).
My 4th was interesting. Mom had to work, so Sis and I were stuck at home, as per usual on the 4th. Mom told me that I should really go out and see some of the fireworks that EVERYONE IN THE SUBDIVISION sets off on the 4th and New Year's Eve. (I tend to discuss both holidays like they're war campaigns... the neighborhood always looks a little like those scenes from the first day of the first Gulf War where you could see all the anti-aircraft artillery tracer rounds fired into the air. "Hostilities between the North and South sides of the neighborhood intensified as the first rounds were fired at 8:34pm local time this evening...") I decided to head out and see what all the noise was actually about. One of the families in our cul-de-sac was setting off stuff - they must have bought at least $1000 worth OMG - so I walked outside and stood in the driveway. (We don't talk to the neighbors at all... they don't like us because we don't manicure our shrubs.) They had two giant boxes of stuff that they were setting off in the street. Once I saw how large the things were, I went back inside to grab my phone, because I was SURE that someone was either going to set themselves on fire, or ignite something else and I wanted to be able to call 911.
A little background about me and fireworks: one of my very first full-fledged memories is from when I was 3 1/2. Mom, Sis as an infant, Dad, and I were sitting on a blanket in the park watching the fireworks. I remember that I thought the fireworks were really really close and very loud. Mom and Dad kept saying that while they were loud, they weren't dangerous and I shouldn't be scared. I remember feeling the BOOM in my chest. Then, all of the sudden, something dark and smoking dropped onto the corner of our blanket. Mom grabbed me and started yelling at Dad that it was a firework shell and it was going to set the blanket on FIRE!!! Dad wasn't moving, so Mom, still yelling at Dad, leaned down and flicked the thing off our blanket. On the way home, there was a lot of yelling about how Dad didn't do his job of protecting us, and that we weren't going to sit on that side of the river (that bisects the park) from then on. I learned to love watching the fireworks once we moved away from the danger zone, but the BOOM still would make me cringe inwardly just a smidge. To me, fireworks = FIRE DANGER OMG, so the only way I could watch was where I couldn't get hit by the shells (though we ended up sitting on the side with the cannons, so after the show, we would always get inundated with the smoke). IMO, large fireworks should always be handled by professionals, though sparklers and tiny things are ok.
So, back to last night. The neighbors decided the best place to put the fireworks for safety was at the mouth of the cul-de-sac. This meant I was about 30 feet or so away from the box. This already had me a little concerned, but I'd been around other minor fireworks before and had no problem, so I wasn't that worried. The father was sitting next to the first box trying to read the directions. I kept thinking, "This guy is a fucking idiot, and is is going to set himself on fire." He didn't, and the first box launched some small aerial bursts, which were a little startling, but not that bad. However, the shells were landing all around me and I was FREAKING OUT. I kept thinking something along the line of, "OMG it's RAINING FIERY DEATH!!" So I was already a little not-okay when they set off the other box. This one was SO MUCH WORSE. Not only did it shoot stuff into the air, but it shot out 15 feet of sparkle in a fountain, too. The fire fountain was hitting the oak tree on the corner, and I could only sit there and pray that it didn't start a blaze. Then the aerial stuff fired. These weren't tiny little blooms... these were the giant Chrysanthemum ones. But, instead of being several hundred feet in the air like the ones I was used to, these couldn't have been more than about 100 feet into the sky. These were the ones with the giant BOOM that makes me inwardly cringe. By the time the whole box had fired - which maybe took 2 minutes - I was almost totally discombobulated and completely apoplectic. Every boom had me cowering more and more, and I came away shaking and scared out of my wits. I went inside and immediately texted Mom at work (while glugging a beer, because I needed to CALM DOWN OMG).
-"Fireworks viewed from 30' away is NOT AWESOME AT ALL. There is NO WAY IN HELL the thing the neighbors just set off should be set off in anything but a giant parking lot. I kept waiting for the tree next door to catch fire. I much prefer seeing them burst several hundred feet in the air instead of 50. My hands are still shaking."
- "The neighbors are fucking CRAZY PYROMANIAC LUNATICS bent on setting fire to the circle and blowing themselves up. And they had a whole lot more like the ones I saw. They must have spent several thousand dollars. Insane, stupid, AND dangerous. The "oops, your tree's on fire" trifecta."
- "And [Sis] is asleep. *eyeroll*"
- "I think it was better when I didn't know just precisely how close we are to catching fire."
Lesson learned: leave the house on the night of the 4th and go see fireworks somewhere where there's fire department supervision and professional fireworks techs.
Anyways... I hope y'all had a fun one, no matter what kind of celebration you had.