The 4th
Last night was uneventful, in a good way. Due to the drought, Harris County banned all sale and use of fireworks (except for several professional shows). This is absolutely unprecedented in Texas. However, it was AWESOME. We're not ones that like to try and blow ourselves up on the 4th. However, our neighbors ARE. Since we live in an unincorporated part of Harris County (outside of Houston), people can buy and set off fireworks. This makes for some LOUD and scary holidays. I swear, the neighbors in our cul-de-sac must spend thousands of dollars every year on fireworks. They buy the huge boxes where you light one fuse and it shoots off a bunch of rockets. One a few years ago not only shot off several rockets (I don't know what they're really called, as I'm totally freaked by fireworks that aren't way up in the sky and technically way down range of me) but also a plume of sparks. I kept worrying that the tree would catch on fire. It didn't help that one of the spent shells landed a foot from me still smoking, and another bounced off the neighbor's roof.
Backstory: I'm scared of fireworks. I can deal with them when they're done in a professional show, guarded by firefighters, and I know that the explosions are hundreds of feet in the air and several hundred yards down range. It all started when I was about 4. We were all watching the fireworks at Auditorium Shores in Austin, when a smoking shell landed on the edge of our blanket. Mom grabbed me and Sis - who was a baby at the time - and started yelling at Dad to push the thing off the blanket so it wouldn't catch on fire. Being 4 and watching giant booming fireworks is scary enough, but when you realize part of it just landed on your blanket and you could CATCH ON FIRE OMG then it's a lot scarier. Dad, being an idiot, didn't do anything, and Mom finally had to put my sister down behind her, lean over, and flick the shell off the blanket herself. (This is one of my first memories of Dad being completely useless in stressful/emergency situations.) Since then, I don't trust fireworks that are set off by civilians, since even the professional show had a shell fall in a crowd.
When we lived in Austin, we'd go to the lake downtown and listen to the Austin Symphony Orchestra play patriotic music - 1812 with Howitzer canons, anyone? - before the big fireworks show. During middle/high school, I'd have a party every year on the 4th at my house. We'd swim all day in the pool, eat burgers and hot dogs, eat my flag shortcake for desert, and then dry off and head downtown for the fireworks. It was such a fabulous way to spend time with my friends.
Since Mom's been working here Houston, we have only gone to one show. It was down at the mall in Katy (west of Houston on I-10). Nice show, but it's not the same sitting on your car in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. I learned that there's an Austin-like show down in one of the main parks in Houston near the medical center. I've convinced Mom to ask for the 4th off next year so that we can go to it.
For some reason, watching the Boston Pops show this year wasn't as fun for me. I think it all had to do with Craig not hosting. Mom and I figured that it was because he'd just taken 2 weeks off to shoot The Late Late Show in Paris, AND he's got a 5ish-month-old at home. Hopefully he'll be hosting again next year. (He usually takes the week of the 4th off as vacation. After Boston, his family heads up to his wife's family in Vermont. No, I'm not a stalker.)
I was watching the news the other night and one of the reporters in the studio said, "May the 4th be with you." To which the anchors replied, "And also with you." (I love when people do this on Star Wars Day. Church-ingrained habits die hard.) This would have been funny, except it ISN'T May 4th. Obviously the guy doesn't know about Star Wars Day, otherwise he wouldn't have even tried. One of the anchors just kind of rolled her eyes. THAT was funny.
I must say that not feeling like we are living in London during the Blitz over the weekend and yesterday was fabulous. Truly, in our neighborhood, people set off fireworks from dusk until about 2am. Being able to fall asleep at midnight was sheer luxury.
Backstory: I'm scared of fireworks. I can deal with them when they're done in a professional show, guarded by firefighters, and I know that the explosions are hundreds of feet in the air and several hundred yards down range. It all started when I was about 4. We were all watching the fireworks at Auditorium Shores in Austin, when a smoking shell landed on the edge of our blanket. Mom grabbed me and Sis - who was a baby at the time - and started yelling at Dad to push the thing off the blanket so it wouldn't catch on fire. Being 4 and watching giant booming fireworks is scary enough, but when you realize part of it just landed on your blanket and you could CATCH ON FIRE OMG then it's a lot scarier. Dad, being an idiot, didn't do anything, and Mom finally had to put my sister down behind her, lean over, and flick the shell off the blanket herself. (This is one of my first memories of Dad being completely useless in stressful/emergency situations.) Since then, I don't trust fireworks that are set off by civilians, since even the professional show had a shell fall in a crowd.
When we lived in Austin, we'd go to the lake downtown and listen to the Austin Symphony Orchestra play patriotic music - 1812 with Howitzer canons, anyone? - before the big fireworks show. During middle/high school, I'd have a party every year on the 4th at my house. We'd swim all day in the pool, eat burgers and hot dogs, eat my flag shortcake for desert, and then dry off and head downtown for the fireworks. It was such a fabulous way to spend time with my friends.
Since Mom's been working here Houston, we have only gone to one show. It was down at the mall in Katy (west of Houston on I-10). Nice show, but it's not the same sitting on your car in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. I learned that there's an Austin-like show down in one of the main parks in Houston near the medical center. I've convinced Mom to ask for the 4th off next year so that we can go to it.
For some reason, watching the Boston Pops show this year wasn't as fun for me. I think it all had to do with Craig not hosting. Mom and I figured that it was because he'd just taken 2 weeks off to shoot The Late Late Show in Paris, AND he's got a 5ish-month-old at home. Hopefully he'll be hosting again next year. (He usually takes the week of the 4th off as vacation. After Boston, his family heads up to his wife's family in Vermont. No, I'm not a stalker.)
I was watching the news the other night and one of the reporters in the studio said, "May the 4th be with you." To which the anchors replied, "And also with you." (I love when people do this on Star Wars Day. Church-ingrained habits die hard.) This would have been funny, except it ISN'T May 4th. Obviously the guy doesn't know about Star Wars Day, otherwise he wouldn't have even tried. One of the anchors just kind of rolled her eyes. THAT was funny.
I must say that not feeling like we are living in London during the Blitz over the weekend and yesterday was fabulous. Truly, in our neighborhood, people set off fireworks from dusk until about 2am. Being able to fall asleep at midnight was sheer luxury.