I just re-examined my profile for this blog and one thing struck me. I will have to edit my professional identifiers soon. But, that is for another time and another post. I checked my profile to see how I described my location, because this post will reference that and I still try to hide my identity.
Yes, fireworks. The Fourth of July is coming and over the last week or so, the fireworks have started. Actually, we started hearing the stray explosion right around Memorial Day. As I drove home from work the other day, I passed a facility that sells them and individuals were shooting off fireworks in the parking lot. Out of shopping carts. It was still light out. Yes. That is right, I live in a state where average red-blooded Americans can buy fireworks. Let me tell you, I think this is a very bad idea. Sure, sure, drugs, firearms need to be controlled substances. So should fireworks. No one should be allowed to purchase fireworks for their own personal recreational use.
When I was a kid, I thought they were great. They were loud and colorful and I even enjoyed holding a sparkler or two and waving them in the dark summer night. Our next door neighbor set some off in his backyard, but he was a reasonably intelligent adult who took precautions and I never feared that he, or anyone connected to said display would loose body parts, or anyone's house would burn down. Since moving to this state (and one can argue at this point in my life as a Stick-in-the-Mud) I find that 1. not all people are as careful; 2. that reasonably intelligent; and 3. have little regard for other people's property or well-being. (We have lived in crowded complexes where drunken "young people" have set off fireworks in the middle of the night. Only a miracle preserved our property (all our books) and lives. Darn kids...) People start setting them off around here during the week before the Fourth and will continue for several days afterwords. I find this disruptive and annoying. I also feel like a cranky old lady. But, really, do we really need the sudden loud bang, usually at weird times of the day. Why during the day? If one is going to set them off, why not wait until dark, in order to enhance the effect? Or these kind and considerate folk choose the middle of the night, when most sane people are trying to sleep.
Yes, I know how I sound. To make it worse, I do not really enjoy going to official fireworks. They tend to feel like more work than fun. We have to go early, find a place to sit, and then wait. Then the light show begins and ends within thirty minutes. (Frankly, if it goes longer, it starts to get boring and feels like overkill.) Then we fight the crowds to get home. Seems like a lot of work. The last time I really enjoyed fireworks was when we (Beloved Husband and I) saw them while standing on the nation's Capitol Building. Now those were fireworks!
The Fourth will soon be upon us. We will be safely out of town for the blessed holiday event, which will add a whole host of other anxieties to my already long list of worries. Will some numskull burn down our house while we are gone? I feel somehow that the purpose of the fireworks and the celebration of our nation's independence has gone astray. Do the seemingly endless bangs, whistles, pops, and, yes, explosions that are about to happen in the next weeks really signify the dissolution of political allegiance to Great Britain and the throwing off of tyrannical authority to preserve the "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"
As I sink into an even deeper state of crankiness, I will console myself with my own goodness and self-righteousness, as I take all the fun out of this the anniversary of our nation's birth.
Yes, fireworks. The Fourth of July is coming and over the last week or so, the fireworks have started. Actually, we started hearing the stray explosion right around Memorial Day. As I drove home from work the other day, I passed a facility that sells them and individuals were shooting off fireworks in the parking lot. Out of shopping carts. It was still light out. Yes. That is right, I live in a state where average red-blooded Americans can buy fireworks. Let me tell you, I think this is a very bad idea. Sure, sure, drugs, firearms need to be controlled substances. So should fireworks. No one should be allowed to purchase fireworks for their own personal recreational use.
When I was a kid, I thought they were great. They were loud and colorful and I even enjoyed holding a sparkler or two and waving them in the dark summer night. Our next door neighbor set some off in his backyard, but he was a reasonably intelligent adult who took precautions and I never feared that he, or anyone connected to said display would loose body parts, or anyone's house would burn down. Since moving to this state (and one can argue at this point in my life as a Stick-in-the-Mud) I find that 1. not all people are as careful; 2. that reasonably intelligent; and 3. have little regard for other people's property or well-being. (We have lived in crowded complexes where drunken "young people" have set off fireworks in the middle of the night. Only a miracle preserved our property (all our books) and lives. Darn kids...) People start setting them off around here during the week before the Fourth and will continue for several days afterwords. I find this disruptive and annoying. I also feel like a cranky old lady. But, really, do we really need the sudden loud bang, usually at weird times of the day. Why during the day? If one is going to set them off, why not wait until dark, in order to enhance the effect? Or these kind and considerate folk choose the middle of the night, when most sane people are trying to sleep.
Yes, I know how I sound. To make it worse, I do not really enjoy going to official fireworks. They tend to feel like more work than fun. We have to go early, find a place to sit, and then wait. Then the light show begins and ends within thirty minutes. (Frankly, if it goes longer, it starts to get boring and feels like overkill.) Then we fight the crowds to get home. Seems like a lot of work. The last time I really enjoyed fireworks was when we (Beloved Husband and I) saw them while standing on the nation's Capitol Building. Now those were fireworks!
The Fourth will soon be upon us. We will be safely out of town for the blessed holiday event, which will add a whole host of other anxieties to my already long list of worries. Will some numskull burn down our house while we are gone? I feel somehow that the purpose of the fireworks and the celebration of our nation's independence has gone astray. Do the seemingly endless bangs, whistles, pops, and, yes, explosions that are about to happen in the next weeks really signify the dissolution of political allegiance to Great Britain and the throwing off of tyrannical authority to preserve the "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"
As I sink into an even deeper state of crankiness, I will console myself with my own goodness and self-righteousness, as I take all the fun out of this the anniversary of our nation's birth.
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