This past Monday and Tuesday, there has been an idiot making noise with some sort of firework or explosive device. I have heard this like a half-dozen times so far, and it is just pissing me off.
This is a boom that will wake up the semi-comatose—I work midnights, and have been woken up. This is average suburbia, so there are children nearby, babies sleeping and plenty of cats and dogs.
And while I do not want to sound like a crybaby, i’d like to say that this is a really loud boom, that can be heard two streets over, nothing at all like the sound that is made when a car back fires. One of my sister’s friends says that it is probably her neighbor detonating half and quarter sticks of dynamite.
Now I am worried for Dee, living near an asshole like that, and just wonder… what the fuck?!
How on earth is this clown getting a hold of dynamite?
I didn’t even know — I thought you had to have a permit of SOME sort to use and own dynamite. If i knew who it was i’d call the police.
I think that M-60s and M-80s are often referred to as 1/4 sticks and 1/2 sticks of dynamite. I don’t know if they actually are or are just the “equivalent”, but that may be what she is referring too. Doesn’t make it any less annoying for you, though.
In college I lived in Langley Park (Riggs Road, Seargent Road, Chillum) where gunfire was commonplace. One evening I was unable to drive to my house because the police had baracaded the streets - seems they were making arrests at the drug dealer’s house across the street from me. My girlfriend (now my wife) heard her first gun shots while visiting me.
Well, the little miss became the little mrs. and we moved to bucolic Bowie. Life was peaceful and serene. Then one night we woke up to booming that made me instantly think of gang warfare with shotguns and bazookas. Within a few minutes, however, I realized that it was the fireworks from the Baysox stadium! (we’re about a mile away.) A far and fresh cry from gunshots!
as you were.
One nice night not long ago I was in my room and had the windows open when I heard what sounded like someone holding drum practice. I was unable to figure out where it was coming from but was about to call the police anyway when peace & quiet finally returned. I was listening to the morning news when I found out what had been causing all the racket; Dubya had invited the President of Mexico for dinner and treated him to a fireworks display afterward. At 11pm. The noise had carried all the way from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which is about 10 miles from my bedroom.
You should try my neighborhood (Bucktown/Wicker Park in Chicago) on the 4[sup]th[/sup] of July. It sounds like World War III has broken out. I can’t overstate the stunning amount of fireworks going off constantly for 6 hours straight. It is quite literally non-stop. Still, it’s one day a year and I like fireworks so it doesn’t bother me. My pets, however, have a different opinion about that.
What really yanks my chain are people setting off the fireworks in the street. It might not be so bad if it was a seldom used side street with slow moving traffic but I’ve had to dodge fireworks on Western Avenue (5 lanes wide with the turn lane). Just yesterday I was driving home and some asshole had set off a Flower (a firework that spins about really fast while burning any of a variety of colors) in the fucking street! These things move about in random directions and it came right across my path. Considering that these things can burn well over 1,000 degrees I didn’t want to think what it might do to my tires (or paint) if I ran over it.
You want to setoff fireworks then fine. Keep it in your own backyard and preferrably at normal hours.
(BTW: I’ve heard gunshots in Chicago and they are relatively wimpy sounds. There’s no mistaking a M-80 for a gunshot unless someone is firing a howitzer. Your standars firecracker, on the other hand, sounds much closer to what a gunshot sounds like from a distance and I can’t claim to know the difference then.)
The Illinois legislature loosened the anti-fireworks law? All fireworks were illegal when I was a kid in Kankakee County but that didn’t stop my eldest sister from making an annual fireworks run to Missouri.
Nope…still illegal. However, Chicago cops seem to be a generally pragmatic lot so as long as you’re not killing anyone they are likely to leave you alone.
On the Fourth there are so many people setting stuff off the cops would more likely start a riot if they tried to stop it all so they mostly leave it be. Also you need to consider the neighborhood right next to mine (where most of this is happening) and you wouldn’t want to be there anyway especially when you could no longer distinguish a gun shot in the racket of fireworks.
So, as long as buildings aren’t getting burnt or people hurt the cops seem to let this slide on at least this one day.
Careful driving around the Indiana or Wisconsin border as July approaches. Some fireworks shops are literally just across the border and I’ve heard tell that Illinois police will watch those stores and then bust anyone they see drive out and back into Illinois.
I did a little googling prior to my previous post. Only those fireworks specifically exluded in the state fire code are illegal but I couldn’t find any specifics. The laws here limit legal fireworks to a certain height, blasts under 10’ IIRC; Illinois probably has adopted similar laws.
BTW: I know that all fireworks are illegal in DC and the Metropolitan Police are known to keep an eye on stands in Maryland and will stop anyone crossing back into DC.
It’s like that in my neighborhood, too, only it sems to be for a good couple of days before and after the holiday and that is what gets to me.
To the best of my current knowledge, this is still done. Although I do not think i’ve heard many gunshots, i heard the noise and started swearing anyway!
yow. Were you terribly surpised afterwards? **
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I sure was! Dubya’s immediate neighbors weren’t too happy either and the White House received some nasty responses IIRC. Funny thing is, I didn’t find out from the local news. I usually listen to a bitcast of a talk radio station out of St. Louis for a few hours while I’m at work and the dinner and fireworks were mentioned on a relay of their ABC News feed.
I’ve seen this - in previous years my husband and I would drive into Indiana to buy fireworks, and you’d see cops waiting very near the border. We’d just drive several miles to the shop we liked, anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for us.
About 200 yards from my house is a place called Tin Hall that rents out once a month or so for weddings and C&W events. These usually include fireworks at the end so we’ll regularly step out to the porch to enjoy the show ourselves.
The only thing I don’t like is when they just set off one and it’s that Krakatoa-sounding sumbitch… the one that doesn’t sparkle but makes you crap your Dockers with an enormous “KAAABOOOOM!”
Ok I like seeing pretty lights and flashing things as much as the next person. I’m all for lighting something and having it shoot sparks everywhere, or launching it and having a big explosion of light…
…but what the FUCK is the point of something that JUST MAKES A LOUD NOISE? How is that fun or enjoyable? It’s annoying, it can be painful, it scares the crap out of all the animals, and it serves NO PURPOSE!
I did not hear any noise for the past few days, but this Sunday night, i heard it several TIMES. I am so tired oif this assclown fuckstick. ESPECIALLY when it is three weeks before the Fourth of July, you know?!
I do not hate fireworks, but sometimes i just do not want to hear it.
:rolleyes:
