Not really. If you don’t get that explosions being set off into the wee hours of the morning for the past week and a half is something that might cause someone to be cranky, I am not sure that we have any common ground from which to begin.
Hmph, at least the communists generally managed to teach basic literacy. If you’d had those educational advantages yourself, you might have noticed that the core of the complaint here is that the loud revelry is not being limited to one day a year:
The guy two houses down from me must have spent a fortune on fireworks this year. I sat in my back yard and watched them go up for while. It seemed like most of the neighborhood was into it as a bunch of people were launching fireworks. It was kind of cool. As for the smoke and gunpowder smell, it had the effect of driving off the mosquitoes.
It’s all about the setup. I live in a suburb just to the north of Seattle. My particular condo building features a large courtyard, and is surrounded by other condo buildings as well as strip mall areas. All of these have large parking lots from which people are setting this shit off. Because of the courtyard and the echoing, yes, it sounds as if someone is setting off shaped charges outside my bedroom.
Re: the cops and air conditioning. First of all, as it turns out, the cops sort of don’t care. I suspect that, much like some of the posters to this very thread, they have a somewhat cavalier attitude towards others being able to enjoy peace and quiet on this particular weekend. As far as air-conditioning goes, the physical setup of my windows won’t support them.
Not to give a pass to the worst fireworks-firing miscreants, but couldn’t you early risers anticipate the racket and squeeze in a nap or two over your three-day weekend?
I love the smell of gunpowder.
What the hell’s wrong with fireworks on the fourth??
My friend set off about $100 worth of fireworks yesterday. The neighborhood kids like 'em, A bunch of families got together to watch, we had a tasty barbecue beforehand, my friend made some patriotic toasts, we set them off and were done by nine.
It’s the Fourth of July, for crying out loud.
“Celebrate the independance of your country by blowing up a small chunk of it.”
In the morning. It’s the smell of victory.
And to all you whiny bastards that don’t think the amateur fireworks are “pretty” enough. Suck it up. The rockets, artillery, or any of the other things they are supposed to represent weren’t pretty, they were just loud and deadly. You’ll survive bottle rockets.
Geez. What part of “This has been going on for the better part of a week and a half now” is not clear? The phrase must be the new “fnord.” Everybody’s eyes just glaze over it.
I’m not bashing fireworks. In fact, our next door neighbor (a former ATF agent, no less) is setting his off tonight, as we were rained out yesterday. Fireworks over the weekend of the 4th of July are great. Fireworks over the weekend of the 18th of June, the weekend of the 25th of June, the weekend of the 9th of July, the weekend of the 16th of July, and the weekend of the 23rd of July as is likely going to be the case around here, are less than delightful.
Fire Investigator checking in…
The problem with untrained civilians playing with fireworks is that they cause, well, fires. They also cause injury, not only to the people playing with them, but to the spectators. People who don’t play with things that explode 364 days a year, shouldn’t do it on the 4th either.
After 15 years of cleaning up the messes other people leave by using illegal fireworks, I know how dangerous they are, I know why they’re illegal, and I curse the idiots that use them in closed spaces like neighborhoods or apartment complexes. You’re not celebrating ANYTHING, you’re endangering your entire NEIGHBORHOOD because YOU want to make a BOOM.
That said, I’m tolerant of the little crap ON THE 4th, because I know how prolific stupidity is, and no amount of education can change it, but even on the 4th, after 11 pm, and because our patrol units were slammed in my neighborhood, I shut everybody on my block down. If it were up to me, I’d haul those idiots with the really LARGE explosives in, and charge them with possession of an incendiary device, and try and come up with some other charges before I called the ATF and turned the idiots over to them.
These are EXPLOSIVES. Not toys. Leave them to the professionals, because if you don’t, sooner or later, me and the boys will come to see you, and trust me when I say, you don’t want that.
Or car. A guy I know has–or at least had–a habit of leaving his windows down and someone’s bottle rocket flew in there. I have not seen the damage.
A few days prior to 9/11, I was awakened at 11 pm by what sounded like somone holding drum practice. I had contemplated calling the cops to report it but realized that I couldn’t determine where the noise was coming from. It wasn’t until the next day that I found out what was making all the racket: President of Mexico Vicente Fox was in town and Dubya decided to hold a private fireworks show for him–without informing the public of the planned event.
Last night, as I listened to the neighborhood miscreants setting off their M-whatevers, and as the rolling thunder swept into my North Seattle neighborhood from the vicinity of downtown, it occurred to me, as it does every year, that this would be the perfect time for some nefarious ne’er-do-well to engage in his preferred bit of mischief under the cover of bang-bang. Seriously, I could have gone house to house with a small-caliber handgun, and nobody would have been the wiser, having mistaken the crack of someone’s face catching a leaden slug for the harmless release of patriotic frivolity. And for all I knew, the spectacular rumbling from the city center was not just colorful rockets and skyflowers, but actually a concerted campaign of shock and awe from the reconstituted Iraqi Resistance Air Force (which would have armaments but, obviously, no maps). Seriously, on what other night will we sit, happily oblivious in our homes, ignoring the chaos around us?
I’m just sayin’.
Cervaise, I have to say that I like the way you think. Perhaps something like this is in order next year.
On another note, they were still at it last night but stopped by around midnight.
Believe me, I can hate fireworks. Back in January a pair of slackjaws were firing them off at around 3:30am from the apartments 3 blocks from my house. I sneaked up in my most ninja-like way and tackled one into the snow just as the police arrived (and got yelled at a bit for it).
But for about a 2 week period around July 4th I 'll just let it slide. Bombs away, revelers! I applaud your paltry 5 rocket salute!