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We've once again come to the time of year which reminds me that while I love almost everything about where we bought a house, there are still a couple things that annoy the ever-living crud outta me about the area.
Like fireworks.
As we approach July 4th, the idiots in the neighborhoods around decide that one day to set off explosives is simply not enough - and therefore begin to do so in early June. Like last night about 30 minutes after I'd finally fallen asleep when a local #*($&#$ just had to test their launcher in the middle of the night. And then wait 15 minutes to allow everyone to maybe start slipping back to sleep...before doing it again.
Yep, it doesn't register that it's the middle of the work week, when some folks (like me) have to get up before dawn. Their juvenile excitement over making a boom is all that matters.
But even waking me up with that startled moment of 'oh crap, is that a gunshot??' isn't what really ticks me off about it. Or the fact that the adrenaline rush will prevent going back to sleep for at least an hour (especially after a second round).
What causes me to shake with rage is the panic it causes in our poor frightened kitties who spent most of the night freaked out, and in all the dogs and cats (and birds and squirrels and everything) in the whole neighborhood as they are traumatized by the loud overhead kapows. Plus also the likely unfortunate triggering of any PTSD veteran (or cop / emergency worker) who lives around here.
On the 4th of July we know to close our windows and can be prepared. But it's summer, and as the air cools down overnight, our windows are all wide open most nights. I also know some vets who on the actual holiday deliberately go to the movies or put on headphones for the entire evening to drown it all out. But from now until end of August, jerks around here will randomly set this crap off at any time between 11pm and 2am. Then go silent...and do it again half an hour later.
I hate it. I hate their socio-pathetic inconsideration for others. And while I try to never wish harm on others, there's a part of me hoping they blow their damn fingers off. I'd call them worse than 'jerks' but am trying to avoid profanity, much as they deserve a bucket-full.
Just had to rant somewhere, so thanks for letting me do it here. <3
- a sleep-deprived Erisian
Comments
I couldn't agree more.
It sounds a lot like Oakland, California, where I live. Every year the city announces zero tolerance for illegal fireworks, and every year we don't hear of any arrests. With the high fire danger now in California, it really is criminal to be setting off fireworks.
Report them
Call the cops it has to be violating at the very least a noise ordnance that late at night.
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
Asshats
I grew up in NYC and in my neighborhood July 4th fireworks were a really serious business with virtually all the younger families participating in it.
However, once it is late, at least before the 4th itself, fireworks die away by 10pm or so with nobody violating the peace after that. On the 4th itself it is an all night affair but that was known by everybody that that was the case so no surprises.
There is the stereotype that New Yorkers are rude and disrespectful, in your face and uncaring but that is BS as at least during that time in the 1960s and 70s there were some lines you do not cross with your neighbors.
So, they get the ol' rigid digit from me too for being far worse then those 'rude' New Yorkers.
I hope they lose a few body parts too for their selfish asshattery.
Where I live in California fireworks have been illegal
I saw fireworks in the neighborhood being used seveal years ago on the fourth. At that time many of the houses still had wood shake roofs. I called it in to the police department but they never came out. About two hours later I saw firetrucks arrive because the idiots set the neighboring house roof on fire. One year I was doing roof maintenance when we still had a shake roof and came across a bottle rocket that had embedded itself underneath the shakes. That was totally upsetting. With the dry weather in California, fireworks can kill innocent people during the fire season.
And out west it's always fire season, or just about
Our neighborhood isn't zoned for raising chickens but the people next door have a whole shed full, and a very loud rooster that I have to adjust to every year after it gets warm enough that I start sleeping with my door and windows open. Somehow I really like that none of our neighbors have ratted them out to the cops yet, that we aren't all in each other's business or living under the brutal regime of some HOA with rules about every little chickenshit detail of what you do with your property. It would take a lot for me to call the cops on someone (like when the chicken neighbors have a loud baile with a live band that goes on til 2 a.m I know it's only a few times a year...) but then you have your total inconsiderate assholes who do it all the time, and shooting off fireworks in the dead of night for a whole month leading up to July 4th would definitely earn someone a threatening note to knock it off, and if that didn't work I'd reluctantly drop a dime on them. The dogs wouldn't like it, the chickens wouldn't like it; and I'm always nervous about all the highly flammable chaparral surrounding our little low rent varrio. But luckily most of the people here seem mindful of the fire hazard as well, and what little Independence Day pyrotechnics there is starts around the 1st of July, somebody setting off a fire cracker or two, I guess to make sure they work, and the rest of them on the 4th itself.
And then it's pretty much quiet until Dec 31, when some lunatic down the road always rings in the new year with gunfire. Which is so much better than when I lived in a series of apartments in town, where ALL my neighbors seemed to be meth heads, completely oblivious to what time it was or the idea that some people like to sleep. Tweakers are the absolute worst, broadcasting their idiocy at full volume 24/7.
~hugs, Veronica
And here's some Fireworks I think anyone would like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B06DwBVi9LA
"Government will only recognize 2 genders, male + female,
as assigned at birth-" (In his own words:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lugbpMKDU
The Cure
In my day there was a natural cure for the love of fireworks.
Everyone had an outhouse. Many of those outhouses had two holes of varying size to keep the small-butted from a disaster.
Unless your outhouse was ultra-modern, with ventilation, methane gas would build up. Those in the know knew that tossing a lit firecracker down the hole of the outhouse produced a loud, and if after dark, colorful explosion.
My Cousin Jennie was eight -- old enough to know the bigger bang theory but too young to understand the chemistry behind it. She apparently became bored while doing her business in the family two-holer. She lit a ladyfinger, while defecating, tossed the burning firecracker down the unused hole. . .and earned a trip to the hospital!
Needless to say she never got as big a bang out of fireworks after that.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)