July 4th woes

[Cliff]

I don't really care for fireworks either. I mean, I hate all holidays pretty much anyway. I don't feel particularly patriotic towards our country these days. Too much nonsense for my tastes. The fireworks should start here any moment. On the plus side, my dog doesn't even notice. 

The flip side of this is.. being in a free country means we get to be inconvenienced every once in a while. Like.. when did it become so awful to hear some bangs, or smell someone smoking near a door, or whatever. It seems like we're all so overly sensitive to the slightest inconvenience or annoyance. 

[Guest]

@Isaac I agree, some small stuff is fun. Fountains, parachutes, even some of the smaller mortars.   I don't think that is the stuff Eric is complaining about.  My dad was a nut for fireworks and would buy mortars that are illegal in all 50 states.  The kind that set off car alarms and cause windows to shake.  My hometown is a constant barrage of car alarms and distraught dogs for the first week of July.  We tend not to deal with that on the north shore.   

[Eric.]

Yeah I'm talking about the artillery shells directly over my house at midnight on July 2nd and July 7th and every day in between.  Ain't no way to justify that behavior.  Period.

[Chet]

Well July 7th I can understand... thats my Birthday!

[Chet]

Well we were just watching the local news here and it appears that this morning around 2 AM some people shooting of fireworks burn their neighbors house down.  Happened about three miles from our house.

[Pondhockey]

Maybe it's like campfires in a state park.  Used to be that a smallish number of folks were there to do that sort of thing - eventually people were taking branches off of live trees for their fires.

When a smallish number of yokels blow off a smallish number of explosives with smallish consequences (small number of ER visits, small number of brush and forest fires) then, ok.

On the other hand, when it gets competitive and obtrusive, it's time to reign it in.

[Marmotjr]

A few hours ago, I thought a car hit my house.  Checked on the girls to make sure either of them didn't pull down a dresser on themselves (ones 5'2, the other's 4'1).   Turns out it was a single shell from a distant (12-15 miles away) pro show.   As I went outside to make sure a car didn't actually hit the house (It's about 50 ft from a country 'highway' that I routinely drive 70 mph on), the grand finale started.   That sounded like a pro show about a dozen miles away, heard it but I couldn't feel it.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to be near (as in viewing distance) as that single shell went off.   That would have been a chest thumper, at the least. 

I'm okay with people setting off fireworks tonight (Saturday), as it is not a work night for most people (I used to be one of the few who there were no regular work nights, so I'm not oblivious to this).  Even Sunday if you're not obnoxiously late gets a pass, early evening.   Monday night is the one you should really be setting off late if you are doing it at all.  Tuesday should be reigned in early, since it marks the return to normalcy. 

But of course, this is completely ignoring the legality and practicality of setting off fireworks in suburban neighbor hoods. 

 

My first gig as a EMT was in a small town where my college was.  About 20 miles up the road was a large scale fireworks factory, like one of those you see on the discovery channel, routinely doing major city productions.   The Fire and EMS guys in my town had gotten to know them and most of them had gotten certifications in the pyrotechnics field.  They worked with the factory enough on a Emergency Prep basis to have worked up a good relationship with the owners of the factory, and the owners had decided to give the Fire guys all of their fireworks for the 4th at cost.  Not only that, but they would match any donations they raised.  So it worked out to getting the fireworks about 75% off.   They would routinely raise around $75,000 each year from local businesses and private donors, and the factory would match that.   Athens county only had one non christian or country FM station then, and while it played everything but christian and country (making it crap radio), they would synchronize their broadcast to match the designed pyro display.   So in the end, Ohio Magazine rated Nelsonville's (pop about 3k) fireworks display in the top 4 in the state every year.  And they usually beat out one of the major cities on the list.  I never got directly involved with it, but I did help my Chief choreograph the display one year. 

[Tom King]

We were lucky last night.  It was quiet after 10:45.   The noise was not my main concern.  

We had 150 acres of timber just thinned, and there is a Lot of dead detritus on the ground left from the thinning.   It will rot away fairly quickly, but not in a few weeks.   We've had a lot of rain up until a week ago, and in hot weather, it doesn't take long for woods to get dangerously dry, which it is right now.

Fortunately, all the launchers were aimed out over the water, so away from our place.   I was able to get to bed by 1:00, after standing vigil, and it was a great relief for things to quiet down so early.   There was a lot of money burned up last night around here, but none of ours.

[Denette]

The dumbest fireworks use I've ever seen was during my freshman year of college.  Because they don't tell you the reputation of the dorm you will be staying in, I signed up for what coincidentally turned out to be one of the drunkest, frattiest dorms on the campus, and ended up on the worst floor to boot.  I never had any interest in drinking underage or joining a frat, so it was not a particularly fun situation.  Now what makes this worse is that there had been a shooting on our campus about a month before the fireworks incident (gangbangers from out of town did a drive-by on someone who owed them money), so when I was studying one night and heard a tremendous BOOM up the hall, I was uneasy to say the least.  

Come to find out, the noise was the frat boys shooting off an artillery shell.

In their room.

Out the window.

With the screen still on the window.

At somebody in the parking lot.

 

Evidently whoever they were trying to blow up managed to duck and cover fast enough to avoid it, but still - record level idiocy, that there is.  There may be good fraternities out there, but those morons hammered in the final nail in the coffin as far as my ever being interested was concerned. 

 

That said, I have always loved (courteously) doing my own fireworks on the fourth.  I was super into it as a kid.  I'm glad my parents live out in the woods so my kid can do them when he's big enough!  

[Eric.]

57 minutes ago, Denette said:

Come to find out, the noise was the frat boys shooting off an artillery shell.

In their room.

Out the window.

With the screen still on the window.

At somebody in the parking lot.

LOL  See, this is the kind of stupidity that I can embrace.  I did my fair share of idiotic things when I was a kid, too.  I'm not a fan of frat boys but I understand that behavior.  (Hazing is a different story, don't get me started on that.)  Dangerous, outrageous, ridiculous...yes.  But boys will be boys and when high school kids or even college freshmen shoot a cannon out of a dorm room window I have to kind of laugh.  Been there.  We used to pelt drunk kids from our apartment balcony with russet potatoes our first year in college.  That was a real hoot. LOL

But ya gotta grow up eventually.  By the time you buy a house, settle into a job, have a couple kids...dude, you're a grown man now.  Stop acting like a moron.  You have to be some kind of mental defective to get that big of a kick out of lighting fireworks in your 30s or 40s.  If you wanna let your own kids blow their fingers off and blind themselves, I'm cool with that, too.  Just take them out to the river where there's less people to annoy.  They're gonna do it anyway, with or without you, so you might as well teach them how to do it courteously.  Even then...you're still littering the planet.  Something that kind of gets ignored completely.  All that trash.  Really sad.

[treeslayer]

this year they made fireworks legal to sell in Iowa but most towns made it illegal to shoot them off, but morons still do. they have a big show over the Mississippi river in my town but we watch from afar because the traffic is so bad near the area. but i like the show and reminds me of the day i met my wife, July 4, 1969!

[BonPacific]

I decided to spend the 4th back in my hometown this year, and apparently the latest outrage* is that the city show has removed the big concussive fireworks from the show, and will be moving towards silent mortars in the future. Great for people with pets and PTSD... And the rest of us who don't appreciate unneeded explosive devices.

 

*read: Facebook Petition

[Graeme1967USMC]

I would still call the cops.  Don't wait till the 4th, call them now, at the first sign of them going off.

I've tried the "reasonable" approach, and have found that calling the cops works better.  Only other method that came near, was marching over with 3 very oversized (ex football player, olympic wrestler...) relatives and reading them the riot act.  Perps were local college athletes, so there was a moment when it was possible that people would go flying over the balcony.

Better to call the cops.

 

One city we lived in (in coastal South Carolina) the Mayor lived across the street from us. Guess who was the BIGGEST fireworks violator - often with many of the on-duty police and fire department shifts in attendance.

 

Seriously, fireworks - especially unexpected ones - can be a serious problem for those of us who are combat veterans. PTSD is real and it doesn't go away. We can manage the symptoms but we also never know what or when the next "trigger" will be. Someone might just suddenly turn badass Marine on you!

 

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

 

[wdwerker]

Years ago a friend of the family was Major in the local police force. He held a 4 th party in his large backyard. A bunch of drunk cops decided that the way to dispose of some dynamite from the evidence locker was to shoot it off at the party. 

A neighbor got fed up and called 911 to complain. When given the address the operator replied " every off duty cop in the county is already there " ...... silence then Oh, followed by a dial tone !

[Tpt life]

1 hour ago, wdwerker said:

Years ago a friend of the family was Major in the local police force. He held a 4 th party in his large backyard. A bunch of drunk cops decided that the way to dispose of some dynamite from the evidence locker was to shoot it off at the party. 

A neighbor got fed up and called 911 to complain. When given the address the operator replied " every off duty cop in the county is already there " ...... silence then Oh, followed by a dial tone !

Good reason to have state police and federal friends. 

[ChrisG-Canada]

Lol 

[rodger.]

@Eric.

 

[wdwerker]

5 hours ago, ChrisG-Canada said:

Lol 

I think she has a large stick firmly .........

[Brendon_t]

After being awake until 330 because some idiots on the next block decided they would set off mortars until 330am, I am squarely team cremugeon.

[Eric.]

I finally dozed off around 1AM despite the continuing explosions.  I think exhaustion has finally set in.  Expecting episode VII tonight.  They should have it out of their system by August I guess.  So much fun.

[SeventyFix]

I've given up trying to reason with people.  The best that I can manage is to run the sprinklers on each zone for 5 minutes.  This keeps the ground around my house wet all night and reduces the chance of a fire.  

You'll get the same response when you ask people about driving in the left most (read: passing) lane.  There are a good number of people who believe that it's their God-given right to drive at any speed that they choose while occupying the left lane.  There's just no reasoning with some people.

[Tpt life]

3 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

You'll get the same response when you ask people about driving in the left most (read: passing) lane.  There are a good number of people who believe that it's their God-given right to drive at any speed that they choose while occupying the left lane.  There's just no reasoning with some people.

No need to reason with those people. My state now tickets them for holding up traffic, regardless of the speed of either vehicle. I have seen many stops. 

[Bankstick]

[Tom King]

We've had fireworks every night this past week, but strangely, it has always stopped well before 11:00 P.M.   It used to go on for ridiculous hours, but the whole lake is quieting down early this year.  I've asked around, but no one has an answer.

A neighbor sent me this link, and says these are the most popular tubes that people have permanently installed in their yards.  One guy, a mile away, has six that he sets off in quick succession, and it sounds like it's a couple of hundred feet away.  http://www.mortartubes.net/commercial-fireworks-mortar-tubes/10-inch-hdpe-mortar-tube

Fortunately, this only goes on on Holiday weekends, except for the 4th week, and New Years Eve.

 

[Gixxerjoe04]

I remember in high school me and a friend tried lighting a couple mortars and dropping them in a porter potty.  Well the wicks were real fast burning ones and shot through my fingers holding them a few inches down, damn did that hurt, just dropped them on the ground and not into the dark blue abyss unfortunately.  Then I thought I'd dull the pain with blanton's single barrel and some beer, but I drank a lot of beer first which was a bad move... What a fail of the day haha. 

 

Oh yea I like fireworks but just one day, week long is annoying as hell but I live out in the country so it's not bad like it use to be back in the suburbs.