I believe I may have mentioned that I hate summer. Well, besides for the heat making me physically ill, I also hate it for another reason.
Fireworks. No, not professional fireworks displays. Those I enjoy. The ones I have trouble with are the ones people shoot off in their yards. Not sparkles. Not bottle rockets. I’m talking about full-sized, exploding thingies that send out showers of sparks and launch units that then pop once they’re way up in the air.
Supposedly, that is. The less-than-brilliant locals who insist on playing with explosives, since that’s what fireworks truly are, set off all sorts of technically illegal things in their typical 11’ X 20’ backyards. Right next to houses, garages, storage sheds, trees, and yards that haven’t been rained on in almost three weeks. And they do so incorrectly in many, many instances so the gizmos end up exploding in all the wrong places instead of well above ground.
This past weekend there were so many fireworks going off in the yard two houses away from mine that the air was thick with smoke and smelled like chemical fire. Now, these individuals have been setting off something or other most every weekend since they moved in back in May but they outdid themselves on the Fourth. I actually risked being hit by something and went out to wet down mine and the yard of the old woman who lives between us right before dusk.
You may wonder why the police didn’t notice and do anything about it. In Reading, as I’m sure happens all over the place, many blocks are similar to mine. The city certainly doesn’t have the manpower to go after everyone. It’s been this way for years and the police have justifiably given up, concentrating their efforts on the ones that actually set off real fires, of which there are several every year.
People are idiots. They don’t think. I’m not going to be at all happy when they burn down my house since the fireworks never manage to get caught in the edge of their own roofs. Cruel as it may be I’m beginning to hope they blow off a few fingers real soon because it seems that might be the only way to they’ll be inspired to find a new form of entertainment.
Fireworks. No, not professional fireworks displays. Those I enjoy. The ones I have trouble with are the ones people shoot off in their yards. Not sparkles. Not bottle rockets. I’m talking about full-sized, exploding thingies that send out showers of sparks and launch units that then pop once they’re way up in the air.
Supposedly, that is. The less-than-brilliant locals who insist on playing with explosives, since that’s what fireworks truly are, set off all sorts of technically illegal things in their typical 11’ X 20’ backyards. Right next to houses, garages, storage sheds, trees, and yards that haven’t been rained on in almost three weeks. And they do so incorrectly in many, many instances so the gizmos end up exploding in all the wrong places instead of well above ground.
This past weekend there were so many fireworks going off in the yard two houses away from mine that the air was thick with smoke and smelled like chemical fire. Now, these individuals have been setting off something or other most every weekend since they moved in back in May but they outdid themselves on the Fourth. I actually risked being hit by something and went out to wet down mine and the yard of the old woman who lives between us right before dusk.
You may wonder why the police didn’t notice and do anything about it. In Reading, as I’m sure happens all over the place, many blocks are similar to mine. The city certainly doesn’t have the manpower to go after everyone. It’s been this way for years and the police have justifiably given up, concentrating their efforts on the ones that actually set off real fires, of which there are several every year.
People are idiots. They don’t think. I’m not going to be at all happy when they burn down my house since the fireworks never manage to get caught in the edge of their own roofs. Cruel as it may be I’m beginning to hope they blow off a few fingers real soon because it seems that might be the only way to they’ll be inspired to find a new form of entertainment.
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