[portlowski]

I mentioned in another thread that I was afraid of fireworks as a kid. Well, the truth is that I was scared by all loud noises. I was terrified of cymbals, of all things, because of the loud crash.

Well, I now love in a very ethnically diverse city neighborhood and all of my neighbors set off (illegal) fireworks in the alley. (I hope that doesn't imply anything xenophobic it is just that fireworks seem to be a huge deal in some other cultures) And I am not talking about sparklers...I am talking about fireworks that are fast and furious on the magnitude of a small town fireworks display but they are right outside my window.

I finding myself irrationally angry...like crazy p'eed off and when I walked my dog I was muttering things like, "I hope they blow their fingers off!" I realized that the anger comes from the fear that I still have of very loud and unpredictable noises. My dog is also barking like crazy which is not helping me any. But my 2 and a half year old was laughing as I put him to bed and saying, "firecracker, mommy!" (making it clear he comes from a different gene pool)

I am taking a sleeping pill and hoping to crash til morning!

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

Ditto! I am not scared of fireworks, but the constant shooting of them, every night for 2 weeks, drives me crazy! I have grown to really dis-like the 4th of July due to all the personal fireworks.

[mondk]

We have teenagers that live next door to us and I have to work all weekend. I may have to go stay with my mom in town b/c I just know the kids will be partying with the things until dawn tomorrow night, ugh!

I love fireworks but my work comes first, since we live in the country we can set them off anytime we want, but having to work throws a clincher in my plans!

Blessings, Michelle

[mommytoEli]

i hate fireworks and i swear to god one just hit my car. ugh. i JUST moved to this neighborhood though and so i feel like i can't walk out and check my car and stare them down from across the street bc truth is, i'll probably like those neighbors every other day of the year.

i hate them....the fireworks...not my neighbors....yet.

[sadiegirl]

I hate personal fireworks too...love the pro shows though.

Our neighbors are doing them tonight and tomorrow night. One set of neighbors bragged about spending $600 on them.

I would find other ways to spend $600, believe me.

[aclee]

You may all feel free, to hate me. I'm a total Pyro, and have a garage stocked full of them. When the fireworks store is closed...You know the one in the state next to mine, where fireworks are actually legal...People come to my house. I don't deal them or anything, I just have them ready. People in my neighborhood will attempt to "challenge me" at any given time and I have to be able to go in and pull a bunch stuff out to kick their butts. LOVE 'EM! For Mike's 30th, I did a 45 minute show. I have no idea how the cops didn't come !! I used about 1/2 my stash for that one show...slowly building it back up. I'm a Platinum Member at the store I go to...

Stormster...you want "lights" at E's party this summer? Let me know.

[mommytoEli]

i came from a state where fireworks weren't huge, and moved to the south, where apparently it is expected. i was cracking up a while back while we were driving....we saw a store and it was called "COLD BEER, FIREWORKS, and GAS." huh....maybe it is just me....but i never thought these 3 things belonged together. lol. but then again, i'm not a pyro. enjoy the fourth for me aclee. i'll be cursing it under my breath.

[Amber76]

I'm a middle of the road kind of gal. I love fireworks-on the 4th of July and on New Year's Eve. What I don't love is that the neighbors in our area want to start setting them off in mid-June and continue throughout the whole month of July. That wouldn't be so bad except that they do it at 11 PM and my DS LOVES to watch them so he wakes up and wants to go outside to see them about two or three nights a week. Luckily they don't wake him every night, only when they do them right behind our house. I'm all for a big, late into the night fireworks show on the holiday, and maybe even on the 3rd, but for weeks on end??? That's not good for sleeping babies.

[RavenSong]

I wish they'd outlaw the sale of fireworks here in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. All the campgrounds in the area surrounding our tiny hamlet are crammed tonight -- tomorrow will be worse. You take campers, tourists, boaters, way too much booze, unattended campfires, and fireworks...put them altogether, and it's a recipe for disaster. Seriously, the possibility of wildfire scares the heck out of me every year around the 4th of July. We live on private land inside the Tahoe National Forest, and if we ever have to evacuate during a holiday weekend like the Fourth of July, we're doomed. Most of the campers have no idea how to drive our mountain roads as it is...it would be horrible in an evacuation.

When I lived in Albuquerque, the kids used to set off bottle rockets every year. My roof caught on fire one year when a neighbor kid shot off his cache of bottle rockets and one landed on the roof. I felt like strangling him...fortunately no one was hurt.

That same year, I took call for the OR during the Fourth of July weekend. Have any of you ever held what's remaining of an arm that has just been blown off? It's not a pretty sight...and the patient was a pyrotechnic professional who was in charge of the city's official fireworks' display -- he knew what he was doing. The operating room got really quiet as I was prepping the guy for surgery...I think everyone was trying to control their gag reflex. Hospital ERs and ORs hate the Fourth of July weekend -- it's one of the busiest times of the year.

If any of you are setting off your own fireworks this year, please be extra cautious. Don't drink alcohol, please. Use all the safety precautions, and remember, even if you know how to set off fireworks properly, accidents can and do happen every year, even to the professionals who do this for a living. A lot of the fireworks are made in China, with little oversight in quality control.

[aclee]

I completely agree...everyone always wants to "help" me set them off after they have been drinking all day. That's exactly what I need to help...a bunch of drunk idiots running around with my punks setting off fireworks in whatever grassy spot is closest I don't even let people that are drinking add wood to a marshmallow fire.

I don't use anything big enough to tear an arm off...not that I wouldn't...I just don't know how to get it...

I think the biggest mistake a lot of people make is not anchoring the cakes. Anything with multiple shots should be anchored to your launch site kids! I can't count how many times I've heard about the 1st shot out of a cake knocking it over and the rest of the cake going off into the crowd. Not pretty.

edit to add: DH made me edit this to add that a punk is something you use to light fireworks. Most fireworks stores will sell jumbo punks. They are a lot safer than a lighter

[DannieAS]

MommytoEli: You obviously never made it to moval! Ugh I'm dreading tomorrow night because my dog is a wreck. I try to keep her in a dark room with my parent's dog and several blankets, but I always have to make sure she doesn't get an anxiety attack.

As for me, my mother swears I hated loud bangs/noises in the womb! And it still is the same today. I'll watch pro fireworks with my hands in my ears, jumping when it's especially loud.

Happy 4th of July peoples. It means many different things to many different people....for me, it means it's my Dad's birthday.

On his naturalization day when he became a citizen, he told me...see I was meant to be a US citizen...with his cheesy grin and American Flag tie!