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It's Time For My Own Personal Hell

As I've mentioned many, many, many, many times before, I pretty much hate the 4th of July. I'm all for celebrating our independence, but since I live where I can see the annual Burning Of The Butte (aka our local fireworks show) from my living room, our neighborhood becomes a war zone for the week before, the day of, and the week after the Fourth. Since fireworks went on sale last week, it's been non-stop booming and banging with flaming projectiles flying through the sky (most of which are illegal in Oregon). I even saw one guy down the street who had set fire to a stump in his front yard and was lighting fireworks with it.

As I type this (and it's 11:40 right now), I can still hear bottle rockets flying over my house. And today's only the third of the month -- it's only going to get worse tomorrow.

Now just so folks who don't live here understand, I live in a desert. A dry, hot, mostly moisture-free, high altitude, mountainous desert. We get snow in the winter, but our actual annual precipitation is very low. Which means we have a lot of dry wood and trees that will cause fires to burn of control quite rapidly. We've already had one fire destroyed this week because of illegal fireworks, and I worry that mine might be next because of some drunken moron down the street who decided it'd be a great idea to shoot projectiles out of their mouth, right at my house (yes, that has happened, and no, unfortunately Darwin didn't win that battle). I'm thinking I might just keep my sprinklers on all night.

So enjoy the Fourth safely, everybody (I'll be at work, so you'll undoubtedly hear from me on the holiday). And if anybody has to deal with me on Thursday, I apologize in advance as I'll be tired as hell.

Posted by Jake on 07/03/07 @ 11:44 PM
Posted in Jake, Local, Rants | 10 Comments | Permalink
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10 Comments

...deb said on 07/04/07 @ 12:14 AM:
I'm with you. I've been on a one-person mission to try to get my (Portland) neighborhood to knock it off. But it hasn't worked.

Maybe next year.

John said on 07/04/07 @ 03:03 AM:
i can so relate to that.... the dry desert climate at least i watch assholes all summer toss their cigarette butts out of car windows when four years ago we had a forest fire here that burned almost three hundred houses to the ground. I live in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

here is a link to the pictures http://www.jasonpettyjohn.com/fire.htm

dartagnan said on 07/04/07 @ 08:32 AM:
Ordinarily I don't mind fireworks (have even been known to set off some myself) but I agree the morons are getting out of hand. And the cops seem to completely ignore the problem. Every year there's talk of outlawing all fireworks (even the "safe and sane" kind) in Bend, but what would be the point of that when we don't even enforce the existing laws against the "unsafe and insane" kind?

dartagnan said on 07/04/07 @ 08:33 AM:
Oh yeah -- good luck, Jake. Hope you and your house make it through the Fourth intact and unscorched.

Owen Dearing said on 07/04/07 @ 09:59 AM:
Jake, I agree. I live right across the street from Pilot Butte Middle School, and I won't be getting any sleep until after midnight, based on past years activities. I particularly hate the freaks who drive their cars at high speed to get to PBMS, not paying any attention to the other morons who are in the street lighting fireworks.

Redmond-ite said on 07/04/07 @ 04:59 PM:
I agree with all that's been said so far, but wanted to add: the biggest reason we won't get any sleep at our house is because of our dog. We consciously don't buy our own fireworks because our children don't like the loud noise, and they'll sleep through even the neighbors' M-80s... but our dog will be pacing and whining all night, and we'll be forced to try to console him. Doesn't anyone have to work on the 5th?

Keeneye said on 07/04/07 @ 05:09 PM:
We used to have an annual 4th of July party at our home in Bend, and sit on the roof to watch the fireworks show (we lived right below the Butte on NE 10th). The last two years in a row, we had to bring the hose up on the roof with us to put out the bottle rockets that ended up on the roof from the idiots that parked on the street out front. I'm amazed that we never had a more serious fire prior to then.

We're planning a quiet evening in the basement with the TV blaring out the sound of the fireworks so that the dogs don't get too freaked out.

Jake said on 07/04/07 @ 05:58 PM:
Oh, don't get me started about waking my kids, Redmond-ite. Not only that, but I had to work *today* and have to tomorrow.

And my friend was pictured crying on the front page of the paper last year because her freaked out little dog managed to jump a 6-foot fence but luckily got picked up by the Humane Society.

Val said on 07/05/07 @ 05:34 PM:
I hate fireworks.

Patrick said on 07/08/07 @ 07:11 AM:
Wow. I personally like fireworks, although not usually the kind that people set off in their front yard. I've even worked on the fireworks crew one year, dropping shells and lighting them. A good friend of mine has shot fireworks for his brother-in-law for many years.

Having said that, I completely agree that people have to be more personally responsible for their behavior. Inconsideration is my biggest pet peeve.

This year, we went camping with two of the kids and it was so incredibly quiet. Anyone with fireworks was far away from us.

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