Postscript on fireworks

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Yesterday was a huge holiday in the US. It sounded like a war zone. I want to say it started at dusk but it started earlier than that. Days earlier.

We are a very dog friendly neighborhood. Almost everyone has at least one (except us – the cats have high standards and strict rules).

Poor pups. Last night I heard howling and whining that I never hear. It was the fireworks.

Our immediate neighborhood was a fireworks-free zone but noise travels. We can hear not only the professional fireworks sponsored by the police about a mile away but also all the crazy people setting off firecrackers in their yard. We will see the reports of lost digits and dogs shortly.

Are they done yet?

Are they done yet?

I have cats. One is totally unperturbed by loud noises. The other two retreat to their safe place. I can only imagine how scary it is for wild animals. It must be like the end of the world.

Fortunately the weather turned misty and put a damper (literally) on the activities.

One of my friends lives next door to a guy who sets off a canon. Many times. No bursts of pretty colors, just noise. Loud noise. Seriously? What’s the point?

I’m not sure what it is about noise. I want to say it’s a guy thing but I’m not sure.

If I want to see fireworks, I’ll go to the stadium for the professional version. I’m not much for flying digits.

We watched the large-scale celebrations on TV which isn’t all that great. It’s hard to capture the colors technically. I was also disappointed in the music. (I am turning into my mother.) I missed the lively tunes of the 60s-70s-80s.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday and that you have all your digits (and dogs).

42 thoughts on “Postscript on fireworks”

  1. Of course we don’t have the 4th of July here, but we have fireworks (and associated issues) on New Year’s Eve and sometimes on Fridays during the summer from the nearby hot springs (not sure why). My cat couldn’t care less but Dogs One and Three suffered greatly every time they happened. (Since going deaf, Dog Three is oblivious now too) Dogs Two and Four were never bothered. I have no idea why they reacted differently. It’s a mystery.

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  2. I do have all my digits, and Zena is doing well! This year we started medicating her a week in advance and we actually applied essential oils to her ears last night which continued to mellow her out. She was incredibly peaceful. A big improvement over last year! 🙂

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  3. It was fairly quiet here on the Fourth (or I wasn’t paying attention). Fireworks are illegal in my city and most of the surrounding cities–which doesn’t necessarily stop anyone, but it did seem to help.

    I watched a couple of big fireworks displays up close a couple years ago when my friend living in a condo at the edge of the Civic Field where they shoot them off. That was fun. A little hard on the neck and ears.

    My best fireworks experience was probably thirty years ago. We parked the car two or three miles from the site and walked carrying all our stuff. Then we sat on the grass around Lake Union for another hour waiting for the sun to go down. This was one of Seattle’s two big fireworks displays, and it was all set to music. My favorite thing was how the fireworks fit the music. A good Fourth of July experience, but a lot of effort. Once is enough.

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    • We used to walk to a nearby park to watch the city fireworks. We missed the ground works but it was somehow better than sitting in bleachers with thousands of other people. We haven’t done that in a long time. We had other things going on so fireworks were not a priority.

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  5. When I was younger…I could’t wait for the Fourth. But now…after about 7 minutes of pyrotechnics, I’m done. The problem with some of the BIG professional displays is that the traffic has become so bad afterward, it takes 1-2 hours to get out of the jam and get home.
    I’m guessing this isn’t going to change…so we’ll have to find ways to live with it.

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  7. It was quieter than the usual July 4th. Maybe because it has been so hot. Whatever the reason it was nice to have just the city fireworks to see and hear. I do feel sorry for the animals. They already think humans are mostly crazy the 4th of July just confirms it.

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    • I am not sure what the attraction is. Even as a child, while I loved the colors in the sky I didn’t like the noise and wasn’t a fan of firecrackers. I suppose it’s the same reason some people drive cars without mufflers.

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  9. It was an absolute war zone around here. Beirut in the 1980s. But my pets seemed unaffected by the noise. Honey can’t hear it any more and never much cared, anyway. The kittens were looking out through the screen door, as if curious about the Booms going off. I don’t understand people and their need for fireworks. They are illegal here, but you wouldn’t know it by what was going on all around us. Oh, and it started way back in the first half of June!

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  10. Duncan wasn’t a happy camper either. This year for the first time, though, I saw a lot of articles about keeping your pets relatively stress free. We simply reassured the poor guy most of the evenings when they were exploding.

    It’s not only dangerous to pets. We have a small cottage up in Maine. Three years ago we were here (where we are now), and left about a week after Independence Day. We had a mysterious fire that was luckily seen soon after starting. The theory is that somebody shot off a rocket that landed in our gutter and smouldered for several days, ultimately the remaining gunpowder ignited and burned down part of our house. (Naturally, it DIDN’T burn down the kitchen which I would have loved to replace ….) Noisy dangerous things, fireworks.

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  11. I hate fireworks. Always have. When I had horses the 4th was a hell night. Some horses we brought to the barn, some we left out to hang under the trees or run-ins where they felt safe. It was always a tricky thing and plenty of horses went through fencing scared to death. Last night our west neighbors took their five horses and put them in their stalls in the barn where they do fairly well. They have been listening to fireworks for 16 years! When we had cats my heart broke for them. We only had one cat that wasn’t afraid of fireworks and sat at the sliding door and watched. Last night was THE worse night we have had out in the country where there are no rules and regulations and I thanked the heavens that our Z Cat had passed on in 2009 and didn’t have to spend the night under CH’s chair panting. I did worry about the feral Mom Cat that has been coming around regularly. Have not seen her yet today. Hate fireworks. I want them to not be allowed to be sold.

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    • That’s unbelievable. You always think people who live in the country understand the issues with animals better than city folks. We are lucky in that they aren’t in our immediate neighborhood. Still we could hear them clearly and the dogs were barking.

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  14. A cannon. geesch. While fireworks are banned, the police are too busy to do anything about them here…soo you can imagine. We are just glad the drunks next door moved as they used to go out and spend a fortune on fieworks then set at the end of their driveways ans set them off. There were charded spots at that location on the concrete. Huge mess of pieces everywhere ( which they never cleaned up – but one also drunk at the time neighbor always sheepishly got up and tried to sweep up the crud the next mornings. Burn bans, doughts or dangers of flying sparks and embers meant nothing to them.
    I liked it better when fireworks were only for New Years Eve and the 4th of July – 2 days only!. Much more special that way. (This from a kid who loved sparklers and those tiny penny firecrackers – both enough to teach a little cause and effect and how to be careful)

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  16. Poor Maggie is a wreck and just when it settles down, some tosser lets off another batch. It’s bad enough on Nov 5th and New Year, but we have festivals, galas, and fetes during the summer, and many of them have a firework display. If Maggie can find a dark corner, she will take sanctuary. I don’t wish to spoil anyone’s fun, but I wish they weren’t so damn loud.

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  18. fireworks are illegal in my neighborhood, but last night was insane. I’ve never heard anything like it. All my neighbors went nuts, and there was stuff exploding over the house.

    The dog was under my desk. The dog is STILL under my desk. He doesn’t care that he doesn’t fit.

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    • Ahhh! It’s not just dogs either. My nephew, when he was very young, would cry constantly when fireworks were going off. It’s frightening. Most fireworks are illegal in my state but that’s never stopped anyone.

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  19. Great post! Lucky for us, this is the last year of fireworks in our fair city of Kent, Washington. It was awful this year and our dog was going nuts. Each year more and more cities ban fireworks making me so happy.

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  20. I seem to recall (may be wrong) that the public sale of fireworks was banned in the UK around the mid 1970’s. Celebrations with fireworks was restricted to organized and monitored events. Here in Ontario, Canada, it is very disturbing as fireworks sales booths/tents are all over the place before an event with the resulting irresponsible use of them. One must assume that the fireworks manufacturing sector has a stronger voice with government than the general public.
    As for the US? If your representatives are not able to get fire arms under some kind of control, then I see little hope for fireworks! Big business seems to be the winner every time. Greed and profits rule!

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    • The bigger fireworks are banned. You can buy sparklers (no noise just sparks) and small firecrackers but that doesn’t stop anyone. The guy with a full size canon in his yard is restricted to using it only for holidays but he lives in a high density town. It should not be allowed at all. And yes, money talks.

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