July 4th 2026

Freddy was the first to tip me off that the 'hood was gearing up to make some noise this July 4th when she spotted one of the neighbors 'sneaking' a pallet load of fireworks into their garage via the back alleyway.
This was about 2 weeks before Boom day.
From then, the buzz started.
We knew from last year it was going to be long and noisy, but I was wondering if it was going to be significantly more so given the 250th year buzz that is going around.

I screwed up.

I thought nothing of accepting one of the neighbors invite to go hang out for 2 hours before sunset along with Amy, Cole, Lee and Freddy.
It was exhausting. I totally goofed in how taxing it was going to be for me around roughly 20 people hanging out in some front yard with another 30 or so in the street out the front of their houses, all watching the pre-show warmup. Most were drinking, which only amplified the noise and their 'friendliness' vs my 'who are you' energy tax.
All this was then amplified some more with the fact that there were about 10 to 15 little kids running around goofing off.

And ALL this was amplified still further with a bunch of random daytime firecrackers going off.

What sort of helped was Lee being uncomfortable with all this going on as well. Amy thought his ear muffs would help him (they woulda helped me!) so she went and got them for him.

They just made him a little fussy, but distracted fussy, so we were on the right track, just the wrong ones.
I knew he did not seem to mind my bigger ones. We've used them when playing the music in my shop, so we walked home to the shop to grab them and head back into the fray.

Much better - for him!
Since Cole and Amy were enjoying the break from watching him, I hung around and Cole made the comment later that it looked like Lee had a secret service agent watching over him.... Honestly, I was just keeping out of everyone's way.

Sunset means the big guns come out.
Hard to see, but there are 6 groups all the way down the road. Just folks out the front of their houses blowing up money making a racket.

The big ones pushed Lee over the edge (and he was waaaay past his usual bedtime) and so Amy took him home.
That was my getaway cue. I also took off and headed to our basement for some micro recharge time.... Or so I hoped.
Even the basement was not muffling the sound as much as I needed.... I really wanted the basement AND my big ear muffs, but Lee ended up with them at his place.
It was not long before Freddy also came over. Cole took off on his ebike to cruise around the 'hood to see the different groups.
Freddy and I headed into the back yard.

That's Freddy standing behind our house. I am trying to give you a sense of scale of these bigger fireworks. This one is about 2 houses wide and twice as wide as the road. In other words, its a really big bang when it launches and another really big bang when it blows. And they are some what huge. Like, stadium fireworks sized huge... Going off in about 6 houses right next to us and every block in every direction. Non stop for around 5 hours. Not a single second of no noise.

You can see the roof of the house shining in the bottom (Hopefully with solar panels on this spot next year).

To compound the sound stimulation is the light flashes.
It really can be a bit too much for some folks. ie, me!

Night becomes technicolor day for a short time.

Next day the neighbors send their kids out to pick up all the trash from the front yard, but this is in our back yard next to our garden shed.
You can see the wadding and some of the clay. Fun fact, if you hold a flame to the clay it pops and crackles from gun powder in it.

Its all over the yard, house roof and shop roof.
So, that's it for this year. There will be a little show on new years.
Next 4th I will be a LOT more careful about what I do before sunset.