I was off Friday through Tuesday, making it a five-day weekend. I could get used to this. Most of the weekend was spent working on the yard and getting the house ready for our annual July 4th bash. Said bash usually involves charring some animal on our grill, then heading to Glynda’s for pyrotechnics.
Houston and Lynda arrived in time for our traditional trek to Jan and Dean’s Fireworks on Wade Hampton. This yeare, the location is marked with an old bus painted with peace signs and other 60’s icons. This huge warehouse has just about any type of firework imaginable, and some that I think could hardly be legal. There were mortars, rockets, and enough gunpowder to wage an all-out battle. One could sink a ton of money into this. We probably spent more than we should, but came away feeling like we might hold our own in the neighborhood wars that would rage later.
Speaking of war, as we left we found this contradictory message on the back of the bus. We felt compelled to pose with our new weaponry:
One large hamburger meal later, we were back at Glynda’s for the war. A fire truck was there and sprayed the "official" launching area with water first to help keep down fires. Good thing they did, because there were lots of mishaps and misfirings from the park.
We returned fire as best we could from Glynda’s yard. The displays were good, but everything seemed a little less exciting this year. Neighborhood turnout was lower, and it seemed like there weren’t as many explosions. On the horizon, though, we could see the city light up all over the place. Perhaps with the next day being a work day, it was hard to get folks out.