why are people buying theming and using them, they scare my dog, keep me awake, what good are they. i think the people who make fireworks are uncaring people.

Fireworks are a way Americans and others have celebrated for many years. I do sympathize with those who have pets who get frightened though. We all just need to be prepared to deal with the fireworks as best we can. A lot of people enjoy them.

that is true, but scared pets and lost sleep, brandy my dog runs in the bathroom, between the shower and toilet, will not come out till it is over, they are loud.

I love fireworks. Why would the people who make them for others to enjoy be uncaring? We have been celebrating the New Year and the Fourth of July with fireworks for a very long time. In fact, fireworks for the 4th go back to 1777! From a newpaper at the time...

“About noon all the armed ships and gallies in the river were drawn up before the city, dressed in the gayest manner, with the colors of the United States and streamers displayed.”

After each ship’s cannon fired a 13-gun salute (in honor of the 13 colonies), the festivities continued, including an elegant dinner, a military demonstration and a performance by a Hessian band. “The evening was closed with the ringing of bells,” the Evening Post reported, “and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.”

It is important to keep your pets calm or take them someplace though.

drac i understand that, but 1, they scare my dog, 2 i can not get any sleep, it is like a bomb going off.

I have to say that often those who choose to set off fireworks in their yards or driveways are often inconsiderate. I can accept 15-20 minutes of the noise. But some go beyond anything considered reasonable. Those are the ones who are uncaring, not the manufacturers.

that is true sparkle.

I hate fireworks for the noise, too. When I was younger I loved watching the displays and didn't mind the noise as much. But, as with other things, they are often misused. Here in Illinois they are not supposed to be sold or used to individual residences, only to parks and other places for large crowds where they are shot off by people who know what they're doing.

Problem is, people in Illinois can travel to nearby states, especially Wisc and purchase them with no questions asked, bring them home and fire them off whenever they want. It is supposedly illegal but, at least in the suburb where I lived at the time, the law wasn't enforced unless a neighbor complained, then it was likely it would start up again a week or so later. I have had neighbors who set them off periodically throughout the summer, sometimes even just to 'celebrate' a win on a ball game. Thankfully I no longer live there. Very frustrating to have that or skunk smell spoil an evening when the weather is nice enough to have your windows open for fresh air.

I also do not like fireworks at all. In my neighborhood they are in use pretty much year round. My cats all jump and run to hide too family. Although, I can agree with this sentence that butterflybabe wrote:

"When I was younger I loved watching the displays and didn't mind the noise as much." Except, of course, until one firecracker went off right next to my ear! These days though, many don't use those little firecrackers anymore. They use the big stuff that shakes things in your houses!

We loved fireworks when the kids were little, but we did not set them off in any neighborhood. Always went out into an open field far from houses, and Not at Midnight when folks were trying to sleep. Our next door neighbor sets them off all the time, and almost always, late at night. Last night we had a bedroom full of smoke because I had the window open, came downstairs for a few minutes, and they started setting them off.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it, so I just grit my teeth and shut the windows.

I'm not in the least bit a fan of fireworks in neighborhoods, but I also am not a fan of banning things. At what point will be stop cancelling or eradicating things? I am highly allergic to perfume and any other artificial scents and yet it's everywhere. I can't ask the rest of the world to stop using it. We all have something that offends us and if we get rid of it all, we will have nothing left in life.

I have let some people know about their strong perfumes Ana. Some were nice enough to tone it down and others didn't give a hoot if I choked to death or had a horrible headache at my desk in the office or my public transportation seat. What are ya gonna do? I also don't believe in banning everything. We are all different. Strong cleaning products also kill me and caused me problems at work.

Me and cleaning products are the same, oldbroad. And I go in houses with those air fresheners in every socket and if I can't get in and out quickly I am ill or get a migraine. I don't have the right to tell them how to live so I have to adjust.

Ana

Ana, I feel your pain. G'son had friends over yesterday and I had to literally go hide in my room for most of the day. One of them had on so much body spray that I could taste it. Chest and head both started to go, so I hid. The deal was the kids would not be in the house, but that sooooooooo did not last.

L4L, I used to give the neighborhood kids one chance if they were new and my kids didn't tell them. After that, they'd have to go home, take a shower and change clothes. They learned. My house is my only safe space and I'm not shy about telling someone. Fortunately none of my friends wear perfume and my kids are all out of the house.
Young kids and that Axe body spray they prefer over showering is enough to gag you!
Sorry you had to exile yourself in your own home.

Ana

Yea, I wasn't a fan, but other than not having a computer in my room, I was fine! Read the paper, etc.

When it was My kids, I did the same. But this is different as I don't get the final say with g'son. Well, I could, but it would cause a huge fight and just wasn't worth it.

However, next time I get the "We'll stay outside" pitch, the answer will be no.

I Love fireworks but................

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-55511016

I also loathe those awful stinky things for the outlets. And the stinky things for cars! Gag me! I traded vehicles with my Step-daughter one year when she was home for deer-hunting season. She immediately put one of those horrid things in my truck. It took me two weeks of driving with the windows down in the dead of winter to finally get rid of the stench! Next year I told her we could only switch vehicles if she didn't put one of the awful Febreze clips on the vent! When I'm cleaning stalls down at the Rescue Ranch, yeah, sometimes it smells like horse poop, but I'll take that smell any old day over those cloying fake stenches!

I'm with you, Drac

It's the safety issue that bothers me with neighborhood fireworks. Last summer a toddler in NYC was injured when a fireworks rocket went in through an open window where she was sleeping. It seems that a group of unsupervised older kids were aiming them at each other.

Drac, those air fresheners for the car are the worst! Not only are they offensive to the nose, they are all so unhealthy for you. I will take the wet dog smell in my car over that any day!
One thing I notice being in and out of client houses all day is the houses with the artificial scents everywhere they also have countertops full of nose sprays, allergy meds and cold remedies. I would love to tell them that they may not have to suffer year-round if they threw out all the [blip]!

Ana

Even worse are the "essential oils" crowd. A woman I used to bowl with would come in smelling so BAD, no one would get near her! They there are the dogs that have died with someone used tea tree oil in a diffuser.

I just saw I got "blipped". Whoops!
Drac, I have my Patchouli oil and a few combo sprays for moods but I rarely use them. I like "life" smells instead of masked odors.

Ana

I noticed you got [blipped] too!! Indeed... I'll even take my stinky Bloodhound smells first!

So, who does the blipping? I always thought you did it Ana.

No, I think it is the server that performs the 'blipping'

I've been blipped on some of my garden puzzles ... so need to adjust the wording

I plan to design a quiet room for these occasions

oldbroad, not me! There is a censor in the software and a place we can add words to automatically censor also if we have a number of people trying to get around the censors by making a creative word. Sometimes I think some words need to be taken off the list, but then I think it's what lots of us old timers love about this place and keep it as is.

soot Are you going to make a sound proof for fireworks?

We have very restrictive Fireworks laws here in BC and in our municipality, thank goodness. Basically you have to have a permit to set off any fireworks and the dates they can be used are also restricted. That way we only have them on Halloween and New Year's.

I really hate the idea that you're being bothered all the time. What is wrong with people? I just don't get it.

Thanks for that info soot and Ana. And soot?? I can't even imagine you putting something in the garden that gets blipped!

We've got neighbors who light [blip] off all the [blip] time, and it drives me [blip] crazy. Finally, one day I walked over there and yelled [blip] are you out of your [blip] mind [blip] doing that so often? I mean do you think this is a [blip] [blip] [blip]? He said I was acting like a [blip] [blip], to which I sort of agreed, mentioning with all the [blip] going on the world there are [blip] worse things that could happen. So we laughed our [blip] heads off and said goodbye because he had to [blip] before going back home, so I said have a good [blip] and that was the end of that [blip].

Trail, I nearly spewed my cold frosty adult beverage all over my keyboard! Haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

Trail! I laughed even harder when I took a sneak at what you actually typed! well played!

Thanks for that laugh, Trail_Mystic

Short answer ... Yes. Want a sound proof room for just that reason. Was going to convert a kids bedroom but this must wait as all rooms are currently used. So currently researching different technologies and methods to see what's possible in our master bedroom.


Happy New Year everyone

Anyone ever have a neighbor burned leaves and rubbish in their back yard? This guy lived across the street and a door down so it was easy to see his property. First the smoke smell, then I'd look out my window and see the flames shooting up into the air. Scared me to death. First time, I thought the house was on fire. A few neighbors talked with him, told him it was illegal and dangerous. He insisted he had a handle on it and knew what he was doing; basically didn't care how we felt. I think he used to doing it in his native country, and didn't see a problem. Several times I wanted to call the cops, but my husband's insistence that I leave it alone stopped me.

I live in an area where that kind of open burning is highly illegal at the State level at certain times of the year due to air quality. In city limits, it is generally illegal at all times. I enforced the Open Burning Regulations for nearly 20 years during my career.

When we lived in my old house, one of my brothers would use the barbecue right next to the house, which was not only dangerous, but would send the fumes straight up into my bedroom window. He was an alcoholic and so was hard to reason with at times.

In this house, the neighbor on one side uses his barbecue quite close to his house and it is also quite close to my bedroom windows which has had me closing the windows at times. I don't mind the smell of the food cooking once the barbecue is going. I'm talking about the accelerant used when first firing up the barbecue.

The other side of the house has yard area between our houses. The man that used to own that house had a car parked in that yard and would run it causing exhaust to fill my kitchen. We did speak with him and, if I recall correctly, he was understanding about it and stopped.

Oh, and when the neighbor kids were young, they used to congregate with their friends on MY porch for some reason, and would smoke their dope out there. The smell and their noise filled my living room every day! They did much worse things to make us miserable but these are the "smell" things .

I have to laugh at us! Our threads just morph from one thing to another and I love it! This one started out as fireworks, moved to smells, [blipped] words and then to open burning and obnoxious neighbors!

We KNOW how to thoroughly cover a topic here! LOL!

Maybe there's an achievement for morphing topics.

I like hearing (reading) member stories!

Where I live, open burning is not allowed except for campfires and fire pits. And there are restrictions on those at specific times of the year when the weather tends to be dry. There’s a house behind our yard that’s currently a rental. I’ve called the fire department twice. First when the tenants were burning leaves. And the second time when tenants were moving out and had started a fire in the backyard to burn discarded wood from a deck repair as well as other items including a bookcase. There’s usually a warning first and then a fine. What was humrous to watch in the second case was the tenants using a dog’s water bowl to put out the fire. They kept running into the house to refill it. The outside spigot must not be working,
I never hesitated to call police or the fire department when I think it necessary. The houses in my neighborhood are fairly close together and calls are anonymous.

I was watching it morph and laughing. I was too tired and enjoying watching it come to life to rein it in.

Ana

The whole thing just cracked me up! I started coming here just to see what was new in the thread!

I was loving it (morphing topics), it reminded me of a group of friends just sitting around chatting in the old world, pre-pandemic, when one topic leads to another and another and another........

I've been missing that !

Actually Ana, reading back it looks like you and I kind of started the morph into the smell area .

Exactly the way I felt, copper!

Yep, gotta love the coffee klatch morphing.

I live in the south. If the weather is nice, some one feels duty bound to burn leaves, trash, or their yard. As far as I know, we don't have any restrictions in our area (small town), though one time I called the police as the smoke had obscured the street in front of our house it was so thick. I literally could not breath.

I developed severe asthma when we moved to our small town because our next-door neighbour had a wood-burning furnace that wasn't properly maintained (fortunately the house is gone and the furnace with it). All of a sudden I found that couldn't breathe properly. Even fireworks can set me off. There are some very real consequences of open fire burning for me and anyone else with lung problems.


I'm also on board with no perfume. I love perfume, and even have two life-long favourites, but I only wear them around the house these days. I hate it when someone leaves behind a billowing cloud of perfume, especially in an elevator.

I too get asthma when exposed to burning leaves. I walk dogs in an unincorporated area that allows leaf burning and is very wooded so the smoke turns the whole area into a haze in fall. Not to mention it's very hilly so harder to walk. I dread it every year. Glad your neighbors house is gone!