Pyromaniacs Must Love July 4th

And we do!

I. am. a. pyro.
That sounds like an AA meeting.

Pyromania, the "compulsion to set things on fire."

I like to look at, and play in fire. Specifically campfires. I always have.
My dad is a pyro. His grandmother was a pyro. It runs in the family. We admit it.

See the twinkle in my eyes?
Oh, that's the sparkler.
(Well I'm happy anyway.)

Okay, none of us really are "pyromaniacs". We're not obsessed with fire or explosives. We aren't compelled to set things on fire. No arson in this family. We just enjoy building campfires, and shooting off firecrackers. We do legal things.

My great grandmother was probably a little dangerous when it came to fire. Although, she never set any fires intentionally.

The story goes...

Great Grandma was outside one fall raking leaves into piles. She decided to burn one or two of the piles, as was customary of the time. (Some people still do it.)

Here's the problem, she did all of this on a windy day. She was so silly! Of course the wind started to pick up and the fire got out of control. She couldn't put it out, so she ran and called the fire department. She called the fire department on herself. That wasn't the first or last time. *grin*

This is how the call might have gone.

"Hello? Yes it's me. I need you to send someone over right away. There's a fire in my yard that's out of control. Yes, I started it by burning leaves again."

I would like to have met her. My dad told me that she was a pretty neat lady. She was his grandmother after all. He said she was always lots of fun. She gave great hugs, and let you pick from her special teacups to have tea with her. Not to mention that she burnt leaves on a windy day. Talk about being carefree.

Back to present day. J and I had fun on July 4th. It rained most of the day, but by evening it had stopped, although everything was pretty saturated.

Our cool flag lights

I convinced J to come outside with me and shoot firecrackers.

"Yes, yes, fire, fire, fire."
- Beavis

I think it's strange that I had to "convince" him. Don't most guys like firecrackers? I love them, but again that runs in my family. (See above.)

I should have had J pose like lady Liberty.

So we went out and shot some large bottle rockets, and some M150's or M180's because they don't make M80's anymore... actually, you can't get a hold of any legally. Did you know that they will go off under water? It's quite interesting to see.

Some of our neighbors across the "creek" were shooting small fireworks from their yards. We had our own Independence Day show in the backyard. God bless America!




We also shot some of those silly round "UFO" firecrackers that spin and whistle. We did that in the front yard, so we could use the pavement. (There weren't any cars around, don't worry.)

The UFO's kinda sucked. They didn't fly high enough, nor were they very loud. This was the 4th of July for goodness sake! It's all about being loud and bright.

I'm really smiling here. Just taking a picture of J and I with sparklers,
while trying not to grimace when the sparks shoot towards my face. Whee.

Tell me, what happened to those firecrackers that would "scream" so loud that it'd make you wince? You know, the ones that made your ears ring for a few minutes afterwards. Yeah, I miss those.

After we were finished, we picked up the burnt "UFO's" and threw them away. I didn't want to run over their sharp metal pieces, and I'm sure no one else did either. You're welcome, and I hope my neighbors did the same.



While I may enjoy firecrackers and campfires, I'm not really obsessed with them. I don't shoot them off other than July 4th and sometimes on January 1st.

I will admit, I do get excited those two days each year. Because I can.