How I've changed

[pecunium]

I have decided I don't like other people's fireworks.

Silly, but true... the thing is I used to, back when they sounded, vaguely, like distant gunfire.

But my neighborhood seems fond of bigger bangs than that. The firecrackers, the whistling petes, the roman candles and the M-80s, those are all right... because they sound like distant gunfire, and that is comfortable; it reminds me of the MPs taking firing practice at 0630.

No, it's the ones that have real concussive power, the ones that send overpressure my way... not much overpressure but some. So far I've resisted the urge to plant my face in the freshly tilled earth of the corn and tomato field, but I have hugged my knees a couple of times, because some bastard has some bit of noisemaker that sounds, and feels, appallingly like a 60mm mortar round, and those are not fun.

It would be easier were I not all alone in the house. I'd call one of my buddies, but he's on his way back from visiting other buddies in Monterey, so beer, and the grill, and the questionable comforts of LJ, and similar distractions (because the Horses will want to be fed, and that ties me to the house, for at least another couple of hours.

I want a security blanket, but the one I want is not available, nor all that practical.

Comments

[theheathen.livejournal.com]

*wraps you in a big, comforting hug*

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I was watching fireworks out on our back deck down the Bay, and thinking that this year the mortars sounded entirely too much like mortars; they've lost some of their innocence. Which I suppose, for people who've seen fire, they never had.

It's fire weather here, so any private fireworks make me more than a bit nervous. It's going to be a long night for all the firefighters.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

They have innocence, the end result (and the foreknowledge of their ascent) gives them that) but here... the trees are too tall, the number of displays (three withing two miles) and the private jobs (we are as dry as you, but this is the city, mostly, so the grass is green and the trees are lush) are all invisible.

The flash-bombs are the worst. I was on the phone with the guy I was hoping to spend the evening with, and he could tell it was odd, because I was hugging my knees and swearing in the middle of the conversation.

The vastness of the exchanges is part of it. Almost like the conversation of a firefight. One house has a half-dozen, and then the house at the other end of the block sets off a, "rap, rap, rap-rap-rap," and I notice I am moving in that odd hunch, as though into a wind, which is the universal response to people shooting at one, when one can't just kiss the dirt.

It's quiet now, and I am calmer, but Christ, what I'd give to have been elsewhere tonight.

TK

p.s. the friend called me from Sutter and 9th {IIRC} he's spending the night at the Marines' Memorial. He said the fog swallowed the fireworks.

[airneail.livejournal.com]

How fucked up is it that you and I have similar reactions to the noise and I've only been shot at once?

I can't even imagine having been over there.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Once is usually enough.

In some ways being shot at more often makes things easier. One learns the difference between friendly weapons and unfriendly.

When I got to Ft. Lewis, the sound of the M-16 range was pleasant, because it was outbound, and unanswered, which meant all was right with the world.

This stuff, well it's non-descript, so I can't define it, and so reaction sets in.

TK

Fireworks

[iamcompubear.livejournal.com]

I help put on a free concert in the park, Just before our town firworks show. It is very nice every year and reminds to of the old fastioned firworks diplays. It ends with a flag sparkling on the side of the mountain. Its not very noisy. There are not aloud any othere fireworks or even sparklers alound in our town. Durring the day we had a town Bar B Que and they had coboy gun fighters out with real guns(with blanks) and black pwder rifles(no amo) going off after aboutrthe 3rd shot I almost went over and started betting up on them. I couldn't take it any more. I kept jumping and ducking because even though my brain new better I was sure I was being shot at.