Sitting out in the deck watching the neighbors’ pyrotechnic displays. Fireworks are largely illegal in Pennsylvania, but it doesn’t stop anybody. Considering some of the deep booms I’m hearing, there are folks who have shit that’s not legal in any of the 50 states.
Neighbors across the street are lighting off fireworks in the street. Just saw them go retrieve something they lit because a car was coming. I would think it be less hazardous to just go out and stop the car. Bitter won’t let me bring out my potato cannon. I can make it a pyrotechnic without putting potatoes in it, but I don’t think she’s convinced. Probably best considering my judgment is impaired.
I have enough 1792 bourbon to last more than the night. Happy Independence Day everyone!
UPDATE: From Glenn Reynolds:
FIREWORKS SAFETY. I say, do it yourself if you want, just be smart. “Leave it to the trained professionals†is one of the cancerous mantras of our age, and there’s a big difference between setting off your own fireworks and sitting passively while others do it for you — the difference, if I may say so, between having sex and watching porn. And, in both cases, the presence of a degree of risk is part of the difference . . . . Some related thoughts on this subject are here.
I couldn’t agree more. I only wish I had some of my own pyrotechnics. Maybe next year I should plan ahead.
“Fireworks are largely illegal in Pennsylvania, but it doesn’t stop anybody.”
So much for “Fireworks Free Zones”, eh?.
No No!!!! You must celebrate your freedom in a government approved manor!!!!
So how would you compare 1792 with Woodford Reserve or Knob Creek?
Better than both.
http://www.skylighter.com/
:-)
This website says it all for me :
skylighter .c o m
:-)
Nothin like a 4″ multi-break
If you’ve never been in Missouri, then you think those booms aren’t legal in 50 states, but you’d be wrong! Oh, and there is a whole area of America called “The South” that also allows such firepower.
There are federal regulations that cover consumer pyrotechnics. Some are recent, so it’s conceivable some have stock from before the regs were put in place
I spent the hours of 11PM – 1AM last 4th of July just outside the gate of Glacier Park, brushing burning embers of other people’s (I was told they were South Dakotans–that’s who Montanans blame) big Roman candles, set off 50 feet away in the motel lot, off my Jeep top before they could melt through. Sure, everything ought to be legal, but there are other limiting factors on human action than law. Knowledge, care and regard for others used to be some of them.
It’s easy to talk tough with a bottle in your hand. Fun, even. I’ve met several week-a-year explosives experts who didn’t have the hand to hold it. One was a close relative.
Blowing shit up involves shit that blows up. You don’t have to leave it to professionals, but you need a professional level of understanding to do it. And I’d lose the bourbon.
The next SOB who launches from his back yard during a hundred-day drought and sets my pasture on fire is getting both barrels and a big bill. Because I have freedom, too.
It’s actually rather easy to make flash powder at home, which in turn means that firecrackers, M-80’s, silver salutes, and cherry bombs are just as easy to make.
Also, I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one who ever bought some 7.62 x 39 blanks and a blank firing adapter for my AK variant rifle at a gun show just prior to a Fourth of July weekend. These and a high-capacity magazine all make for a decent firecracker substitute.
Anyway, I think that it’s really quite ironic how there are so many various local, state, and federal laws which aim to restrict folks from making stuff go boom on Independence Day, being that it seems that these laws are widely violated all across the land.
When you really think about it, there would not even be an Independence Day to celebrate, let alone this country as we know it, if the founding fathers had been unwilling to violate some laws, right?
I’m such a NJ dork – I played with *sparklers* for the first time Evar on Saturday night.
Sebastian, you and Bitter have a standing invitation to see how we do it at Boomershoot.
I hate to say this but I go to Breezwood PA at Phantom Fireworks to get fireworks. Buy one and get one free. But they can not sell to PA residents. It is only interstate commerce laws that they can sell to out of state buyers since the buyers are then considered shippers and free of state regulation.
We get a Bill of Lading. So if you go to WV or Ohio you can get fireworks.