Last Night 4th Of July Fireworks Followed By Friday's 5h Of July Lightning Downpour Fireworks

The 4th of July at my old home zone of Mount Vernon, in the Skagit Valley of Washington, was like being in a war zone. I would sit out on my deck, ready to put out anything burning, landing on my building. The East Thunderbird neighborhood is hilly, hence fireworks going skyward from various elevations. 

Such was kind of fun, but also a bit tiresome.

It is easy to buy all sorts of explosive fireworks in Washington, due to there being so many Indian Reservations, where selling such it totally legal.

When I moved to Texas, what with it being known as such a free-spirited gun toting cowboy themed part of America I assumed the 4th of July would be way noisier than I was used to in Washington.

Well, I was wrong. My first 4th in Texas I heard nary a boom from my location in the far north Fort Worth suburb of Haslet. I did see fireworks way in the distance, but so distant I heard no booming.

Each 4th of July since then has been similar. An occasional firecracker, but no actual fireworks of the light up the sky sort, except at official fireworks shows.

Such must be the case because Texas has only a couple Indian Reservations. I do not know if those are allowed to sell fireworks.

Oklahoma has multiple Indian Reservations. Being just a few miles south of Oklahoma may explain why I hear more 4th of July noise in Wichita Falls than I used to in the Fort Worth zone.

And then last night, it was like I was back in Mount Vernon. Someone nearby, as in real close, was launching the type fireworks that light up the sky. With a lot of booming.

That photo at the top is my only attempt which sort of caught the fireworks, as viewed from my bedroom window.

And now the day after the 4th of July.

Overnight the temperature plummeted.

Friday morning of the day after the 4th, I headed to Lucy Park, intending to commune with nature before going to a nearby pharmacy for an inoculation and to pick up a prescription.

But, as I arrived at the Lucy Park entry, rain began to drip. I'd been seeing lightning strikes in the southwest direction. The sky looked threatening.

So, I aborted going to Lucy Park, drove on to the pharmacy, completed that task and then continued on to the nearest Walmart to do my nature communing.

On the way to Walmart the rain switched to downpour mode, then added hail to the mix. The photo documentation you see above is the wet view from my vehicle's window as I sat pondering if I really wanted to make a run for it through the downpour.

I opted to go for it. Running as fast as I can run, the water puddled several inches deep. By the time I got the short distance to entering Walmart I was soaking wet.

But, not too cold. I was glad Walmart had turned off the air conditioning.

Hours later rain continues to drip. Such a nice change from the recent multi-day heat wave. My A/C has not cycled on today, not once....

Drought & Wenatchee Wildfire Brings Calls For Washington 4th Fireworks Ban While In Texas This Is Not A Problem

I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago via Tacoma's Queen V on Facebook.

I do not believe it to be true that the Sleepy Hollow fire is still burning, right now, like you see in the picture.

Sleepy Hollow is a neighborhood in Wenatchee. When you live in Western Washington you refer to Wenatchee's location as East of the Mountains.

A couple dozen homes and other property was totally obliterated by the wildfire.

Tonasket is also East of the Mountains. Tootsie Tonasket has been reporting day after day of temperatures well over 100, as in one day the HEAT hit 112. Tootsie's A/C went kaput overnight.

Currently there are a lot of people in Washington suggesting it would be a good idea for a total ban on fireworks this year, what with the entire state in emergency drought mode.

Yesterday a pair of hoodlums drove up I-5 in Western Washington setting off fires by launching flares as they drove along.

At my old home location in the East Thunderbird neighborhood of Mount Vernon the 4th of July was like a war zone. This is an extremely hilly, heavily wooded area. I would sit on my rooftop deck watching the explosions, ready to put out anything burning that landed on the roof. The launching area for my immediate neighbors was from the top of the cul-de-sac. A barrage would be launched and then another cul-de-sac would try and top it. After a few years of this it went from entertaining to annoying.

The Skagit Valley has several Indian Reservations where one could buy just about any firework type explosive made. There are dozens of Indian Reservations in Washington. Such as the Tulalip Reservation, which is where Boom City is located. Boom City has a website. The Tulalip Tribe also has a casino, nautical themed, with a giant Orca soaring out of the sea at the entry. Washington has dozens of casinos.

I don't like gambling, but I enjoy a good casino buffet.

I think Texas has only two Indian Reservations. And they are very small, with few Indians. I don't know if the Texas Indians sell fireworks on their reservations.

My first 4th of July in Texas came as a big surprise due to it being so un-explosive. I figured Texas would be much more explosive, firecracker-wise, than my old home zone, what with that whole cowboy western gun thing that much of Texas embraces.

Is it because there are no Indian Reservations selling fireworks that Texas is so quiet on the 4th of July?

I know the quiet has nothing to do with Texans not being as patriotic in their 4th of July celebrating as my old home zone. Best 4th of July parades I've ever seen have been in Texas, such as the Arlington 4th of July Parade and Granbury's.

I read yesterday the Confederate Battle Flag will not be in this year's Arlington 4th of July Parade. What if a Rebel shows up with the banned flag, despite the ban? I suspect booing would ensue. America can sure change fast when well motivated. Even the Texas part of America....

A Firecracker Free 4th In Texas While Spencer Jack Blows Up & Floods His Backyard In Washington

This morning Spencer Jack's dad sent me two 4th of July videos. I'm assuming the videos were shot with a phone. The videos are in Apple Quicktime .mov format, so I was unable to open and view them in Windows Media Player or Windows Movie Maker.

However, I was able to make YouTube videos and thus see Spencer Jack.

In the first video Spencer Jack is demonstrating that currently in Western Washington, particularly the town of Mount Vernon, no Lawn Whisperer is telling anyone to conserve water. Thanks to a phenomenon known as "Two Much Rain" Western Washington is in water surplus mode, thus allowing Spencer Jack to make his own personal flood.

 

At my location in Texas, in the town "Where the West Began," I heard not a single firecracker this 4th of July or the days before the 4th of July.

When I lived in Spencer Jack's current town, the 4th of July was like a war zone of explosions.

Nearby Indian Reservations supplied the fireworks. This made for a much more festive 4th than I experience in Texas, though I was not a huge fan of having to sit outside on my roof top deck to guard against rockets that had gone astray.

The nearest Indian Reservations, to my location, are not in Texas, but up in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a lot of Indian Reservations due to the fact that at one point in time, the area that is now the state of Oklahoma, was Indian Territory, that being the area where the U.S. government tried to concentrate the Indian population that was being forced to evacuate the eastern part of America.

That forced evacuation to an Indian Territory really did not work out as planned, but did end up with Oklahoma having a lot of land that is now Indian Reservation land, with casinos, and, I assume, fireworks stands.

I am guessing Spencer Jack likely did his fireworks shopping at the Swinomish Nation, since that is the closest reservation to where Spencer lives.

I suspect, if Spencer's dad took him to the Swinomish Nation, to get fireworks, a stop was likely made at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge, maybe to go to the buffet, if the Swinomish is still doing the buffet, it being the best seafood buffet I've ever experienced. They do oysters the way my mama did oysters back when she had oysters to do.

Tripping Over Mount Tandy Seismic Testing Cable Whle Finding Fireworks On The Tandy Highway & Scoping Out A Location To Watch The Fort Worth Fireworks

Swimming this morning was the best in a long time. The air temperature and water temperature seemed a perfect match.

When the time came for my noontime salubrious aerobic stimulation I decided to do something different and drive to the top of Mount Tandy to do me some hiking in the Tandy Hills Natural Area Sanatorium.

The hills were exceptionally natural today.

Earlier today I blogged about the 4th of July and the various venues where one can view fireworks and get some 4th of July action in the D/FW Metroplex zone.

Stenotrophomonas then made an informative comment to that particular blogging, commenting...

"A popular place to watch the downtown fireworks is the slope of Mt Tandy, near the lower traffic barrier. I wonder if Dawson will clean up their trash this week If not, will it be trampled by the crowds, or trip them up in the dark. Or maybe someone will steal the cables and equipment, just like the person last year in need of golf balls."

The cables to which Mr. Stenotrophomonas refers are the seismic testing cables strewn along the trail that leads from the top of Mount Tandy. If you look close you can see the yellow cable posing the tripping threat in the picture above.

Anyone injured by tripping over a seismic testing cable left carelessly on the ground, please remember that that Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers have deep pockets. Lawyers love targets with deep pockets.

Below is the Fort Worth Fireworks viewing zone to which Stenotrophomonas refers. You can see the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth in the distance.

I can see why viewing the Fort Worth Fireworks from this location might be fun. I may do just that in a few days.

Speaking of fireworks, check out the photo below.

In the aforementioned blogging about the 4th of July I opined about the dearth of local availability of personal fireworks of the firecracker/rocket sort, due to the lack of Indian Reservations anywhere nearby.

Today, I found the above "firework" laying on the ground on the Tandy Highway between the two creek crossings that the Fort Worth Water Boys messed up. This particular piece of ordnance had yet to be exploded, the fuse was waiting to be lit.

A couple years ago exploding fireworks set a section of the Tandy Hills on fire, doing what Mother Nature used to do via lightning strikes, clearing the prairie of intruders and pests. When the burned section on the Tandy Hills grew back, it did not seem like much of an improvement to me.

I wonder who is hiking to the core of the Tandy Hills armed with fireworks? And then littering the ground with them? I am almost absolutely 100% certain it is not Stenotrophomonas. And I know with 100% certain it is not me. I guess that leave Don Young as the chief suspect, til other possible culprits are identified.

A Slightly Blue Sky 4th Of July Texas Morning With No Firecrackers

The blue sky is not an illusion. The dawn of the 4th of July view from my patio is not gray this morning. Some blue sky has returned over North Texas.

I think this slightly blue sky may be only a temporary respite from rain. The forecast for the 4th of July is a 50% chance of rain. Which usually means it is going to rain a lot.

Rain is in the forecast for each of the next 6 days.

Too much wetness is getting really old. But, I guess it has been a good thing to see brown grass turn back green again.

I think I've said it before, likely on 4th of July last year, but the 4th of July in Texas is so weird. When I moved to Texas, it being the Wild West Cowboy state that it is, I figured the 4th of July would be explosive, with people having way too much fun with fireworks. Much more so than my old location in the refined progressive sophisticated State of Washington.

Where I lived in Mount Vernon (is that not a nice patriotic 4th of July name?) Washington, in a neighborhood called Thunderbird, which was quite hilly, built in a forest of tall cedar and fir trees, the 4th of July was like a war zone.

Neighbors would set up competing fireworks launch zones. Set off a barrage. And then another neighbor would try and top it. There was absolutely nothing forbidding this behavior. In Washington it is very easy to obtain all the explosives you want. All the Indian Reservations have very big Boom Towns.

In Texas I do not believe there are any Boom Towns selling fireworks.

It is the morning of the 4th of July in Texas and I have not heard a single firecracker. The 4th of July will come and go and I likely will not have heard a single firecracker.

I can't help but wonder if in the past some really bad stuff happened here on the 4th of July which led to the repressive firecracker crackdown. It's not like Texans have some sort of innate aversion to things that go boom. Just witness the laidback attitude towards natural gas randomly going boom.

The lack of firecrackers going boom in Texas is very perplexing.

The Day Before The 4th Of July Is Another Damp One In Texas With Me Thinking About Indian Reservations & Hitler

You are looking at the slightly past dawn, optical illusion, day before the 4th of July, view from my patio.

In reality, the sky is not blue. It is gray. Very gray. We had another heavy rainstorm after the rainstorm I blogged about yesterday, which was an even BIGGER DOWNPOUR.

It was a bit of a challenge to make my way to the pool this morning, what with mud and water creating obstacles.

It is now half past 9. The Arlington 4th of July Parade, I believe it to be the biggest in Texas, has been underway for a half hour.

Without me watching it.

The last time I watched the Arlington 4th of July Parade the temperature was close to 100, making it a bit miserable. If I was in Arlington, right now, watching the parade, the temperature would not make me miserable.

Because it is only 75. July 3 and I have my windows open. Again.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing this Saturday day before the 4th of July. I know I won't be driving out to one of the Indian Reservations to buy me some fireworks. I think there are only 2 Indian Reservations in Texas. And neither is near Dallas/Fort Worth.

Texas exterminated a lot of its Indian population, with those not killed moved to concentration camps, I mean, reservations, in Oklahoma.

I was watching a History Channel program last night about a book Adolf Hitler wrote after Mein Kampf. In the post Mein Kampf book Hitler went on about how he admired how America dealt with its Indian population and America's need to expand its territory into Indian Lands with what Hitler characterized as America's state sanctioned Indian extermination policy. Hitler did not have much of a faculty for accurately understanding history, or interpreting the lesson to be learned.

But, it is a bit troubling to wonder if the fate of the Poles, Slavs, Jews and others would have been different had America not provided that German madman with a twisted, perverse inspiration.