Happy New Year! Get off My Lawn

Our neighbors like to celebrate the New Year by lighting fireworks. Lots of them. It seems that they buy fireworks by the caseload on this street alone. I have no doubt that if someone were to set up a Fireworks store outside this subdivision, it would sell out of everything in less than an hour.

I do not have a problem with fireworks. Some of them are very pretty in the night sky before they burn themselves out (there's a metaphor about life in there, and I wasn't even trying!) However, I do have a problem with some of the people who light the fireworks.

My neighbors light fireworks on the street, away from the grass and from any cars. There are always adults out there supervising, and they are the ones who are lighting most of the fireworks. I've also seen that these people have the implements to extinguish a fire if they need to, including a fire extinguisher. When they are finished with the fireworks, about five minutes after midnight, they take the time to clean up as much of the debris as possible.

Then you have the idiots who were out behind my house last night. Teenagers with no adult supervision, judging by their laughter. Someone had to have purchased the fireworks for them, and should have known better, so that person is even more of an idiot than these teenagers. Yes, these teenagers were lighting fireworks in the drainage ditch behind my house, which is full of tall, combustible grass. Some of the fireworks found their way into my backyard, and probably a couple landed on someone's roof. It is fortunate that we had some rain two days ago.

I probably should have called the police, but on New Year's Eve, the police have a lot more important stuff to do, like keeping drunk drivers off the road so they don't kill anyone. So I just keep an eye on the kids out back, ready to call the fire department if I see any smoldering grass. Maybe next year I'll ask the firemen if I can borrow their hose so I can hose down those kids and their fireworks before they start. Or would that be too much?