BOOM.
That’s what a firework is supposed to sound like.
Big. Freaking. BOOM!!!
Well, this year we decided to take up residence in an abandoned cornfield about three-quarters of a mile from the explosions with some friends. We hauled chairs out of vans, set up some portable lawn chairs, and other than some hidden barbed wire biting our ankles, had a pretty fun time.
We could see the Grantsville fireworks clearly, as well as the Tooele County fireworks we’d planned on seeing. There was a mishap with the Tooele County fireworks about halfway through the show, where two massive blooms never left their canisters and exploded on the ground, apparently showering the onlookers with ash and frightening the techs. They were REALLY big boomers. The rest of the show went very slowly as they tried to recover from a major mishap.
Budget cuts, I say.
Anyway, unfortunately from our distance, the BOOM was just a small popping. However, it was kind of cool, about two seconds before we’d hear the pop of the fireworks with our ears, we could feel it rumble through the ground and hear it rattle our vehicles. That was kind of nifty.
There didn’t seem to be any other major excitement. There were no fires this year, which was kind of unusual for Tooele County. However, since this is Utah, we’ll have a second chance to devastate hundreds of acres of brush on July 24th, the annual “Pioneer Day” here in Utah. It’s a second excuse to shoot off fireworks, and the rest of the nation’s excess firework inventory ends up in this state for this “second chance”.
Anyway, yesterday we kicked it with some friends from around the block, grilled lots of meat (just chicken or turkey for me, thanks), ate a lot of potato salad, made a bunch of lame jokes, and generally had a fun time.
I’ve made a lot of progress on “Grasping At Straws”, a new piece I’m trying to finish. The lyrics just tore at me on the bus ride home Tuesday this week, and since then I’ve been refining them and adding music. I think it’s going to be pretty hot. I’ll start adding new tunes to my site here as I get more material, to build up excitement among my loyal half-dozen readers for the release of my album!
Of course, those six will probably all get free albums anyway, but pimp them out to your friends would you?