Happy July

I know that it is getting close to the fourth of July when I hear an increase in the frequency of firecrackers going off at night. Having so many Dominican neighbors, we are used to hearing them pretty much year round. They don’t really need a special occasion to stay up all Monday night pounding booze and playing with explosives. But toward the end of June and beginning of July, the fireworks and malt liquor flow like wine. Even though most of my neighbors probably aren’t citizens, don’t speak English, and probably have no idea what is being celebrated on the fourth of July, the language of pyrotechnics is universal. They know that it is a holiday when fireworks can be purchased a mere 2 states away. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate that? Fireworks are illegal in NYC, which I thought was lame at first. I have always been a fan of blowing stuff up and lighting stuff on fire. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. When you have 2 million people all living on top of each other, some of them with sub 50 IQs, it can be a recipe for trouble when you mix in explosives. Just the same, it doesn’t stop our neighbors from loading up on them and smuggling them in every summer when they go on sale in PA. I mean, if they can smuggle themselves into the country, how hard can it be for them to get a couple of mini-vans full of bottle rockets across the GW? It is times like this that I become very thankful for window A/C units and the white noise that they generate.