Thursday, July 05, 2007

Rain, Fireworks, and 100,000 visits.

It's rained twice in the past week. This is the first rain at PFHQ proper in a long time. You can practically watch the grass green up. Both of these rains were nice steady soakers, so we are grateful.
The drought is slowly crumbling apart which is a very good thing. The nice thing about a drought is the absence of mosquitoes. I can't remember the last time I had to swat one.

Last night, after the rains abated, we rode out to Cedar Key to watch the fireworks. The sky had cleared, but the wind off the Gulf was brisk. I think the day of rainy weather kept the crowds down, so it was especially pleasant.

We usually stay home on the 4th and do our own pyrotechnic extravaganza, so this was a nice change. I didn't have to spend the day BBQ'ing or frying wings for once, so I found it especially relaxing.

From Cedar Key, we could simultaneously watch the Cedar Key fireworks while watching the fireworks of Crystal River, miles south of us across Waccasassa Bay. That was neat.

This little boy's family must have spent a fortune on fireworks. Whenever the official show paused, we turned and watched them as they had a seemingly endless supply of flashy, sparkly, noisy stuff. They were having a great time and the Mom in charge was a pretty good safety manager.
When we finally left, they were still going at it and had just brought out another giant box of fireworks to open. You know the kind, a four foot long collection of spark spewing goodies. I know that assortment cost over $100, because I had looked at it in the store last week.
There were private fireworks going off all around us, and we did a lot of swivel-necking to take it all in.
It's illegal in Florida to use any fireworks that fly or explode, so technically the COOLEST fireworks would seem to be unavailable to pyros such as moi.
However, you can buy anything short of a Stinger missle at any fireworks tent. You just have to sign a disclaimer form that says you understand they aren't legal in Florida and that you won't use them here... blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, right.
At least we don't have to smuggle them in from South Carolina or Mississippi anymore.
Looks like Pure Florida hosted it's 100,000th visitor sometime yesterday.
I believe it was Pablo.
Posted by Picasa

17 comments:

robin andrea said...

Looks like you had the perfect 4th of July. Glad to see you had rain, and that it did not spoil the festivities.

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a great 4th and congratulations on 100,000 visits. By my projection, our blog will be there in about 389 years.

SophieMae said...

I'm so glad y'all finally got some rain! We've had several really nice afternoon thunderstorms, but many of the ponds and creeks are still bone-dry.

Lovely fireworks pic! I'm thinking we might be doing Cedar Key next year. 8-]

Our local news crew interviewed people buying fireworks in Bamalama. Hearing some of them, I just couldn't help hoping the local constabularies were watching and taking names. They do have a tendency to pick the biggest eejits for those particular 10 seconds of fame.

Sharon said...

We had a similar deal here, went to Jax beach and could see the ones at Mayport, and in the other direction looked like maybe Ponte Vedra.

Anonymous said...

We had a quiet 4th as our two pyromaniacs are both gone for the summer. We sat on my dad's dock and could see lots and lots of fireworks as well as the two legal ones, Palmetto and Heritage Harbor. But, the biggest show was the fire across the bay that someone started with fireworks. We don't know if it was a house or some trees, but it was really burning till the firetrucks arrived. I know firemen must hate the 4th of July.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and when it is raining, you can do some reading. The Florida Book Awards have some of your favorite authors listed and you may find some new ones to enjoy as well.

http://www.fsu.edu/~ams/bookawards/bookawards/Award_Categories.html

threecollie said...

Congrats on 100,000. Very impressive, but not surprising as you write so well.
Up here in Nanny Granny, oops, I mean New York, NO fireworks are legal, not even sparklers. Bah!

Anonymous said...

I went to be early last night and missed all of the fireworks within easy walking distance. They've never really done much for me.

I'm not sure I was the 100,000th visitor, but we can pretend.

OldHorsetailSnake said...

One has to be sorry for the cops on a day like that. Sailing fireworks are illegal here (Oregon) too, but that stops nobody. And the police have so many stops to make they just don't make any. Good solution, seems to me.

R.Powers said...

Robin,
Thanks, I hope yours was peaceful.

RCW,
You may be surprised. The growth seems a bit exponential, took forever to hit 20,000 and then ...

Sophie,
I may qualify as one of those idjits, I love fireworks ... real fireworks, not sparklers.

Sharon,
When I was a ranger one of the perks I got was watching the St. Augustine July 4th fireworks from the top of the Castillo de San Marcos.

Cathy S,
Sitting on a dock and watching fireworks across the water sounds wonderful anytime.
I'll check out the book list. Thanks!

ThreeCollie,
Not even sparklers!?
Brave New World ya got there.

Pablo,
I'm not sure either but what's the harm? I hadn't even noticed until I read your comment last night.

Hoss,
The smart cop picks his battles during celebrations like this.

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

Congratulations on 100,000! I noticed yesterday that you were approaching that. So that's what all those fireworks were for!!!

Deb said...

I probably have contributed to that 100,000 thing, with my several times daily visits. Congrats. I'm, at 48,000 something, almost halfway there.

Minnesota, under the wisdom of ex-pro wrestler turned governor Jesse Ventura, recently legalized certain kinds of fireworks. I'd still rather shoot my new .22 pistol and wait for the public display next month at the local town festival.

SophieMae said...

FC, I'm sure you show some semblance of sense sparking sparklers and such. The people they interviewed... well, let's just say they didn't exhibit possession of much.

Thunder said...

It looks like you had a good time!
Like Pablo, Lightnin and I called it an early night as we had to get up and go to work the next day.
Unlike Pablo, however as you know, I am a pyro technic's fan!

We had a quite a bit of rain through out the day here too. It was welcomed by my hops!

pissed off patricia said...

We've gotten lots of rain, not enough but still, it counts.

R.Powers said...

HTeen,
Wow, a nationwide celebration!

Deb,
New pistol! Fun,fun!
Emma wanted to target shoot yesterday, but the rain cancelled that.

Sophie,
We enjoy them with safety a priority. There was that little incident with the upside down mortar, but no permanent harm was done.

ThunderD,
Um, you and Pablo must hit the rack pretty early. Here fireworks go off around 9:30.

POP,
Two good rains here this week.
Not enough is right!

Anonymous said...

Who was #1?