It's Another "HHH" Kinda Day...

Looks like the Midwest will be spending some time in the 100 degree+ range for the day...
That means THREE things:

Hazy...

Hot...

Humid...

!!!

Period!

I noticed that on our outdoor thermometer, it was well into the 70s before the sun came up, and right now before 0700 hrs, it's tickling 80 degrees.

And it FEELS it.

Humidity is up as well, so welcome to Thailand WEST...lol.

*** The lovely Mrs. Bobby G. and I spent the 4th inside, staying comfy, and had pizza for dinner.

Sorry to break tradition with the grilling thing (even though the county WAS allowing that during this drought), but somehow, I just did NOT feel like standing in the sun, cooking and sweating, But we did get the flags out, and overall, the REST of the neighborhood behaved themselves...somewhat.
-- I watched some Military Channel shows on The Revolutionary War...excellent series (sounded like it was narrated by Charles Kuralt), while Wifey watched the History Channel which was showing the series The Presidents.
Yeah, never hurts to LEARN something every day, does it?

(Besides, I already have ALL the FIREFLY episodes on DVD, so I didn't need to flip over to the SCIENCE CHANNEL and watch their marathon...lol)

The central A/C was running non-stop, and even then, the house climbed to 78 degrees...but the humidity was LOW.

Funny thing, never did hear or see ANY ice cream trucks out and about yesterday...
I wonder why???

Overnight, the A/C was kept on, and it reduced the inside temperature to a mere 72 degrees...but it's pretty comfy, nonetheless.

-- We DID have some fireworks being set off, beginning in the later evening (some were in fact aerials) so SCREW that BAN on personal pyrotechnics, hmm? There must be a contingent of folks "who do what they want".

I was thinking about calling the FWPD (they said they were citing AND arresting violators...really???), but I was in a quandary as to HOW I would address the issue.

Dispatch would no doubt ask me WHERE the fireworks were being set off, and probably want to know the HOUSE(s) doing it.

Hey, I would love to know that as well, but I could only speak in ambiguous terms when referring to precise LOCATION.

Face it, these law-breakers aren't out in the street being THAT blatant...they're tossing them out the door, or setting one off in the backyard, then dashing back INSIDE, and the FWPD has this thing about SEEING people do sh*t, instead of taking one's word.
I know, I've heard it on the radio MANY times.

My first thought was to tell dispatch to send a car to a specified area (giving boundaries and cross-streets), for I figure that THIS alone would suffice, but with all the OTHER crap the officers were dealing with (yes, people DO wail on one another in record heat for the dumbest things...go figure)...wasn't gonna happen.

Then, I also (erroneously) believed that a FWPD cruiser would be in the area ANYWAY, knowing the "nature of the beasts" living down here all around us...but that would mean there was some PROACTIVE patrolling being done, and I really haven't seen all that much these days...at least not enough to warrant these ghettohood dipshi*ts from refraining from their "typical" behavior.

So, you hunker down, say nothing and let it all pass for the time being...

I know it sure beats having to play "ask me another" with dispatch when none of THEM lives down here, and have NO idea what the ghettohood is all about...or ever will. That's called a DISCONNECT, btw. And this city suffers from a chronic condition of it...been that way for at least 20 years down here.

Fortunately, the fireworks were minimal, but we expect it to pick up sometime in the future. It ALWAYS does.

I know the store sales of such devices were way down...and personally, I'd like to see the year-round ban be reinstated IN the city.
Some towns are ACTIVELY PURSUING the ban violators, like HERE:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Two-Arrested-for-Violating-Burn-Ban-and-Catching-4-Yards-on-Fire-161422985.html
Wow...FOUR yards (in Goshen, IN) caught on FIRE...now who coulda seen THAT one coming (F$cking morons!).
BUSTED!!!
(BTW, homeowner's or renter's insurance doesn't cover ASSHATTERY...just sayin'...)

-- You live in the sticks and have a nice chunk of real estate on your hands...I got absolutely NO problem with setting off anything that doesn't leave a 50-foot crater on the property, or blow out windows in a one mile radius.

But, if you live in a city...where OTHER PEOPLE are also living, and usually within shouting distance, it makes NO sense to bother THEM with YOUR "need" to be obnoxious.

Some folks have medical conditions and would love to NOT be bugged by displays of dumbassery by others.

Other folks have emotional or psychological issues that cause them to react to such things as fireworks in a much more stressful way than the average man, woman, or child.

Why bother them needlessly?

What did they do to you?

Well, Bob...SOME of them fought for our liberties and freedoms in far off lands, sacrificing much so we could act stupid here at home...!?!

That's hardly a reason to disturb THEIR lives after they have performed and served with honor, is it?

Yeah, some people will NEVER "get it", I suppose.

But the whole gig here is that we should all be able to live with as little angst as possible, and that goes for EVERYONE.

-- Back in Philadelphia, considered by many (myself included) to be the ACTUAL "Cradle of Liberty" , for our founding documents were written there, they had a fireworks ban in place for as long as I can remember - only sparklers.

They had PUBLIC displays all over, however...and some really bad-ass ones, too.

So, there was little (if any) "need" to act irresponsible and set off any ordnance that disturbs everyone else's calm...and that worked.

It was this whole MUTUAL RESPECT kinda thing.
And THAT is the sort of thing I would THINK extols much of the virtues of the Midwestern mindset...
Imagine my amazement when I find I'm incorrect in that supposition.
Yes, there ARE many who will adhere to the burn-ban and personal display of fireworks, and ALL of those people are to be commended.
But you also have this faction that suffers from a terminal case of O.D.D. (Oppositional Defiance Disorder), and that spoils the milk for everyone else.

Listen to a police scanner, and you'll know exactly what I mean.
WhatEVER law, ordinance, suggestion, mandate, or edict that comes along, THESE people will just thumb their primate nose at it (when they can manage to remove that thumb from their ass, where it usually is).
Now, I suppose that if one were to approach this from a purely psychological standpoint, we could use REVERSE psychology and trick them into doing the right thing, by saying it's OK to do the wrong thing...but no dice with that.
They know enough to just go ahead and do the wrong thing...most all the time, like it's bred into them or something.

-- It's like I always say...everyone HAS to know their boundaries in life...that their rights end where mine (or yours) begin, and that your rights end where theirs begin..it's that simple an equation to balance. And many of us do it without blinking an eye.

We're taught right from wrong...from little on up, and we pay the price for our inattention along the way.
So, WHY do some follow through and do the right thing while others simple choose not to?
Well, THAT is the reason...the word CHOOSE.
It all comes down to CHOICES in life...always has and always will.
Some of us are just a lot better at it than others, but that does not excuse those making the bad choices, it just says that some are more adept at skulling out the consequences for making the wrong choice...so we make the best good choice we can.
Formal education can only do so much in this regard...sooner or later each of us has to think on their own, and many times, we learn by "trial and error". Mistakes are always part of the learning process, but should never become the ONLY recourse in one's life.
We make a mistake here and there, (hopefully) glean some knowledge from the event...and then move forward.

Others...not so much (and you can hear the "tires spinning" as a result).

They rarely pay attention to what THEY do, let alone what choice they're making.

And sometimes, the consequences for not paying attention can be harmful or fatal...to themselves but more often than not, to others.

I had a friend of mine from Philly, a black Baptist preacher man named Daniel, great person, who once told me that living a good life wasn't all about "don't do this and don't do that".

In fact he explained it this way:

"As you go through life, you need to focus on doing the DOs, 'cause if you're too busy doing the DOs, you don't have time to do the DON'Ts."

Yeah, that works for me just fine.

Thing is, we need to have that drilled into the skulls of the morons...the idiots...and the dumbasses around us.

That would certainly go a LONG way to solving much of this nation's problems.

Come to think of it, that's a lot like the way we USED to be in this country...

Who could have known?

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...

Stay SAFE out there, America.