If you're just tuning in, in February we bought a house. We moved a few days after the closing date. Prior to buying a house, we rented the bottom unit of a 2 family home for almost 8 years. We were settled and had close friendships with a lot of our neighbors. One of the many great things about that is we could walk across the street either way to enjoy gatherings and festivities. Our home was always within eyesight.
We also hosted quite a few gatherings at our home too. During the warm weather months and into the Fall season, we had a lot of backyard fires. We celebrated birthdays, holidays, graduations, anniversaries, and other rites of passages.
The house we purchased isn't too far away from our old neighborhood, but it's far enough to where we are too far from our kids if there is bad weather or fireworks. It's not like we can scurry home within a minute or two on foot.
Our kids are afraid of thunderstorms, loud noises, and fireworks. This is the reason why we have not been to a public display of fireworks in years. It is also the reason why we've had to cancel our attendance at a lot of festivities because of impending severe weather.
A lot of people have not been happy about that, but our kids come first.
Shortly after we moved, the entire COVID-19 pandemic blew up and our state pretty much shut down. Although we're in phase 2 of reopening, our governor canceled all state fairs and 4th of July festivities.
Yep, that means all public displays of fireworks.
Last week, I was chatting with a friend. We talked in depth about the entire COVID-19 pandemic and compared notes on life in her state and mine. When I mentioned the cancellation of fireworks, she said, "So, does that mean you can go to cookouts and other festivities over the July 4th weekend?"
Um. No.
My friend was a bit confused.
I had to explain that the cancellation of the 4th of July festivities and public fireworks meant that more people would be purchasing fireworks, including illegal fireworks, and shooting them off in their yards or vacant parking lots.
Over the past couple of weeks, several people close by shoot off fireworks between 9-10 p.m. On the weekends, we've heard snaps, crackles, pops, and booms during the daylight hours and into the late evening.
In addition, we haven't had rain. All of my favorite weather sites and pages have dropped the big "D" word.
Drought.
This year, the 4th of July falls on a Saturday so Lisa has that Friday off. We'll be doing our grocery shopping and running any errands that Wednesday or Thursday.
When Lisa gets home on Thursday, that's it.
We're not going anywhere even during the day.
It's going to be a loud 3 day weekend and our first priority is the safety and well being of our 4 kids and home.
Hopefully, we'll get some rain between now and then.
We're not disappointed.
We don't feel as if we're missing out.
Trust me, we've got plenty of projects indoors and outdoors and we have a few pieces that Lisa and I will be making and finishing in our woodshop and workshop.
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