July 4, 2017
12:41 a.m.

Wow, I just realized that I haven't written a thing since Father's Day! Bad, Paula. Bad girl.

In my defense, not a lot has been going on. Or else too much has been going on. I've been trying to get through the last leg of editing my book before making a few trips, and not getting enough done.
I have had a little helper, you see.

My two-year-old granddaughter is a fan of sitting in my lap and drawing pictures with me. She draws for awhile and then demands that I do the work. Doggie, kittie, rabbit and the ghost family. Boo! Mama Ghost. Daddy Ghost. I don't know where she got the ghost thing....

We write her name a lot, and I always recite the spelling as we write the letters together, so she's now starting to tell me what letter comes next. She's so smart.

She left Saturday night with her mommy (my daughter) and daddy and brother for a visit to Oklahoma. suddenly I have my seat to myself. I miss her.

They took one of the dogs with them, and left his mother doggie here. She's not taking it well; she's a sad little old dog. My daughter, her husband and children and the younger dog, all away for awhile, and this poor little girl is stuck here. Poor thing.

Having said that much, I am not missing the boy doggie right now. He's very upset by fireworks, and this neighborhood has been noisy the last couple of weeks. I can't understand why the police haven't done a better job of enforcing the illegal fireworks ban here. The neighborhood dogs are probably a total wreck. Trixie doesn't care for firecrackers blasting, but unlike music, which often sets her to howling, she just sits on my feet when it gets noisy. Rex barks. And barks. Then he paces back and forth, growling, with all his fur standing on end. And then he barks some more. So, nice vacation from that for me.

I'm not entirely truthful, though--I do miss him. But Trixie, I think, misses him more.

And now, I am going to rant about the stupidity of fireworks in city limits.  I hate the 4th of July. Hate it. Not because I'm unpatriotic--go, freedom!--but because I think fireworks are stupid. Why on earth would anyone stand about in a neighborhood full of houses and set off fireworks on a hot summer night during peak fire season? That is not smart.

Why would people go out into the wilderness in the peak of fire season and light bottle rockets? It makes no sense to me!

And in my neighborhood--which is mobile homes, by the way, many of them older homes--the firecrackers start a couple of weeks in advance of the 4th. Why? I have no idea. Maybe they're determined to drive every neighborhood dog completely bonkers and burn down a few houses.

Stupid. Not to mention inconsiderate.

I'm not even a fan of professional fireworks, but at least they are done in a controlled area with supervision and fire safety professionals on hand. The potential catastrophe is at least semi under control.

In my neighborhood not even the cops are showing up to put a stop to the nonsense. That stray spark or poorly launched bottle rocket is just a disaster waiting to happen.

I find that I am very sympathetic toward those dogs and anyone with issues with noise and wish that people would just enjoy a good barbeque and the company of family and friends and leave the fireworks to the professionals.

This comes from a person who flinches during thunderstorms, so maybe I'm biased. but I stand by my assertion that people shooting off fireworks in residential areas should be fined a great deal of money and possibly kicked in the shins.

I spend the two weeks leading up to today in a state of irritation and semi-dread. Tonight it will be complete annoyance and semi-panic. I'm always more than half convinced that my house will be burnt to the ground. That may be because I have already lost a home to a fire (albeit not a fireworks-induced conflagration, but still).

We've been invited to my other daughter's home about an hour away for barbecue and fireworks, and while I am down for a nice dinner, I want to be back here before dark, because I don't think Trixie will do well all alone when the real noise and lightshow gets going. I'd like to just take her with, but she weighs about seven pounds and my daughter has two Staffordshire terriers. (aka pit bulls) They are big cuddly babies, but I don't know how they might behave with a little tiny dog.

Besides, that will get me home and hiding out--with the dog, you know (of course)--before the whole mess gets going.

Yeah, yeah, they are pretty. I get it. So very pretty.

But not in the street in front of my house.

Where's a cop when you need one?

There are signs posted all over this place that say "NO FIREWORKS!" So. where are the cops??

Ugh.

Happy Independence Day. Because...you know...Freedom. Yeah.