That's why I go camping.

--imm

I think they should be banned too until we get some rain.

But on the bright side, campers could still make s'mores.

We can smell the smoke from the High Park fire here in Colorado Springs.

I Pikes Peak still down there?

The weather folks said it was smoke haze. Now we have stormy looking clouds. But I don't think we are going to get any rain. My daughter is in Fort Collins, the pharmacies are having trouble keeping asthma medicine in stock. The university labs have been cautioned about the smoke interfering with some sensitive lab results. Everything smells of smoke there. When I first woke up this morning that is what I smelled. Not good.

it seems to be worst late at night and early in the morning, but it comes and goes. i couldn't tell if i was seeing clouds or smoke over the foothills this morning. they looked so much like clouds, but it was likely just wishful thinking.

firing off their own personal displays.

Our cats spend most of that night under the bed.

My neighborhood sounds like a fucking war zone all during June and July.

I just wish the State Patrol would stop all people from bringing in the illegal full strength fireworks from Wyoming.

and there will be no enforcement.

That's my pessimistic prediction.

Not just the police, but the fire departments across the state, who do also have legal enforcement powers, will come out, confiscate your fireworks and hit you with a big fine if they catch you.

And I imagine this year, they won't play around at all.

where the police have always been invisible in the past on July 4.

My dog has been spooked by fireworks twice this week already.

Rather than have more confrontations with my neighbors (I had a doozy last year that I do not wish to discuss) or call the police non emergency line and wait for them to show up too late or not at all, I decided to do some things in advance.

First I called a lawyer. But he said that even filing a writ of mandamus to get the police to enforce the law would not have any results.

Then I called my county commissioner. But she was not helpful.

Last I went to my city councilman's town hall meeting and complained. Another county commissioner was also there and I talked to my at-large city councilman. Afterwards I got some positive e-mails from my police par officer that were forwarded to other officials. Hopefully they will pay extra attention to my neighborhood this year. But so far I have only heard two instances of firecrackers far away. The big explosions have not happened yet. Maybe they won't.

My neighbors aren't a problem (I don't think). I was walking her in the park Saturday evening and someone started setting off firecrackers several blocks away. She started pulling hard for home, and spent an hour in my lap until she settled down. ( She's 60 lbs. and not a "lapdog" under any usual circumstances. )

Then yesterday she was swimming in the park pond when someone started making noise about a quarter mile away. I don't know what they were up to, but it sounded a little like a nail gun. She dropped her tennis ball (!) and jumped out of the pond before I could grab her. I finally caught up to her at the first intersection leaving the park. She wanted to run straight home, but waited for me before crossing the street.

At least she got over her Harley phobia...

But in metro Denver all private fireworks are banned. You can pay a hefty fine and get them confiscated. In some neighborhoods, like mine, so many people ignore the law that the police can't do much enforcement.

Another problem with this is that many people don't call and complain out of fear of retaliation. There is a veterinarian across the street from me who rescues Great Danes and is afraid of her back door neighbors doing something to her dogs. So she does not call the police. She just hides in the basement with her dogs every night. This is not right!

The county Sheriff's office is across the street from the park and the Cortez police station is only a couple blocks from where I heard the fireworks, give or take. It's a question of priorities, I guess.