There's Klingons on the Starboard Bow

I love the fourth of July, but still I lament that my 4th this year was uneventful. I got slammed at work the night before and slept through the Magna Parade. I had to work standby at fireworks in Holladay, so missed the traditional fireworks shows. As mentioned in the other blog that we write (which is very entertaining I must say, if you haven't seen it, click here,) I got an up close view of fireworks from the launch area. I was seriously less than 10 feet from the tubes for the entire hour long show. Almost 2500 fireworks. The Finale rocked my insides like a Green Day Concert while standing the whole show in front of the speakers. (Yes, that actually happened.) The pictures (on the other site) are not doing it justice because for some reason they are not enlarging when clicked, which ticks me off because they are taken with a 10 megapixel camera. Enjoy it anyway.

My kids love the fireworks, as long as they get to cover their ears, except Eli likes to cover his eyes and just listen to the pops and bangs and crackles. They also love the annual barbecue at Grandma and Grandpa Ames house.

They especially love driving the battery operated 4x4 around the yard with their cousins.

Haylees favorite song is Blur's Song 2. She dances and wiggles to it each time it comes across my IPOD or ITunes.

Tierra loves drawing. She draws everyday and is getting so good at it. Coloring too.

The bad part about this is that she expects us to save all of them and there just are not that many avon boxes left in our storage.

The rest of the family still got to enjoy all the 4th festivities, as they should. They went to the parade. They went to barbecue, they did fireworks in the neighborhood and watched the West Jordan show.

We have been to lots of Bees games,

the kids love them as well. I am itching for a professional trip. I need to check some more stadiums off the list.

Due to another friends blog post, I was reminded of a story about fireworks. She brought up the fact that firefighters sometimes confiscate illegal fireworks. She was mistaken that firefighters write tickets for illegal fireworks violations. Perhaps other cities' fire departments do so, but not Unified Fire. Yes, we confiscate them for training, but no tickets. So a couple of years ago, I was at the station with the crew, and we were doing what we do every morning, checking off every piece of equipment to make sure it works perfectly. We check off everything. It is not an acceptable excuse to arrive at an emergency and say, "oops, we would have put out the fire, but our hose has a hole in it from the last fire... sorry!" So we were doing checkouts. It was early on a Sunday morning. Everyone was gathered near the firetruck. I slipped away and decided to dig into the box of confiscated fireworks at the station. I grabbed one of my all time favorites, the Roman Candle. My plan was to launch the Roman Candle at the guys who were at the back of the firetruck. One problem, I could not find a match. I looked everywhere. I looked for our lighters for the barbecue, I even searched the lockers of some of the guys that smoke. No luck. So a few minutes passed and I realized my only option was to light it with the barbecue. So the barbecue was a little ways away from the truck bays where the guys were gathered. I hoped that they were still all there. So I took a quick peek to see that they were still at the truck. They were, except one of the guys had gotten underneath the truck to check the hoses, gas lines, brakes, etc under the truck. (See, we check everything!) So I went back to the barbecue, lit the Roman Candle

and took off for the station bay door at the back of the station. One problem, the barbecue lit the fuses a little closer than a match would have, so I had less time before launch. I led with the Roman Candle out front as I ran through the doorway, so one or two little fireballs launched towards the guys before I got through the door. As the 3rd, 4th and possibly 5th fireball launched, I realized that a lady, her 4 year old son, and their dog had stopped by on their morning jog to see the station. The first 3 fire balls whizzed and bounced all around them. As soon as I realized it, I threw the Roman Candle and the 7 remaining fireballs across the bay, not completely sure where it would land or where they would launch. The boy instantly started screaming, the dog (more like half-rat half-rabbit) started yelping in fear, and the firefighter under the truck was startled to the point of making this story rated R. (remember that even PG 13 movies allow two "F" words.) We found out later that the firefighter under the truck did not know the lady had stopped to see us either. So, as I am contemplating what to do for my next career...my first impulse was to just go in the station and hide... I approached the lady trying to come up with some story that would make everything better. You know, like when Daniel Larusso convinces his mom that his black eye came from crashing on his bike rather than getting his butt kicked by the Cobra Kai.

So I walk up, still nothing in my mind by way of excuses, and the first thing I hear the lady tell her bawling son is, "it's okay Billy, firefighters are allowed to use illegal fireworks." My mind again trails off to asking for my nighttime manager job at Taco Time back. I really don't know what I said, but it was probably some kind of apology, then I went and got every give away I could dig up from the station to give to this kid. I didn't give anything to the dog. He-She-It was still yelping. We don't have dog bones with our fire department logo on them. So the lady and her posse eventually left and I went inside to tell my Captain to prepare for a citizen complaint and if I needed to put in a letter of resignation. Luckily, no complaints came, and I was able to keep my job. Hopefully the statute of limitations has passed.