2005-12-20
firecracker, firecracker, boom boom boom
Happy Holidays, everyone!
You can tell that people here on island are definitely excited about this holiday season. The Christmas lights, the island Christmas music, the full schedule of masses every day at the Church. But there's one thing here that every year people seem to associate Christmas with:
Fireworks.
I know it's because of New Year's and whatever, but goddamn, these people won't let up. I mean, it wasn't even Thanksgiving and they were already lighting away. I seriously thought at first that someone was just firing shotguns into the air, because who would light fireworks in the middle of November? And these aren't just bottle rockets, these are serious $50 explosions that make noises so loud you'd think your car had just blown up in your driveway.
People do it everywhere here. When I'm at the gym, at work, at Blockbuster, even at the cemetary, I hear hiss, bang, boom! and I jump headfirst into the nearest steel covering. I can't even drive on the road without some stupid local kid throwing a firecracker in the middle of the road. You know how many times I've thought my tires had popped within the last week? Five times!
Sadly, my brother's getting into these, too. He's got water bombs,
which aren't flashy at all, but make a really loud noise. Frankly, I don't understand why he has so much fun with them.
"Roland, why do you keep doing that?! All you do is light those damn things, and they explode. Big whoop."
"It's fun! Look, brother!"
He takes out one of the water bombs. It's small, about half the size of a pencil. He lights the wick, holds it and waves at me, sparkling mini-bomb in his hand. Then he throws it into a small bucket three feet away from him, and BOOM!, it explodes. He stands there, body jiggling from all the amusement he's just received from watching that thing explode.
To me it seems like more fun to watch my brother light the firecracker than actually lighting the damn thing because my brother jiggles when he's happy. The firecracker does nothing.
tipsydrunk at 1:25 p.m.
