yesterday i spent most of the day reminding the most barky of our dogs that she was okay and she didn’t need to bark at the exploding things that went off about every 5 minutes or so.

now don’t get me wrong, i am not against exploding things – the bigger, noisier and flashier the better as far as i’m concerned – but i am also aware of the fact that some people – and animals – are severely disturbed by things that explode unexpectedly, and can get extremely upset, frightened or what have you, which is why i make sure that the only exploding things i enjoy occur only at the right time and place. unfortunately, most of our neighbours out here in the boonies either don’t know, or don’t care about such things, which is extremely frustrating. as it is, we stayed up until 3:00 or so this morning, reminding the dog that she was okay about every five minutes. it was even worse after midnight, because she was tired enough that she went to sleep during the quiet parts, which made her even more upset when she was woken up suddenly by an earth-shaking boom from somewhere in the neighbourhood. the local indian reservation is not too far away and even the local “christian” church had a fireworks stand that sits right on the other side of the border between federal way (where all fireworks are illegal) and unincorporated king county. kind of amusing when you consider the ethical problems raised by such a thing.

anyway, it’s peaceful and quiet, which it hasn’t been for a week or so, and all the doggies are asleep. happy day after independence day.