We did it!

What I want to know is how is everybody affording these (illegal) fireworks? From what I can gather, a stash of them can easily go into the many hundreds of dollars. Those who have lit 4th of July fireworks since the start of the week is almost literally lighting a ton of money on fire. In this economy?

Or, put it another way: is there anything more American than going into (long-term) debt for some momentary fun?

Frequent readers of this blog (shout-out to the dozens of you) knows that I am hugely price-elastic. The high inflation of recent years has completely taken me out of the dining-out market. Even though I can afford it, I simply cannot in good conscience pay $12 for a meal at McDonald’s. We indeed have food at home, kids.

It seems there are a lot more than a dozen of us price-elastic consumers. I’ve started to see McDonald’s advertising a $5 meal deal: your choice of two sandwiches, four nuggets, a drink, and fries. The only explanation for this new strategy is there’s enough customers balking at the high menu prices. Me the customer do not care about your labor and material costs. If your price is above a certain emotional and rational threshold, we will simply go elsewhere.

Restaurants should at least do two out of these three: cheap, fast, and quality. McDonald’s is not quality (we can all agree), so it must deliver cheap and fast. With the recent outrageous menu prices, the company has failed at being cheap. No wonder people are choosing other options.

It’s too bad that just as this $5 meal thing arrives, my local McDonald’s has shut its doors. Sad!

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Downtown is not dead.

Sleepless in the 4th

How was your Fourth of July? Didn’t get any sleep, I bet.

As is with everything these days, Independence Day was not untouched by the scourge of the coronavirus. No big municipal firework show this year, obviously, and with parks closed and gatherings strictly not recommended, the traditional July 4th barbecue with friends or family was not be as well. Even though the weather was lovely and the sun was out in San Francisco, it was largely just another Saturday this past weekend. That is, until nightfall.

It’s ever expected that once Fourth of July turns into evening, the illegal fireworks come out to play. It’s something you get used to, but of course this year COVID-19 sprinkled some additional magic. For whatever reason, the amount of fireworks and the potency of them were extra high, probably the most extreme that I can remember. And people started early, too - before the sun has even gone down, which doesn’t really make sense because what exactly can you see when it’s still light out? Sadly, logic didn’t stop anything that day.

The noise and bangs from the fireworks were so intense that I put on earplugs as soon as I finished dinner, but even those things can only do so much; there’s no keeping out the sound entirely when it’s that loud. Not sure where people are getting them but the scale have gone completely off the rails. Your illegal fireworks are probably too big if the explosion can be felt through shakes of the windows and building. As someone simply trying to endure through the night, you sort of hope that nothing falls on your roof and catch on fire. To used a tired and inappropriate cliche: it sounded like a war zone out there the whole night of the 4th.

There was some good news: by the time the next day rolled around, it seems my neighborhood have exhausted their supplies because there were far less fireworks on the 5th of July than usual. Thank god for that because there are those us who had to get some proper sleep in order to for work on Monday.

Happy birthday. America; the only civilized country on earth that can’t seem to contain the coronavirus properly. You are indeed exceptional!

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All that’s left are leaves.

No rest for everybody

I would like to know whose idea or agreement was it that said we are going to have nightly rounds of illegal fireworks for the entire month of June, presumably leading up to the Fourth of July. It used to be that only on the day of Independence Day would we had to deal with the loud bangs and pops of fireworks emanating around the neighborhood, but for some reason somebody decided this year that we are going to have it every evening for a whole month. According to what I can gleam from twitter, this is a phenomenon all throughout the country. New Yorkers are so fed up with the disruption that they’ve gone to the mayor’s house to protest - with loud honking.

It makes sense: if I can’t get proper sleep, why should the person who runs the city?

Normally I am not against illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July; it’s for the kids, and just one night out of the whole year having to endure thunderous sounds while trying to fall asleep is a worthy tradeoff. Thirty straight days, however? That’s got to be a no from me, man. Since the month of June began I’ve been wearing ear-plugs to sleep, something I usually don’t do unless I’m traveling. While I can indeed sleep through earthquakes, paradoxically I need absolute silence in order to fall into slumber. These nightly fireworks have not been conducive to say the least, and honestly I’m starting to get rather annoyed.

I have no doubts the coronavirus situation plays a huge factor in the endless melee of loud bangs every night. There’s got to be a surplus of fireworks that were made available to purchase online very cheaply; thus armed with an arsenal that couldn’t be depleted in one single night, one person decided to start lighting them up way ahead of the Independence holiday. Monkey see, monkey do, and everybody who’s got illegal fireworks began to shoot them on a nightly basis. Admittedly it was amusing at first, but after over twenty consecutive days of it, it’s really not fun anymore. Worse, there’s still almost two weeks before the actual Fourth of July; god forbid it continues on after that.

Not here to spoil anyone’s party, but the daily rounds of fireworks is a prime example of too much of a good thing. I hope this super quirky 2020 is but an aberration, and starting next year we go back to putting up fireworks on the day of only.

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How would you like your adapter to be adapted?

I came home to a dumpster fire

Yesterday was Fourth of July holiday so of course there was hordes of illegal fireworks happening long into the night. It’s been my annual ritual and goal to avoid all the madness, shutting out the chaos with noise-cancelling headphones or earplugs while praying to the gods none of the shrapnel sets fire to my car. 

I don’t own a car anymore so one less thing to worry about. 

This year circumstances found me heading out with some friends to watch San Francisco’s official fireworks display by the piers. We avoided heading to Fisherman's Wharf directly because of the enormous crowds, and instead placed ourselves on the nice lawn at Fort Mason. Perhaps not as awe-inspiring compared to being upfront and close, but we valued space and actual spots to sit above that. 

Having a view of the Golden Gate Bridge backdropped in a glittering sunset wasn’t so bad either. 

Departing from the festivities I was able to see the many illegal fireworks setting off throughout the city, a symphony of exploding lights accompanying me on the drive home. The sheer volume and scale of some of the fireworks was truly impressive; dangerously close to rivaling the smaller shells in the City's show. One stray from those incendiaries land on a roof it is over. 

Unfortunately one stray did land in my housing complex’s communal dumpster, courtesy of my neighbor, so I came home to a literal dumpster fire. A company of firefighters was at the tail-end of extinguishing it, which blocked me from entering the parking lot. It was a mess.

I am decidedly live and let live when it comes to unsanctioned fireworks, but people have got to be smart about not igniting next to highly flammable things (all of our houses made entirely of wood not withstanding). Count it a successful July 4th holiday if everybody can have their fill with fireworks and in the process no houses - or dumpsters - got burned down. 

The evening sky over Golden Gate Bridge, our lovely view from Fort Mason.