Fireworks 2016 - and so it begins

It was a dark and stormy night. . . Well, yes, it was night, but it was also morning. 2:30 a.m. to be exact. But let’s go back to that part about dark. Definitely dark.

The hubs was gone to southeast Kansas for his annual fireworks event in Pittsburg, Kansas.  For him, it’s the equivalent of a birthday party to a five-year-old, the only thing more exciting being Christmas, (to him, the 4^th of July). Now that it’s established what a big deal this was, I’ll go on with the story. It’s dark and it’s stormy and hubby is driving home in the dead of night with the back end of his pickup filled with fireworks. (You can’t have a birthday party without presents!)

I talked to him on the phone about 11:00. He said he was nervous about getting home without getting rained on. Rain would be detrimental to fireworks, of course. He covered them with some tarps, but a good soaking might ruin them. Fast forward to 2:30 a.m. He is pulling into Bennington having so far avoided all the rain but for a few sprinkles. But wait, where’s the street lights? Lights of the town? Lights from our house pointing the way home? Remember what I said earlier about being dark? Yeah the power had gone out just as he pulled into town.

OK – so let’s see if I can paint you a visual. Only color I need is black. Add some rain beginning to fall a little heavier, an occasional distant rumble of thunder and the pickup so full of fireworks the back end can’t make it into the garage – if we could open the garage door.

So, I trot out into the rain to be of some help (You know me – I am EXCELLENT help with anything fireworks related :).  We lift the garage door the old-fashioned-way, grab a few flashlights and stand there in the rain unloading boxes from the back end of the pickup, carrying them into the dark garage and trying to put them somewhere that they won't be in the way should we ever get to point where we actually can bring the pickup into the garage too. Novel idea – who would have ever thought of having a garage filled with vehicles instead of fireworks?

Somebody should have taken a picture of the two of us unloading fireworks in the pitch-black wetness. Except the picture would have been too dark to see anything. We got the fireworks safely inside, nothing damaged by the rain, just in time.  We were tired, damp and happy. Well, at least one of us was happy. The other one was too tired to care.  And that’s the end of the story. Kind of anti-climactic, huh?

I always wanted to finish Snoopy’s story. It was a dark and stormy night. The fireworks arrived home and made it to their dry, albeit dark garage. The End. Except it’s not. It’s only the beginning with the climax to follow on July 4^th at the annual Celebration in the Sky.  To be continued. . .