The Daily Show: Everything Is Stupid - The Dangers of Fireworks
Every Fourth of July, some Americans like to celebrate in the stupidest way possible: blowing s**t up! Ronny Chieng breaks down the dangers of fireworks.
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We had sparklers as kids and I once went to a neighbor girl's summer birthday party where they sent off Roman candles over the lake. This was also on my mind tonight since I can hear the booms from outside. Fortunately, the pup I have now is sleeping right through it, but my Cairn Terrier used to freak right out, my Dad would sit with the dog on his lap with his hands over the dog's ears - or I'd take him to work with me since we could hear nothing inside that building. And the 4th isn't actually until tomorrow, but it's been going on for awhile... 
But I know that it'll only be worse tomorrow. I live in a residential area surrounded by woods and close to the mountains, yet one of my closest neighbors previously set off fireworks that rival the official fireworks show from the nearest city that are visible for miles. Not looking forward to that... 
It has been unusually hot weather, but rarely does a day go by without rain. Several of the storms have been drenching and, coupled with the wind, brought branches and trees down. I had an appointment one day last week, was inside for just over an hour, and walked out to see branches down all over and saw a tree uprooted on my way home.
So I can identify with the wind and rain, and at least it keeps the tourists inside. A lot of them are here to camp out and swim, but most seem to wander the streets in tightly packed crowds. *sigh*
And we did have fireworks last night, cars were even parked along the highway waiting for them to start. Of course it didn't rain yesterday (or today!), but it's forecast for the rest of the week.
The West is getting scorched and we're getting soaked! That doesn't mean cool weather here, it's usually over 80, but it would clearly be much hotter without all the rain we're getting.
And it's lovely you had a rainbow! It's been years since I've seen one of those! We seem to end up with a lot to clean up after these storms, instead.
But I guess it's to be expected since we had a rough winter, too. The first storm of the season left 34 inches of snow - and the last one was in mid April! I was out that day, too, and figured it had to be just "a dusting." I was wrong that time, too - it came down hard and it stuck. My neighbors even managed to build a very small snowman! 
It's not usually just a calming rain, but an actual storm, teeming down with a roar that you can hear at the back of the house, accompanied by wind and thunder. I'm only mentioning it since that's what just happened tonight, I could hear the roar and was grateful I insisted my dog go outside earlier. And it's increasingly accompanied by a loss of power, that just happened tonight, too.
We're fortunate here since it's a newer area, built in the '90s so the lines are underground so it usually comes back. But other areas with the lines overhead require action by the power company, especially if trees fall on the lines which happens a lot. We're surrounded by woods and mountains. And that was also my father's job, he was manager of the power company in these parts so I have vivid memories of the worst storms where the power was out for days - usually ice storms.
And even though the power came back, I lost internet access, the cable went out and I was running the dishwasher which stopped completely. At least that started back up again, but I had to restart everything else. Modern problems... 