4th of July booms

[Outdated]

It is hard to respect my reactions to things though when I do not see examples of other people feeling they way I do. Hundreds of thousands of very happy people come to the fireworks show, so it must be a wonderful thing and something is wrong with me.

You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, not everyone loves fireworks. Not everyone loves them to the point that in a lot of countries it's illegal to have your own fireworks and people only get to see professional events.

In Australia only one state allows personal fireworks and that's supposed to only be for 5 hours on one night of the year but there's a lot of idiots out there too. For some even the big boom of fireworks isn't enough and in the rural areas around Darwin you hear people detonating pipe bombs. The fire brigade hates them, the wildlife carers and animal shelters hate them, and quite a few residents hate them too.

It's something very exciting for children the first few times they see them, and as a young man it was also very exciting to be able to set off my own fireworks as well, but that thrill doesn't last long for most of us. The novelty wears off pretty quickly, I haven't gone to see a fireworks show for more than 30 years.

 

[Coxhere]

I'll be moving way up north at the end of August, so hopefully things will be a lot more quiet then. Can't drive due to my disability, and my 20/50 vision, even with glasses, makes driving impossible.

As far as my anxiety, nothing's ever worked in the past during an attack at all. Talking about it to anyone just makes it worse. I pretty much just have to suffer through it.

Dear Justin_havu,

Now that I understand that talking about your anxiety makes it worse, I won't bring it up anymore. But thanks for letting me know.

I was living in Houston, Texas many years ago when I went and interviewed for a job in Madawaska, Maine. While there, I made my only trip into Canada. I stepped across the national boundary into New Brunswick, I believe it was. I didn't get the job but my trip up there was the farthest place in the United States that I'd ever been up to that time. Part of my interview was with administrative staff in Caribou and Presque Isle. I also got to visit Fort Kent and learned some of the history of that town. So, I got to experience several places in Aroostook County. I thought that Houlton was a pretty city. Border Patrol officials entered the bus I was on and he was quite surprised to discover that I'd come to Aroostook County all the way from Houston. I stopped and had lunch in Bangor and liked that city as well as your capital, Augusta.

While I was stationed in Sinop, Turkey, even before my interview in Aroostook County, I knew a fellow soldier whose hometown was South Berwick, Maine!

Sincerely,

John