JULY 4TH AND MY FIRST CALL TO 911

I'm a little late, but I can't go without documenting our July 4th weekend! I had the best time in Florida last year watching fireworks on the beach with my family. It didn't work out for us to go down this year, so I got the bright idea that we should go buy some sparklers. In case you are wondering, the sparklers have nothing to do with the 911 call!

Yes, we are 34 and 37 years old and it was sparklers that I picked out at the lovely fireworks stand outside of the Ingles. I was tormented as a child by firecrackers and bottle rockets. Various family members thought it was funny to throw firecrackers at the feet of various other family members when they weren't looking! And, I very distinctly remember the day that Mema (my grandmother on Daddy's side) and her sister decided to shoot some bottle rockets. I got scared and ran…straight into a sliding glass door. I hurt my knee and had to be taken to the hospital. To this day, that knee still hurts from time to time! Ok, I hope no one is laughing! Not funny! Ok, it kind of is.

We bought the sparklers and then decided to just take a drive and see where it led us. We ended up in a neighboring city that was having a carnival. We ate some junk food, walked around in the sweltering heat a little, and then headed home to cool off.

We relaxed for a couple of hours and then it was time to load the chairs up to head to our local fireworks show. They always have a band of some sort, tons of junk food of course, and pretty decent fireworks for such a small town.

We got about 1/8th of a mile down the road when I noticed a fire in the woods…not a little fire, a big fire. Then we noticed there were some….ummm….just no nice way to say this… there were some crack heads standing across from the fire. We put two and two together and realized that they shot some type of firework into the woods.

Then, this is how the conversation went:

Will: Call 911.

(sidenote: I have had a recurring dream for years and years where I call 911 and they either don't answer or they put me on hold. No lie.)

Cindy: Seriously? I've never called 911. Surely, the people standing there staring at the fire called them already.

Will: Cindy, they are crack heads, do you really think they called? They probably think it's funny.

Cindy: Ok….(nervously dialed 911, and cleared my throat in an attempt to sound VERY calm and collected…I did not want to sound like a babbling idiot on my first 911 call…I was imagining myself saying, "Get out here NOW! It's pandalerium! These daggum crack heads done set these here woods on fire! Someone's gonna die or even worse!" (think Jeff Foxworthy)

911: 911, What is your emergency?

Cindy: (calm and collected) I would like to report a fire.

911: Where are you?

Cindy: Will, where are we?

Will: By such and such trail.

Cindy: By such and such trail.

911: Ok, I have a fire truck in route. Does the fire appear to be spreading?

Cindy: Well, let me see. No, it appears pretty contained to me.

Will: (Slapping hand on the steering wheel and looking at me like I was crazy.)

911: Ok, I will just send the one truck then.

Cindy: Ok, I think that should be fine. Thank you.

Will: What is wrong with you? Why did you tell them it was contained?

Cindy: It looks contained to me!

On to the fireworks show we went talking about my call to 911 and Will telling me repeatedly that he didn't know when I became knowledgeable enough about fires to know it they were "contained" or not. I told him that I know a lot of things.

We arrived at the local football field and set our chairs up. Then we made a tour around the field to check out the junk food being offered. Will informed me that he was going to get some chili dogs and then a fried Oreo cookie. I informed him that he was gross and offered a friendly reminder that he has not been taking his cholesterol medicine. Then, I bought a funnel cake because they are MUCH healthier than fried Oreo's. Ha, ha! Will ate his hot dogs and then decided he wanted the rest of my cake instead of the Oreo so it all worked out.

Then they announced that the band was coming out. We didn't know who was playing, but we did notice that the generation of 60-something's in the crowd were on their feet. Turns out a band by the name of "Chairmen of the Board" were playing. They started out by saying they were going to do a Michael Jackson tribute. Will and I were on our feet then, because as weird as he was, who can turn down an opportunity to see someone try to impersonate him? Um….they fell slightly short, but at least they tried.

The lady beside us, who was around 70 maybe, danced her little heart out the WHOLE time. We enjoyed watching her and I especially enjoyed the part where she got a little too into it and stumbled into a hole! What? She didn't hit the ground and she wasn't hurt!!!

After the fireworks, the lights came on, and off we went into the crowd to try and find our car. While we were walking out, they came over the loud speaker and announced that a little dachshund was missing in the crowd somewhere and to please scoop her up if we saw her. This is what I had to hear ALL the way to the car and ALL the way home, "Do you think they will find that dog? Poor dog. I am really worried about that dog! What kind of idiot brings their dog to a fireworks show and then let's go of it? Do you think it's ok?"

Our own dachshund welcomed us home. Thankfully, none of our animals are afraid of firework noises. We headed outside with our sparklers.

We lit the first one and then discovered that this was not going to be quite the blast we had imagined. We just kind of held them and laughed and felt pretty silly. In the middle of all of this, the neighbor's dog across the street decided to come and attack us. They never let the dog run loose and they accidentally let her get away from them. I was scared, really scared. The dog was coming at us barking, I was trying to hide behind Will, and the little girl was screaming at the dog. She eventually got the dog's attention and she started running back to her at the exact same time that a car came flying down the road.

Will lost his mind. "Stop calling the dog! Stand where you are!" As for me, I stood there with my hands over my ears. Why is it that when you are really scared about something, you cover your ears? Wouldn't it make more sense to cover your eyes? I noticed the little girl covered her ears as well. We held our breath and I am telling you that car missed that dog by 1/10th of a second. It could have been a disaster. We were shaken up, but decided to continue our fun sparkler lighting.

Will decided it was time for the finale and he lined about 10 sparklers up in the yard with a plan to have them all going at once. This was the best part to me, because as he would go to light the next one, the previous one would go out. It just wasn't meant to be.

We had a good day all in all though. I was pretty proud that I remained calm during my first 911 call and that they actually answered. If y'all ever need to know whether a fire is contained or not and how many trucks you think will be needed to put it out, just let me know.

(To see all of our July 4th pictures, click this link. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30517&id=1215731504&l=1b7299dd63)