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  • Independence Day Festivities

    Things are so weird around here the days leading up to the 4th of July. I guess I don't blame folks - it's the only holiday where it's warm enough to go outside without jackets on. So almost every town around has its own Independence Day festival.

    The bank's drive-through exits on to Main Street, and the city has Main Street blocked off for the carnival and food booths. We still had people driving up, then having to drive around barricades to get off of Main Street. So we parked a car in the driveway, and people were still walking up and saying "you know there's a car parked in your driveway?"

    All the local businesses are expected to come in to get extra change for the weekend. Many of them have food booths, too, so they need extra change for that as well. But they procrastinate. We expect most of the businesses to come in this afternoon, when the tellers are trying to balance.

    In addition to customers coming in for spending money for the 4th, it's Friday and Social Security day. We expect to have tons of extra traffic in the lobby today. We've had people calling since yesterday, asking if we were open and asking how to get to the bank with Main Street blocked off.

    To get home tonight, I'll have to navigate multiple detours from roads being blocked off for parades and festivals. After I make it home, I'm not leaving my sanctuary until it's time for work Monday.
    "I look at the stars. It's a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That's where I'll be going soon. "We are all star stuff." I suddenly remember Delenn's line from Joe's script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid. In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's all."
    -Mira Furlan

  • #2
    "Have you been out on the street lately? Do you know how weird it is out there?"

    They're starting to at least get some barricades ready (on my way back from the grocery store I saw some moron ram a sawhorse just because he could and promptly get an asschewing from a cop). I plan to not even try going anywhere near downtown tomorrow.

    I lost my discount-fare T pass, so had to go down to the pass office yesterday (I hate going down there). It was a mess, probably because they were closed today. The space isn't that big to begin with, I had no fewer than four people try to sit on me (do I look like a chair?).

    People practically yelling their SSN's/RIDE account numbers to the entire train station (they ask for your social if you don't have ID).

    I find out on the way back that my pass got changed; what I had was a stored-value card same as the regular Charlie Card, just programmed for reduced-fare. I prefer stored-value so I can keep track of what's on it (also, I can recharge it at any fare kiosk and keep the receipts for taxes). It was changed to "unlimited monthly", meaning I have to go down there every month to get it recharged...I'm hoping I can get it changed back.
    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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    • #3
      Yeah, people have been driving around the barricades all day here, too.

      The parade is tonight at 5:00. People have been setting up their folding chairs since 2:00. But they don't stay with their chairs. Anywhere else in the world, those chairs would be stolen in minutes. Nobody here bothers them. They don't even move them to make room for their own chairs.
      "I look at the stars. It's a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That's where I'll be going soon. "We are all star stuff." I suddenly remember Delenn's line from Joe's script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid. In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's all."
      -Mira Furlan

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      • #4
        Not being American, the Fourth of July is ust another day for me... supposedly... except it's my wife's birthday so we always do something on the day anyway.

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        • #5
          I had somebody calling us complaining that they couldn't get out of their driveway because it was on the parade route. He was all upset because he needed to go to work. I didn't feel bad for him though, we have parades and marathons all the time that block people's driveways, those people always park their car a block or 2 away the night before if they have to leave during the event.
          "I'm working for popcorn - what I get paid doesn't rise to the level of peanuts." -Courtesy of Darkwish

          ...Beware the voice without a face...

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          • #6
            We have people here who whine about when the Grand Prix comes to town.

            It's not like it's some mystery event that shows up at a random day each year. They should have done their research before moving to a spot that happens to be on the race route.

            ^-.-^
            Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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            • #7
              Quoth Andara Bledin View Post
              We have people here who whine about when the Grand Prix comes to town.
              You too? Quite a few people bitch about the car show/race in Schenley Park here every year. They're pissed about the noise during the day, and how crowded the area is.

              I don't complain...even if the traffic over there sucks...mainly because I enjoy it Oh, and there's the added bonus of driving through the park the Friday night before the race. The (public) roads are still open, but the barricades are in place, stop signs removed or covered, and you don't have to worry about getting pulled over for speeding
              Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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              • #8
                Quoth Andara Bledin View Post
                It's not like it's some mystery event that shows up at a random day each year. They should have done their research before moving to a spot that happens to be on the race route.
                Same here, for Mardi Gras or the trifecta of the St Patrick's Day/Italian-American/Irish-Italian parades. Note that the residential streets that are affected ALL have permanent signs along them that say "Parade Route: NO PARKING for 6 hours before or after parades".

                Granted, the dates for MG change every year (can be anywhere from early Feb to late March), but people who live there KNOW these dates. Businesses along the routes plan to be closed (unless they sell food or boozeahol). Businesses NOT along the routes lan to be closed because they know damn well that nobody will show up for work (sober, anyway...)

                Tourists can't really use this excuse, either. If they're staying with relatives or friends, they are informed of the dates and will usually park far away from the routes. If they got a hotel ON a route, it means that they booked it at Mardi Gras time of the PRIOR YEAR at the very least...
                Last edited by EricKei; 07-10-2009, 11:45 PM. Reason: clarification
                "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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                • #9
                  Not holiday related but we have a National Guard base not far from here and it makes me giggle the people that move in and complain about bombing runs.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth PentUpRage View Post
                    Not holiday related but we have a National Guard base not far from here and it makes me giggle the people that move in and complain about bombing runs.
                    That's like people who move in near a freeway or airport and then bitch about the car/plane noise.

                    ^-.-^
                    Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Ghel View Post
                      The parade is tonight at 5:00. People have been setting up their folding chairs since 2:00. But they don't stay with their chairs. Anywhere else in the world, those chairs would be stolen in minutes. Nobody here bothers them. They don't even move them to make room for their own chairs.
                      They should. Putting down a folding chair to "reserve" a spot around the parade route is just gauche if you're nowhere near it until 5 minutes before the parade starts.

                      Seriously, I'd just love to see some of these people have their chairs stolen. Or better yet, just mixed up and moved around to random spots.

                      That's one of the things I don't miss about the municipal fireworks, along with the chill from the lake, the dampness, the Pratt-and-Whitney powered mosquitoes, winding up next to some tweaker who can't shut up or sit still, the drunken idiots trying to blow themselves to Kingdom Come with M-80s before the first colorful explody things rise into the sky, and navigating the clusterfuck that is the traffic trying to get out after the fireworks are over.
                      Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                      "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Irving Patrick Freleigh View Post
                        They should. Putting down a folding chair to "reserve" a spot around the parade route is just gauche if you're nowhere near it until 5 minutes before the parade starts.
                        People do that here for MG. Fortunately, most of them are smart enough to have someone watch the things, just in case. Getting to a parade route 6 hours ahead of time IS the only reliable way to guarantee a spot to sit. Note, however, that they have to keep them on the sidewalk, anything in the street gets a free flight to the back row, sooner or later.
                        "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                        "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                        "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                        "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                        "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                        "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                        Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                        "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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                        • #13
                          Quoth Irving Patrick Freleigh View Post
                          That's one of the things I don't miss about the municipal fireworks, along with the chill from the lake, the dampness, the Pratt-and-Whitney powered mosquitoes
                          Actually, they were powered by a pair of Rolls Royce Merlin engines, not P&W.
                          Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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                          • #14
                            Also not holiday-related, but we live right by a train yard. Late at night you can sometimes hear the cars connecting (it sounds like thunder). The only thing I don't like is when you're trying to drive somewhere, and the train is pulling out of the yard, and then stops, and backs up into the yard again - you can sit forever waiting for them to be done.

                            I find city noises like that to be really soothing, though. Maybe I'm just weird.

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