The Sound of Fireworks

I love a good light show. I really do. But I absolutely despise the sound of fireworks.

I like hissing and sizzling and crackling - but it's the bangs and the booms and the pops I can't stand.  Especially when it's 11 pm and I have to work the next morning. But even when it's noon, I still flinch every time a firecracker goes off.

But setting firecrackers off past midnight is just rude. Especially if you live in a city where they're illegal outside of certain hours or an apartment complex with a no-fireworks policy in place.  There's a reason I chose to live here.

The Decline of the Hat as an Indicator of Adulthood

I have a hat that I wear. Constantly. It's a Greek Fisherman's cap. And, because it's not black, it's very distinctively mine.

Yes, I do have a black one.  I also have a blue one, a brown one, and the grey one that gets the most use.

To me, we have really lost something over the last few decades as hats have declined.

If you can find it, take a look at street scenes or candid photos from the 1950's and earlier. You'll find that most adults - men and women alike - wore hats of some sort while outside. Children (especially boys) wore caps. It's as if, once you hit eighteen, you set aside the cap and got a grownup hat. Very few caps (such as mine) qualify as grownup hats.

If you looked at people on the street, you saw fedoras and porkpies and bowlers and cowboy hats and  homburgs and ...

Wikipedia has an excellent list.

To a small child, roles are still tied up in hats - if you wear a fireman's helmet, it doesn't matter what else you're wearing: You're a Fireman.  If you are wearing a hard hat, you're a construction worker (or a builder).

Somewhere along the way, however, we've misplaced the grown-up hats. People my age wear baseball caps. Constantly. It's like they're holding on to their childhood.

When did this all change? And why?

I'm not the only person who feels like this, by the way.

Poking around the internet, it appears as though the rise of the automobile is responsible for the decline of the hat - we're walking less, and are thus spending less time outside. With less time spent outside, protection from the elements becomes less important.

There is a line of thought that the new pedestrian-friendly community development concepts may bring hats back from the dead - I sure hope so.

Because I dislike the current state of things.

Firm Mattresses

At home, we have a pillow-top mattress. A nice, soft, cushioning pillow top mattress.

Most hotels have a moderately soft mattress.

But, when visiting family, we're often stuck with what said family has.

My mother-in-law has a concrete slab cleverly disguised as a mattress.

Based on my experiences in Minnesota, it runs in the family.

Which is really really not good for my back.

Fifteen years ago, I slept just fine on nearly any surface you'd care to name. Hardwood floors? Check. Car seats? Check. Nails? Check. Grass and dirt? Check. Hammock? Check.

As I've aged, however (and I'm really not that old - I'm only 35), my back has grown more and more intolerant of more and more sleeping surfaces. Sleeping anywhere that isn't home leads to back pain.

That? Is something I dislike.

Limited Vacation Time

Here in the US, we don't get enough vacation time, especially when compared to our counterparts in Europe.

Right now, I have two weeks of paid time off, plus one "personal" day. This is my vacation time and sick leave all rolled into one. Once I've been in my current job for ten years, I'll get a third week of paid time off.

Now, this is a bit less than most full-time jobs in the US that actually give you vacation time - and I have a longer wait for an increase than most. But that's not to say we're anywhere close to the rest of the world.

The best benefits plan I ever had gave me 1 week sick time, 2 weeks vacation, and 3 personal days. After five years, it was bumped to 3 weeks of vacation. This meant that - at first - I had 18 paid days off. This is still less than the average in Japan.

Yes, really.

It actually limits the conventions and other events I go to. By a lot.

I go to GenCon every year. It's the highlight of my year, and it costs me about a week of vacation time. This leaves me with just over a week (total) to play with. This week has to cover illness as well as vacation/fun activities.

I'm allowed to take unpaid time off if I want to - and I'm doing so this year, in fact - but I can't (financially) afford to take much time unpaid.

It's frustrating.

And I dislike it.

Airplane Rides

I love going on trips, but I have not yet found a way to get from point A to point B that I actually like. A decade ago, airplanes were my travel method of choice - buses are filled with Bus People (and are amazingly slow), Trains are a relic from the 19th century that hasn't been adequately updated, cars are expensive and comparatively slow.

Airplanes are expensive to get onto, but they're fast. Too bad it's a huge hassle getting onto them.

By the way, as you're reading this (all three or four of you who are reading this regularly), I'll be in Minnesota. That's right: Sometimes, we have to do things we don't like.

In my case, it means fighting through security, crowds, and the nerve-wracking takeoff and landing portions of the trip. And that goes without mentioning the extra fun of turbulence and occasional lightning storms. Twice.

Late Posts

Don't you hate it when you get used to a blog's posting schedule, and then a post is late?

At first, it's disbelief, and then a bit of concern - did he forget this week? Did he run out of things to say? Is the blog dead? Is the blogger dead?

And then, just as your worry starts to escalate into a small panic, the post appears with a note - "Sorry I'm late, I typoed the scheduled time," or something similar.

As someone who reads several dozen blogs daily, I hate that. I have a daily routine which involves going from blog to blog in a given order. A late post throws my routine off, which can put me off my game for the rest of the day.

Writer's Block

What? You were expecting a long post with a title like that?