Washington Independence Day parade

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I missed the Denver celebration a few blocks north of here, and I hate missing it, but I heard it from my apartment. The fireworks didn't sound very big at all. It climaxed fairly quickly. Maybe Denver is depressed because they don't have an Obama in the White House and that means the world to them. I prefer them this way. Much easier to deal with. I could have gone downstairs just to see all the people streaming out, that's kind of fun, but there weren't many cars in the parking lot next door. I don't think it was very big this year judging by sound and by cars.

The Music Festival wasn't that condensed with people either. Judging from what I saw from my balcony and by what I heard inside. I didn't bother going out either times.

A lot more stuff is happening around town tonight. It's going to be a bit noisy for awhile. Sort of glad I don't have a dog to comfort from the onslaught they feel with their super hearing. 

Would you like a little story?

One year at this time I was reading one of those historic novels, this one based on the Aztecs, and falling asleep in a reclining chair in the back yard. My dog at my side in the shade. 

Aztec by Gary Jennings. It's candy. It's fat but you can read it in one night. Like a big fat box of chocolates.

Someone in the neighborhood was setting off fireworks and in that half-sleep state I heard the two-part  ka-boom the way that dogs do. I think. The ka part of ka-boom pinpoints the spot of origin a block away on the other side of the fence and the boom part of ka-boom is the sound wave preceding it. It follows it but it precedes it, it's weird. It's like boom-BOOM. Far-near.  So you hear the distant origin and the immediate eruption of sound around your body and it does sound exactly like an attack. A direct attack from an unseen enemy more powerful than you. I can see since then why dogs fear it so much. They sense they are under direct attack from an unseen source that's super powerful and it's horrifying. They are hearing the exact spot where the attack comes from then they feel the eruption of sound on their skin through their ears. It's a body attack. It's a profoundly threatening physical sensation through sound.

And I'm all, "Oh, wouda-wouda you poor little puppy, come here and be on my lap and I'll hold you and protect you while you shiver in fear." 

In that case back then I could take her downstairs to the cool basement, set up a cushion in her traveling kennel and turn on the music in the basement. And she would gladly stay there untended. But here she would just have to bear through it. 

That same year I stopped at a nearby 7-11. When I returned to my car a dog shot in from nowhere jumped in and cowered on the floor. I had to move him to the other side so I could drive. He was terrified and he went directly to a person he knew.

It was my neighbor's dog. I didn't interact that much with the dog but it recognized me and sought shelter from the onslaught of threatening sounds. I took the dog home and set him up as I did with my own dog in my basement until my neighbor came home.