[quote="Shadowfax"]
I'm whining about fireworks. They get earlier and earlier each year and it sets my mums dogs off, which wakes my daughter up. *sigh* Fine with fireworks the few days over bonfire night, but really? Already?[/quote]
I loathe fireworks. They set off PTSD in war veterans, and some autistic people are really sensitive to loud, sudden noises, to the point where they experience extreme distress. Animals get completely stressed out, and the confusion makes it easy for them to go missing if they were outside. And all this for... pretty sky sparkles. I had a dream once where things were being digitally projected into the night sky, and I honestly have no idea why we don't actually do something like that. It would remove the loud boom problem and still allow the pretty sky sparkles. It would give fireworks more freedom, too. You could project a pretty, sparkly American flag for Independence Day here in the US, and similarly appropriate things for other holidays.
I think the worst part is that people don't know when to stop, either. I shudder to think how bad it must be for those sensitive to fireworks when they go on from 7pm to 2am. I'm not joking, they kept up for that long last summer.