When writing the last post, the firecrackers began. Looking out the front window, I could see green and yellow splashes reflected in the dark lakes of the neighboring windows. So I walked over the lip of the hill and down to the park near my house for a better view. Cars lined both sides of the streets and there were a lot of people about, but I wanted to keep to myself.

The haze from the night and from the fireworks covering the downtown made the scene look like a grey poster: A neon skyline here, a partial facade spot-lit there. Private planes, invisible but for their wing-lights, circled like starship fighters; and helicopters hovered silhouetted like a futuristic movie. The fireworks were pretty cool: Red, Green and Purple shrubbery; lots of what my sister and I used to call "Exploding Dandeleon Heads". They had a few of the glistening stream kind, and weirdly, something that colored the grey sky with an alien glow. The end was a blitzkreig: People knew it was ending, and started collecting chairs and kids before it really did.

A kid, maybe 10 years old, was there with his dog, by themselves. The dog looked a lot like Picasso -- but no black spots on the tongue. He stayed by that kid's side, sniffing out the ground.