Relative Something

As Cyndie was about to serve the horses their dinner last night around the time the sun was setting, the tranquility was disrupted by the sound of fireworks exploding.

I was listening to music at the time and spotted a text from Cyndie urging me to step outside to hear “crazy sounds.” I had been aware of something going on outside but discounted it as likely the sound of a neighboring farmer harvesting crops or some other activity.

Opening the door brought the instant clarity of the sound of fireworks. Not typical fireworks that pop in a planned sequence but non-stop, chaotic pops and bursts that told me this was an out-of-control event. It wasn’t dark enough yet for fireworks, anyway. Through the tree branches that obscured my view from the deck, I could tell a large smoke plume was rising into the sky.

I stepped back inside to grab binoculars that allowed me to spot bursts of color happening at the bottom of the billowing smoke. Those were fireworks all right. The peak of the bursts was just barely visible above the horizon.

I have no idea what distance away from us that would place the fire but I double-checked the overhead view on the map to verify I was looking toward the little hamlet of Beldenville. I just don’t know at this point if it was that close or some greater distance beyond. There has been no obvious evidence that I’ve noticed that would explain why a large number of fireworks are stored in the vicinity.

We checked the neighborhood app and looked at multiple news sources but couldn’t find any immediate explanation being posted. The popping sound of small shots lingered for over four hours lending credence to the belief the conflagration was newsworthy.

In this age of instant information available on the internet, I discovered my lack of participation in the multitude of social media applications leaves me out of the loop when something like this occurs. Maybe someone was streaming live video and I just didn’t know how to find it.

If anyone discovers what happened around here last night, point me to where you found the story.

Maybe I’ll finally get around to finding a scanner that monitors local emergency response calls. We don’t hear sirens in the area very often, so when we do it usually leaves us wondering what has happened.

Seeing the smoke plume and hearing the exploding fireworks made it pretty obvious what was happening, we just don’t know how close it was happening.

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