I dislike this time of the year.

[Metalhead]

I say you be the rad guy in the neighborhood, and go to a fireworks stand, and show up on the 4th of July, where the kids are shooting off fireworks, and bring mortars.

They'll respect you so much, and look forward to it every year.

There actually is a fireworks stand nearby on an Indian reservation. The name of the place is "Ill Eagle Fireworks".

 

[Luca]

There actually is a fireworks stand nearby on an Indian reservation. The name of the place is "Ill Eagle Fireworks".

That’s a very fowl pun.

 

[Darkkin]

That’s a very fowl pun.

Truly raptor witted.

 

[Slime_Punk]

I used to hate summer in the south but I kind of dig it now. Thunderstorms give me the willies but I don't mind the 95+ degree heat so much anymore if I can cool off later

I don't have anything punny to add unfortunately

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I never really liked this time of year either. Even as a kid I hated summer mostly because of how hot it would get outside. I attended a day camp hosted by the local YMCA for a couple of years and I never really enjoyed it when they took us to the park near the building. In fact I had a really traumatic memory in that park when some older kids literally threatened to kill me by tying me up and throwing me onto nearby train tracks if I didn’t say the F word to one of 5he counselors. I didn’t do it because I didn’t understand what they wanted me to say or even how to pronounce it and they kept threatening me and I started to scream and held on tightly to a tree refusing to let go while I had this huge meltdown screaming that if I let go they were going to kill me. It took the counselors twenty minutes to get me to let go of the tree. Also the Steelers training camp was in the next town over and the counselors were going to take any kids interested in going see the players practice and I didn’t want to go because I didn’t know who the Steelers were let alone what football the game was. All I knew was a football was this weirdly shaped brown ball. Well the crazy lady that helped my dad raise me got upset that I didn’t want to go and so she forced me to go which was a horrible experience and ruined any chance of me liking football. We stood out in the direct sunlight in 90 degree weather with no water for two hours and it was super boring and I literally had no idea what was going on. I was eight years old and being out in the sun at that age for that long without any water is miserable for anyone. All I saw were a bunch of guys just running back and forth. If I had stayed at the YMCA like I had wanted, I would have been in air conditioning with access to water, gone swimming in the pool, and watched a movie and actually have fun.

 

[Mary Terry]

The percentage of PTSD veterans from Iraq/Afghanistan in that gif is way too low IMO. I'm thinking north of 30%.

I was really hoping I could spend July 4 in Jefferson, where ALL personal fireworks are illegal and the penalties are severe, and there are no local "professional" firework events due to fire danger. But I'm here in Sacramento, so I get to listen to the Ukrainian immigrants setting off cherry bombs and M80's all night. I dunno why they can't be proud adopted Americans in a quieter fashion.

In addition to obnoxious fireworks, people here shoot guns including machine-gun rapid-fire types. Every now and then, someone is killed by a stray bullet.

I pray for rain and tornadic weather on the 4th.

 

[oregano]

In addition to obnoxious fireworks, people here shoot guns including machine-gun rapid-fire types. Every now and then, someone is killed by a stray bullet.

I pray for rain and tornadic weather on the 4th.

Gunfire on the 4th is very common in the slums of the SF Bay Area. Bullets rain down unpredictably. One year a .22 bullet came down right next to a 14 yo girl sleeping in her bed. It made a hole in the roof/ceiling big enough to let sunlight in, and made a little pile of drywall right next to her bed. She didn't realize what happened until morning because there's gunfire all night in East Oakland.

 

[Galvatrancis]

Not only is it way too hot outside, I have to hear dumb kids in my neighborhood setting off fireworks until god only knows when now.

I need to buy some earplugs tomorrow.

This is a whine post. Somebody please bring me some cheese.

Here on Brazil is still cold, but DAMN i HATE summer. Winter is cozy, not a lot of things happen and no loud noises. Summer is just about partying in the worst time possible. I agree that Summer is Dumb. Anyone Else ?

 

[tree]

I still have to put on handwarmers to eat ice cream. I have zero heat retention even in the summer months.

Do you wear multiple layers of clothing, year round?
Including on your head?

Spoiler

Today I was wearing:
shoes
2 pairs socks
underpants
long underwear bottoms
sweat pants
khaki pants
sleeveless undershirt
thin long sleeved shirt
oversized hooded sweatshirt
2 cotton bandanas
hiking cap
head band
what people think of as a 'winter' scarf, wrapped around my (sweatshirt hooded)head
and neck.

Temperature today was 81F (27.2C)

 

[Darkkin]

Do you wear multiple layers of clothing, year round?
Including on your head?

Yes. Always.

 

[Forest Cat]

Gunfire on the 4th is very common in the slums of the SF Bay Area. Bullets rain down unpredictably.

Are there really slums in San Fransisco? My sister was there in the 90s and she said it was nice there then. The way you describe it, it sounds like a favela in Brazil. Hard to believe a country like the mighty USA could have slums.

 

[Judge]

Are there really slums in San Fransisco? My sister was there in the 90s and she said it was nice there then. The way you describe it, it sounds like a favela in Brazil. Hard to believe a country like the mighty USA could have slums.

It's true. But then most tourists manage to avoid the less scenic parts of The City.

Inland districts within blocks of City Hall, like the Tenderloin and Western Edition. SF can be a peculiar combination of extreme wealth and poverty separated only by short distances. Some districts like Potrero Hill have evolved with gentrification, driving out the poorer people to the East Bay. The Mission District and the Panhandle could be a little dangerous at night, but nicer in the daytime. I'd probably say the same about the Haight as well.

Though I haven't been in SF in years, and have no desire to go much further back into California than Truckee or South Lake Tahoe these days. Having to wade through a gauntlet of panhandlers as soon as I exited the Montgomery St. BART station every day. Yeah, commuting to and working in the financial district for ten years was more than enough for me.

Nothing I haven't experienced in a number of other major US cities. With SF as no real exception in this regard.

San Francisco's downtown area is more contaminated with drug needles, garbage, and feces than some of the world's poorest slums

 

[Forest Cat]

It's true. But then most tourists manage to avoid the less scenic parts of The City.

Inland districts within blocks of City Hall, like the Tenderloin and Western Edition. SF can be a peculiar combination of extreme wealth and poverty separated only by short distances. Some districts like Potrero Hill have evolved with gentrification, driving out the poorer people to the East Bay. The Mission District and the Panhandle could be a little dangerous at night, but nicer in the daytime. I'd probably say the same about the Haight as well.

Though I haven't been in SF in years, and have no desire to go much further back into California than Truckee or South Lake Tahoe these days. Having to wade through a gauntlet of panhandlers as soon as I exited the Montgomery St. BART station every day. Yeah, commuting to and working in the financial district for ten years was more than enough for me.

Nothing I haven't experienced in a number of other major US cities. With SF as no real exception in this regard.

San Francisco's downtown area is more contaminated with drug needles, garbage, and feces than some of the world's poorest slums

I googled a little and holy crap. It looks bad. One surprising thing, there is something called "the jungle" in Silicon Valley, a homeless camp. I thought Silicon Valley was full of rich and fancy computer people. It's a little mind-boggling that the US can have slums like that. The question "what happened" comes to mind. You'd think a superpower like the US would be more than able to take care of its people. And make sure there are no slums. But there seems to be a massive drug problem, that doesn't help.

 

[Judge]

I googled a little and holy crap. It looks bad. One surprising thing, there is something called "the jungle" in Silicon Valley, a homeless camp. I thought Silicon Valley was full of rich and fancy computer people. It's a little mindboggling that the US can have slums like that. The question "what happened" comes to mind. You'd think a superpower like the US would be more than able to take care of its people.

Keep in mind that "Silicon Valley" is more of a metaphor and less of any specific geographical distinction.

In reality it arguably spans from Marin County north of SF, and as far south as San Jose where you can find homeless camps like "the jungle". And in some cases it spills into the East Bay as well. Reflecting a broad socio-economic strata.

 

[oregano]

The bullet incident didn't happen in the city of San Francisco itself, but in Oakland, on the other side of the bay. Locals refer to "San Francisco Bay Area" to refer to the greater metropolitan area surrounding San Francisco and San Jose. The San Francisco Bay itself is one of three main inland bodies of water in the area, the others being San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay. Oakland is infamous for being a massive slum, yeah kinda like the big favela areas in Brazil like the Mare in Rio de Janeiro.

The area has gone way downhill since @Forest Cat's sister was there in the 90s. I lived in the city of San Francisco in the mid 90s and it wasn't excessively dangerous, but when the internet came around the whole social fabric of the Bay Area was shredded. Rents soared and the working class and other low socioeconomic classes such as LGBTQ+ people and artists were forced out entirely by the time the internet bubble burst in 2000. People were lured to the area with a dream of making it rich but didn't. Many of them eventually became a massive underclass.

America today has a tiny class of wealthy people and most of the rest are a giant underclass stratified by race-Whites on the top, then Asians, then Latinos, then Blacks on the bottom. It's a real shock to people who only know the country from imported American TV shows.

 

[oregano]

Keep in mind that "Silicon Valley" is more of a metaphor and less of any specific geographical distinction.

In reality it arguably spans from Marin County north of SF, and as far south as San Jose where you can find homeless camps like "the jungle". And in some cases it spills into the East Bay as well. Reflecting a broad socio-economic strata.

The commonly accepted geographic definition of "Silicon Valley" is from around Menlo Park south through Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, then west and central San Jose, then south to Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga, Campbell, and with a stretched finger through the Coyote Gap to Morgan Hill. That's generally what most people mean by Silicon Valley.

The tech billionaires you see on TV all the time are actually a tiny minority in an ethnoracial sense in the area. Whites and Judeo-Whites (I had to include that since there are some Jews such as Mark Zuckerberg who could be considered somewhat culturally distinct from Whites) are only a few percent of the Valley's population. The bulk of the technology workers hail from India and China. Those countries have superior educational systems to America and prepare their young far better. Then there is a Latino servant class, mainly from Mexico and the Deadly Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras). On the bottom, in the homeless camps, are a lot of low-caste Whites, mostly.

 

[Judge]

The commonly accepted geographic definition of "Silicon Valley" is from around Menlo Park south through Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, then west and central San Jose, then south to Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga, Campbell, and with a stretched finger through the Coyote Gap to Morgan Hill. That's generally what most people mean by Silicon Valley.

Not when I worked in high-tech in the late 90s. Went much further north than that.

Back then from our point of view, Silicon Valley extended all the way to Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio. But hey...it's just the perspective of entertainment software developers. Opinions vary...

 

[oregano]

Not when I worked in high-tech in the late 90s. Went much further north than that.

Yeah, back then people were fighting over any accommodations they could find. People stuffed themselves into tiny efficiency apartments in San Francisco, 5 to a 12x12 ft room, with the dream of making it rich. They would pack CalTrain commuter trains to go to Mountain View and Sunnyvale for work. But if you look at the distribution of technology companies, even back then, you'll find that it's generally limited to the area I described.

 

[Judge]

But if you look at the distribution of technology companies, even back then, you'll find that it's generally limited to the area I described.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on that. Back then I was floored at the number of companies spread out all over the periphery of the Bay Area. Something I became aware of because the software publisher/developer I worked for dealt with so many other tech vendors/developers from Marin to Santa Clara County.

Being on the inside of the industry gave us a different perception of what constituted "Silicon Valley". I'm pretty sure even our competitors at the time would have agreed. Probably George Lucas as well...lol. Great times back then, up until the dot-com crash. After that the South-of-Market (SOMA) district really took off in SF. I was offered a job there, but turned it down. Didn't want to commute that far again in my life. I still wonder if I should have taken the job, but it would have steered me in another direction closer to gaming than web development.