Teacup Café XLII

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

You know, the worst thing really, is that personal fireworks are technically forbidden in this county, but usually condoned unless, say, you set your neighbour's roof on fire.

In Norway, fireworks with sticks are forbidden, and many cities forbid the use of personal fireworks in the central area - and some of them have official fireworks in the city centre instead, with hired professional pyrotechnicians (?) to do the job safely.

Where personal fireworks are allowed, they are only allowed from 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve until 2 a.m. on New Year's Day. And fireworks may only be sold on the last three or four days of December, and only licensed shops may import them from abroad.

The sticks were forbidden about ten years ago, and there was a significant drop in eye injuries after that - and I think also a drop in roofs being set on fire.

But people still do stupid things, so injuries still occur and houses still burn.

[Mari]

Wow, that must be one impressive neighbour then! Coolio.

[Alcuin]

We had a housefire many years ago near the Fourth of July. The recently retired fire chief lived across the street from us, and spent about an hour searching for the smell of burning house before he discovered our roof smoking.

When the fire investigators arrived, they first tried to blame my young son, and attempted to brow-beat him into a false confession. Then they blamed my wife for not extinguishing a burning cigarette. She felt guilty about it for many years.

A decade later, I had a conversation with one of the local police detectives. He told me neighborhood teenagers using bottle rockets accidentally shot one under our eaves. It smoldered for a couple of hours before setting our house ablaze. The police and firemen knew this, but because the insurance company would sue my neighbors, and the teenagers would be charged with using illegal fireworks and hence with arson, they pinned the blame on my wife. When I spoke to him about the effect on my son and wife, he just shrugged.

My son still doesn’t trust firemen or policemen. I don’t blame him: neither do I.

[Acalewia]

That's BS. It's no wonder people don't trust police. I'm sorry your family had to go through that

[Mari]

How strange!

[Earniel]

Yikes! That's pretty aweful. Sure puts a damper on relationships with the neighbours. Hard to look at them again after learning they were all complicit in it.


On lighter news I appear to have past the 14 000 post mark unnoticed. Man, I never realised I'm so talkative.

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Yikes! That's pretty aweful. Sure puts a damper on relationships with the neighbours. Hard to look at them again after learning they were all complicit in it.


On lighter news I appear to have past the 14 000 post mark unnoticed. Man, I never realised I'm so talkative.

Congratulations on the 14,000 post mark! I hope you remain quite the chatterbox: it is comforting.

There were no repercussions with our neighbors. The retired fire chief died a few years afterwards, of natural causes, I might add. The neighborhood teenagers, whose parents probably never knew what happened, moved away after graduation, and there were several of them from different families, so we never knew which ones were responsible. We didn’t learn the truth for over ten years: the retired fireman was gone, his family sold his house; the teenagers were gone; and there is no one on whom to pin any blame.

But it does give me pause when I read the papers or watch the news and learn the “official story” of what’s happened during the day. I believe it wise to take “official” truth with a grain of salt.

I have a friend who grew up in the Ukraine during the Soviet era. He told me his grandfather received the official Communist Party weekly for farmers, because he was a farmer and a registered Party member. Each week when the newspaper arrived, his grandfather never read it, but immediately gave it instead to the donkey, which ate it. My friend, then a boy, asked his grandfather why he took the paper if he never bothered to read it. His grandfather sagely replied that he was safer as a Party member, and besides, the donkey was hungry.

[Mari]

Pffft, so busy with packing moving boxes while at the same time renovating the new house. 2,5 more weeks to go... o_O

[Earniel]

Must have been a hungry donkey indeed to like paper so much.

It's amazing what amount of stuff you have in your house when you need to pack it up, eh Mari? Good luck with the move. Is the new place in need of much renovation?

[Mari]

Actually, it's not that much stuff. I've been patching up room by room the last couple of years, so lots of excess stuff has already gone towards the skip. Combined with the need to finish things like electricity, flooring, painting etc. to a certain point before I have to move out, it's rather hectic though.

The new place... on the surface it didn't appear to need much, but by now we might as well have gutted the place. All the walls needed stripping and the house had to be completely rewired (that one was unexpected, not a fun surprise). The kitchen and bathroom we took out completely, but we had a builder do the building up. Unfortunately the kitchen itself won't arrive till end March. *sigh*
Right now we're working on the floor though. We can't finish all the rooms before the move, but it's starting to look like we may be able to finish at least the rooms that get heavy furniture.

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Mari

The new place... on the surface it didn't appear to need much, but by now we might as well have gutted the place.

It seems it always goes like that, doesn't it? I think I have heard that almost exact quote from three different people who bought themselves a new place. There's always something big that comes up and has to be tackled before moving in.

Having to rewire a house is deeply unfun (my parents did that partially and now wish they had pushed through and done the whole house back then) but once it's done, it's rewarding to think you don't have to better with the stuff again until maybe 30 years in the future.

[Mari]

NB: I'm very tired, so if my post is a bit incoherent: sorry.

[Acalewia]

Yikes. Sounds like a mess, Mari

[Mari]

Well, it's almost sorted now.

[Mari]

Indeed and it gave me my stucko walls. I thought the existing walls were hideous, but my boyfriend said he didn't want to fix it now, so maybe in the future.
Waiting with renovations will only make sure it never happens though, so I'm glad we had to rewire. Because of that we had no choice but to renovate the walls as well.

[Valandil]

Happy Fourth Age New Years Day! Destruction of the Ring, Defeat of Sauron, Fall of the Dark Tower, etc.

[Acalewia]

Just went to my first concert in years. I've been wanting to see my favorite band, Skillet, for years and I finally got to

[Mari]

Quick update: got married, moved, I finally have a kitchen and am about to visit a new choir tonight in my new hometown. I hope I like them. And they me...

[Acalewia]

Originally Posted by Mari

Quick update: got married, moved, I finally have a kitchen and am about to visit a new choir tonight in my new hometown. I hope I like them. And they me...

Congrats and good luck!

[Earniel]

Congratulations! Sounds like quite a few of big changes.