4th of July 2009

Happy 4th of July. Today my plan was to stay home and clean my room, but at the last minutes, I decided to see the Macy's Fireworks Show. From about 10AM to about 4:30PM, I spent most of the day in front of my computer watching YouTube episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. Finally, about 4:30PM, I was able to pull myself away from the computer monitor. I showered and had a Healthy Choice meal. I took the train to 14th street. I wanted to buy a mini AM/FM radio. I had my camp chair with me. I thought if I got to the westside of Manhattan early, I would be able to get a good spot for viewing the fireworks. While waiting for the fireworks show, I would listen to my radio and read the newspaper. I also wanted a radio for my trip out west.

When I got the 14th street, I quickly realized that I was really behind the times...as usual. No one listens to AM/FM mini radios anymore, only the old men in the park. Unfortunately, I am a creature of habit. I tend to be behind most trends. Anyway, after walking to union square and discovering that both the Virgin Superstore and the Circuit City were both closed. I settled for Radio Shack. Being indecisive, I could decide on getting a regular radio, or one of the cheap ipod imitations, so I bought both.

1. The American Red Cross Microlink Emergency Preparedness Radio. It is about 8.5oz (5in long x 2in high x 2in wide) and includes: AM/FM radio, weather band, crank powered, USB Cell phone charger, solar powered, flashlight, and headphone jack.
2. sansa clip - Until today, I had no idea what this was other than it looked like a cheap imitation of the ipod. It is very small 1in by 2inches.

With radios in hand, I walked over to the westside of Manhattan for the fireworks display. So how was it? The show was nice. Not being a crowd person, I was a bit annoyed at the "street" behavior some some of those near me. One guy with his mother started shouting at another guy for "humping him and his mother". No, that isn't a typo. Instead of saying something like, "yo dude, you're too close". The guy instead goes into a couple of minutes ranting and shouting about the guy humping his mother and now was humping him. He kept shouting that over and over.
There was an aunt/uncle couple with their nieces. THEY TALKED THROUGHOUT THE SHOW!!!! The nieces were about 12inches from me, but they talked as if they were the only ones there. The crowd was packed in like sardines. The police across the street moved their barriers about about 15 or 20 feet 10 minutes before the show started. Well, the police on the side I was on was about to move the barrier, so everyone crowded in hoping to get a better spot that we had before, but instead of moving the barrier a greater distance, the police only moved it about 3 or 5 feet. The end result was that everyone crowded up to the barrier, but then had no place to move. We stayed packed in like sardines until the show was over. Then, it was a mad exodus to get out. I don't think I'll do that again anytime soon. If there was music, we couldn't see or hear anything other then the explosions. I've always seen the fireworks show on TV. It was nice seeing the fireworks, but I don't think it was that great, especially with those talkers, and "street" behavior.

I took about 40 pictures, but to spare you the boredom, I've narrowed my collection down to 24 pictures. Lately, I've been trying minimize the slide shows to no more that 25 pictures. I'll post the photos at another time, since it is late.


Post Date - Sunday, July 5, 2009 1:35AM