July 4th, 2000

My last 4th of July in California. Paul was legendary for his 4th of July parties. This year was a little different, however. He went on vacation with his family, only to return on July 2nd or 3rd. Paul, Scott and I had a feeling that Paul's parents might rescind their previous desicion to host the part at their house, so we made arrangements to move the party, last minute, to Scott's house (where we held the New Year's Eve Party), in that event. Up to Paul's departure date, however, the party was still at his house. While Paul was gone, his friend Chris took it upon himself to inform Paul's guests that the party had been moved to Chris's house. When Paul came home and found out about this, he was upset. But he allowed the party to take place at Chris's house anyway, even though most of his other friends would have prefered to move it back to Paul's house or to Scott's house. So the party was a little out of control. We didn't really have anything bad happen, it just seemed as if no one was really in charge of the party. Chris tried to enforce the rules of his parents home while Paul insisted on making the party as rowdy as possible to discourage Chris from throwing any more parties. The guests were a tad confused as to whom they should listen, but they seemed to enjoy themselves anyway, for the most part. There are a lot, so please be patient.

     
In violation of Rule #1, Scott and Paul began lighting the colored smoke bombs on the back lawn.

     
It's about 6:30 PM and John is out for the count!

     
Paul tries to help John up off the lawn.

     
Paul thinks John is ok to stand on his own. John then crashes on the couch.

More smoke bombs

     
Paul has been drinking for a while now, and it is beginning to show.

     
It is a little more obvious now.

     
Paul is drunk.

Scott and John begin lighting fireworks before it's even dark.

     
What do you get when you cross boys in their late teens/20's, alcohol and fireworks?

     
A very dangerous situation. Anybody have the fire extinguisher ready?

     
Break for more alcohol!

     
Paul brings out the fireworks for the rest of the party.

     
Just when we think the supply has been exhausted, Paul brings out more!

     
Oohh, pretty! Sparklers!

     
Look out! Here comes Paul with a lit sparkler! At least not everyone here is drunk.

California law restricts airborn fireworks to only those with a permit, so we were limited to ground fireworks.

     
Technically, even these are illegal, since San Jose restricts all fireworks, but you can see no one here really cared.

     
More sparklers and fireworks.

     
We lit all the fireworks in the middle of a cul-de-sac street, to avoid any potential fire hazards like foliage and vehicles.

     
It was a good thing too! The more fireworks we had, the more spread out the "launch pad" became. And several of them didn't light correctly, they just caught on fire.

     
More fireworks that caught on fire. I'm inclined to believe it's because of user error, not faulty fireworks. I guess that's what happens when the people lighting them are all drunk!

     
Here are some that were lit correctly

     
I took some pictures without the flash. I think they came out kinda interesting.

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