Fireworks

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know when they would cancel the fireworks for tonight? I have family coming for dinner and to watch them so I would hate to have them come if its going to be stormy out. Weather.com says 60% chance for thunderstorms which is up from last nights forecast of 40%.

I called the city and they weren't too much help. The woman basically said she has no idea when they would make that decision and how they would communicate it to the residents.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I expect that any cancellation will be announced on http://SomervilleMA.gov , and probably with a robo-call from 617-628-7669 -- but hopefully Tom Champion will show up here with more definitive information.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Can Tom's official title be changed to "the God of Weather"?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I think most city officials are technically "minions" of the weather actually. ;-)

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Not TC - http://bostonsnark.wikispaces.com/Tom+Champion

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected and apologize for my blasphemous ways!

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

S'ok. TC is a benevolent God. I'm sure he'll only smote you with just 1 plague.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

smite - smote is past tense.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Greetings from Mission Control. The time is 1430 Zulu.

AS OF RIGHT NOW, we have no plans to cancel. Our best information suggests that the weather front currently in western Mass will move through our area this afternoon and early evening, and that we will have an opening for the fireworks by the time of their scheduled start at 9:15.

If that changes, we will, as Ron suggests, put out a citywide Connect CTY call. We will also put out media advisories and run alerts on the city's cable stations (15, 16 on Comcast and 13,15 on RCN).

Please note that there are no gods here. We are all abject and worthless slaves to the mighty forces of nature.

[ron_newman]

Hmm, so we might have a cancelled street party but non-cancelled fireworks.

I don't envy you. I had to do the same guesswork when deciding whether to cancel the May 31 Historical Bicycle Tour. (We went on as scheduled, but didn't decide until two hours before the scheduled start.)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

9:15? I thought fireworks start time was 9. Ugh!

Well, thanks for the info, Sir Tom. I know it's not your fault that figuring out how to get my children far, far away from home at bedtime is a huge hassle for me. (The fireworks are horrendously loud from our home and the noise terrifies my kids. And bedtime is usually right around 9. Siiiigh.) But I hope you and the rest of the city will forgive me for hoping for rain.

(Don't get me wrong - I LOVE fireworks. I just don't love them two blocks away from home, and on a Thursday night of all things. And my kids, well, maybe by next year they'll be ready to love them. Maybe.)

In other news, what the heck is 1430 Zulu? And may I add, you sounded awfully chipper in the robo-call the other night. I thought it was cute.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Aww, that's not lame at all! Everyone wants to be omniscient when they grow up. And you at least get to present the illusion of it, so you're ahead of most of us.

Thunderstorms do bother my kids too, but thunderstorms don't usually consist of a *solid* 45 minutes of absolutely deafening noise. Thunder moves around, so sometimes it's louder and sometimes softer, and then it passes altogether. The fireworks on the other hand are pretty consistently the same volume for the entire time. You haven't really lived until you've spent that entire 45 minutes holding a sobbing, trembling toddler or two.

But don't worry about us! I'm going to bring the kids over to my mom in Cambridge while I go off to the JPMCCC (http://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/dates.php?city_id=4). They'll get to bed way later than usual, but at least they won't be too traumatized. ;)

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

"1430 Zulu" is military/government jargon for 2:30 p.m. Greenwich Meridian Time (or 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time). I was amused at the idea that I had any control over the weather or the fireworks or the decision to hold the fireworks (or anything else), so I was mocking myself by invoking the image of an omniscient global control center. (Sounds lame when I write it out like this.)

My "chipper" tone on the Tuesday Connect CTY call was due to the fact that I had to record three different versions -- one for the Info Hotline, one for the citywide call and one for the neighborhood around Trum. It was a long message, I had to talk fast and I kept blooping, so I had to do multiple retakes. Eventually the only way to get through it was to adopt a semi-classical, AM radio, Brown Institute of Broadcasting (http://www.browncollege.edu/programs/school_broadcasting.asp technique). Simply put, I was getting punchy.

So, are your kids made as uneasy by thunderstorms as they are by fireworks?

[ron_newman]

Thanks for putting 617-628-7669 back in service (or getting Verizon to do it for you).

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Wasn't easy. Verizon denied all knowledge for 24 hours before admitting, well, yes, it was their fault.

[ron_newman]

Well then I hope they at least reduce the city's phone bill to account for the downtime.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

A reduction in our charges? From Verizon?
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAH.

"The next time you complain about your phone service, why don't you try using two Dixie cups with a string? We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company." - Lily Tomlin as Ernestine


http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

I have a robo call question, as a resident of ball square, (sadly on the medford side) and the owner of a cell phone, is there a way for me to get them as well? Frequently they impact my life as well. (conveniently they are often posted here!)

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Call 617-666-3311 and ask to be enrolled in Connect CTY. Give them your name, cell phone number and, for location purposes, give your address as 704 Broadway, Somerville 02144. You'll then get all of the citywide calls, plus any calls relevant to the Ball Square neighborhood.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

yay! thanks!

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

Yassir will be so happy to know that he is the official center of the Ball Square Universe.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

This absolutely does NOT mean I have taken a side in the Breakfast Wars. At least, not publicly.

[progressnerd.livejournal.com]

You can also sign-up online (http://citizen.somervillema.intelligovsoftware.com/Default.aspx?serviceid=24539), but you have to register a username and password.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

You know it's time for the Trum Field fireworks when you hear from mamajoan :)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Hey! At least I have gotten over thinking that the city should just cancel their event for me. But it's nice(?) to know I have a reputation.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

:) Hope the night goes okay!
See, I'm on the opposite side of things, in that I used to live in Magoun and am kind of bitter that the show only started after I moved further away :)

[yttrai.livejournal.com]

Cancelling is going a bit far, but i am on your side. I have an entire gallon of Nature's Miracle ready to go, to clean up the cat pee. Shutting them in the bathroom often helps, but then i have to listen to them wail. It's easiest just to let them hide and hope they don't pee.

At least after a few years here, i know they are happening. The first year i had no clue, since i don't always come home via Broadway, but can sneak home via William or one of the other back streets. That was a shock, let me tell you ;)

[ceo]

Assuming the fireworks go forward, is there a plan for traffic management on the detoured streets? My street (Prichard Ave) was completely impassable for a good part of the evening last year. See this post in my personal journal for details.

[ron_newman]

The city web page about the event gives the detour route for buses 80 and 89. Presumably that's how the cars will go, too.

[ceo]

No, the cars, at least the ones who want to go eastbound on Broadway, go down my street on the way to Highland Ave, and back up from the traffic light at Highland and Cedar all the way back to Boston Ave. And last year a gasoline tanker got stuck trying to make one of the turns. If they had a cop routing some of the cars down Highland Rd, it would be less of a problem.

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

The Somerville Fireworks were awesome awesome awesome. Yay!

[ron_newman]

I agree. Glad I missed this, though I'm not sure how; I walked right by that location after the fireworks ended.