I have a soft limit of about $100 a year. That worked fine 30 years ago, but doesn't get you much now. Prices are ridiculous around here. A dozen smoke balls are $2 and usually 2 or 3 in a dozen are duds. I mostly just get some small stuff my kid likes and the neighbors put on the real shows.

A guy at a meth house a couple streets over blew off his hand 2 years ago. That's not too uncommon in Missouri.

This particular case was a firework.

I think I got the most amusement out of those boxes of 50 throw down poppers that were like 50 cents a box. We owned a business on the city square when I was a kid. I would go out in the street and lay out lines of poppers, about 10 in a line, a foot apart. Then I'd wait for a car to drive down the street with its window down and hit a line of them. Their expressions were golden. I got chased by two scary looking long haired dudes that tried to run me down with their car until I ran into one of the stores.

Where do you draw the line? Spending a days pay on fireworks? A weeks pay? Enough to buy a Stern Pro? More? Working 40 hours to pay for 30 minutes of pretty lights seems a bit crazy to me. Especially if all your neighbors are already putting on a show and you can watch for free.

My boy has autism and he seems to like the concept of lighting the fireworks more than the sound or lights. He brings me ones to light and then turns away to get the next one without watching the one I just lit. He'll watch 1 second of a smoke bomb and then go get another to light without watching until the first one stops.