I live just a couple of blocks away from the Magic Kingdom. Yes, folks, that's right -- Mickey Mouse is my neighbor!

I don't mind sharing the streets of my neighborhood with the throngs of tourists that inhabit the city during the summer months. Heck, I don't even mind the extra traffic that clogs up the street on which Disneyland's main entrance sits. After all, tourists bring money to spend in the city and help to keep our economy afloat. What's to complain about tourists?

It's not the tourists that make sharing my hood with the Mouse House that makes it unpleasant shortly after 9 p.m. every single night of the year. Although the tourists flock to specific locations within the two theme parks at the designation time, it's not they who rock my world, rattle my windows, and send my poor dog into a tail spin. So what does?


It's the nightly fireworks display! This shot, which my niece took at California Adventures just a few days before she headed back home to Egypt, shows the beauty of the fireworks display; however, it doesn't give you even the slightest inkling of what that beauty sounds like a couple of blocks away!

You know the scene in Mary Poppins where the old Navy captain fires a cannon to mark the time? The entire neighborhood knows exactly what time of day it is thanks to the captain's noisy ritual. Well, it's the same around my neighborhood. Like, pardon the pun, clockwork, we can set our clocks (sorry -- another one!) by the nightly fireworks display from Disneyland and Lily's barking at the sky until the cannon's last boom. Ain't life grand?