I came home from work yesterday and sat down by the computer. Shortly thereafter, I heard a decent-sized explosion that shook my roof and rattled my windows. I went outside to make sure my roof was still all there.

Here's a bit of background. It's been a strange week. A few days earlier, I heard shooting that sounded like it was just outside. I went out and didn't see anything at first, but heard rustling footsteps coming towards me down the road, then I saw a shadowy figure across the street. I felt a bit apprehensive and went back inside. Later that same night, I went back outside and startled three deer with substance abuse problems that had been getting loaded on my neighbor's ground-fall apples. I then thought the guy with the gun had been trying to bag a drunk deer under the apple tree, which didn't seem very fair at all.

So, back to the 'boom'. I went outside and the guys across the street had come out of the guy hangout that masquerades as a garage. No car has ever been inside, but it has a beer machine and an enormous plasma TV. And a second floor. There are a whole bunch of pickup trucks parked outside whenever there's a baseball or football game on. There are Red Sox signs plastered all over it. The guys were laughing and talking about the loud noise, but they didn't seem either upset or proud. I then heard some loud voices over at the next-door neighbors'.

I walked over, and as I got closer, heard someone say, "Hey I heard that, and I was INSIDE!" AHA! I walked up and shouted in an impressed sort of way, "Did you guys do that on PURPOSE?!"
They seemed surprised that I'd heard it.
My neighbor replied, "Yep, I just started the brush pile on fire."
I asked, "With what - a grenade?!"
"No," he says, "Just a burning rag in a bottle with some gas."
So I think, "OK, not a grenade but a Molotov cocktail." Well, that explained the flames shooting 40' into the night sky in back of his house, because I was going to ask about that next.

It was nice talking to my neighbors again. I found out that it had been him shooting at a porcupine that had taken up residence in a favorite dog-walking area. The deer were somewhat safe, if reckless.