The Guard Puppy was on full alert.

She’s a black Lab, 80 or more pounds, so she has a ferocious warning bark.

Unfortunately, she also has a 10-month-old brain, so her judgment is not yet what we hope it will be.

Voof! We could hear a basketball bouncing in the driveway across the street.

We heard a screen door slam shut. Growwwll. Hush, we told her.

Then came a loud boom. “OK,” the boy said, “I don’t know what that was.”

We went to look. It involved a wading pool, some black metal thing that looked kind of like a stove, and four people standing around. The 20-year-old was wearing safety glasses, which we took as an ominous sign.

Not that explosions are new to our neighborhood. Our next door neighbor spent many days of his adolescence setting off fireworks in a Weber grill, and I think we have mentioned before that we have an adult neighbor who likes to celebrate the Fourth of July with mixtures in small plastic buckets; he hides behind his pickup and the blast sets off car alarms.

These neighbors are new to the incendiary devices, though. Mom was checking out the proceedings, so things might settle down. In the meantime, we can be like Chris Rock’s neighbors, with 9-1 pressed and finger hovering over that last digit.

This post originally appeared on ourMidland.com, the online home of the Midland (MI) Daily News. Republished with permission.