If blasting an area right in town that is usually roped off is truly necessary, then it seems like between Charlie Martin, the community safety director, who figured out all by himself that “whenever we have a big boom or fireworks, we seem to have a lot of dogs that go missing,” and the Skico, which was probably preoccupied at this time of year by how much to raise next year’s prices, someone would notify the public and especially the dog owners of the oncoming barrage of artillery fire, like last Monday’s.

Don Dixon/Aspen