The General has an uncanny tendency ...

 ... to come up with a great idea - 'What would you like to do for New Year's Eve?' Hmm, no idea. 'Let's drive up to a high hill and shoot fireworks above the city with the drone.'

... - and then prevent me from doing it, having to instead watch others do it. 

Yes, it was windy and yes, my test drive was the first nocturnal drive ever and it was tricky, because it was so dark I couldn't see the trees or anything else, nothing on the hill was illuminated - no streetlights to speak of, the little landmark church was pitch black, no residential houses close by...- but that's why one has a spotter. In my opinion, I handled it perfectly - I used the map to fly it 'home' when it was too dark to recognise the terrain, and when the wind kept tilting it away from my landing corridor, I took over manually, with landing lights, and parked it in G's lifted hand. Tricky, yes. But I got it. 

           I would be a cool bunny if he wasn't my prudence enforcer. 

          Alas, G decided it may not have been such a good idea after all, so. So we watched someone else's drone take the footage. They didn't seem to care at all there is a no-fly zone on the other side of the river. And I have to say - for an advertised decision to cut back on fireworks lately, that was a helluva half an hour of insistent all-over-the-city fireworks parade. Darn, that's a lot of money to shoot into the sky.

         Heh, earlier, when the mutt et moi had our doggy walk, some family kept firing up small boxes and it fumed and sparked and cracked and spit out little shows, except one which obviously fell over and started exploding serious rockets well into the river and into near-by trees, and Lyra and I actually had to run for cover. She was not quite so chill after that. I admit, noisy bangs bother me, too. Those things can set a parka on fire if they hit you.