So now I am sitting here at our fireworks booth in the parking lot of our church. Yes, I said fireworks. It is a Rufener Family tradition. Every year, we spend 13 hours a day the 7 days leading up to the 4th of July. We have been doing this for the last 18 years. Our booth has been located in 3 different locations throughout the years. the most recent of these locations is on our church property. I love selling fireworks. It makes me laugh to see people come in droves to spend hundreds of dollars on something that they will be lighting on fire. You know how sometimes people liken a bad investment or a bad purchase to lighting their money on fire...here, you almost litterally do that. The running joke when someone asks, "What does it do?" is to answer, "Emits showers of sparks." while reading the warning label on the fountain. It's great.
Wind. Anyone who has lived in or visited Hollister will know what I am taking about. After a certain hour, and we never know when that will be but it ranges from 1:00 to 4:00, the wind starts to pick up. It was really bad today. On our church property we get the worst of it. There is so much wind it is rediculous. We probably had sustained winds of about 10-15 mph. and the gusts up to 20-25 mph. Luckily there is a truck shielding us for the most part.
What is with half of California burning? The other issue I have with this, besides all the people that have to put their lives on the line to fight these fires, is the fact that some of these fires were set on purpose by opportunistc idiots. I seriously hope they get caught and tried and convicted. I believe that some firefighters lost their lives in that fire and if that is the case he or she should be charged with murder. Of course that is my opinion. As I sit here, I can see the smoke coming over and up from the Big Sur fire. For reference sake, Big Sur is about 70 miles from here. It looks like the smoke is completely covering the San Joaquin valley...that's the huge valley in the center of California.
