See that white tent, just past the SUV that photobombed me? That's a fireworks tent set up in a parking lot.. It's got balloons, one sad little "Fireworks!" banner (that's the orange thing off to the right), no air conditioning, and a cheap plastic roof (whatever they're making cheap tents out of these days).
The person behind the plain wood counter in the tent is smoking. I didn't go in to look. They just always are.
We live in a desert. The temperature is going to be in the high nineties all week.
See that sign in the building beyond it? Looks like a number one? That's the logo for Page One Books, the largest locally-owned bookstore in Albuquerque. Which happens to be 30 yards away from the fireworks tent.
Because people are stupid.
___________
I'm not a big fan of fireworks, as it turns out.
The Wallow Fire, the largest wildfire in Arizona history, spread into New Mexico around the Luna, NM area. As of today, it's 80% contained.
Los Alamos was evacuated because of wildfires today. The fires have, in fact, crossed over into the boundaries of the Los Alamos nuclear lab, if you're curious; that's called the Las Conchas fire, and as of today, it's eaten about 45,000 acres of the Santa Fe National Forest, and as I write this, it is zero percent contained.
The 346 Fire in Belen, NM (named after the Highway 346 Bridge, currently its northern boundary) is a mere 150-acre fire; it's destroyed 3 houses and several outbuildings, and is threatening about 150-200 more. Earlier today, they suspected that they'll have it contained by Wednesday. Of course, they weren't taking into account the 25 mph winds (with 40 mph gusts) that are kicking up.
The Horseshoe 2 fire in southeast Arizona never made it to the New Mexico border. It destroyed 223 thousand acres, but is now considered contained, as of Saturday. Crews will be downgrading to a Type 3 team Wednesday, if nothing goes wrong.
The Pacheco fire, north of Santa Fe, has only destroyed about ten thousand acres. It's been going a week and a half, and it's currently about 10% contained.
State law in New Mexico prevents them from implementing a ban on fireworks, even during one of the worst fire seasons ever.
Oh, and in case you missed it, next Monday is the Fourth of July.
No, of course, we have a constitutional right to blow things up. In fact it's a duty to blow things up on the 4th and demonstrate our national manhood -- just like Paul Revere did when he was president of the NRA. Or was that John Wayne -- I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteOf course in Floriduh, we're more hypocritical. Fireworks are not legal in my town, but we have a fireworks supermarket none the less because it's not illegal to sell them -- just to use them and you can fill your shopping cart as many times as you wish. They may cancel most civic displays this year because of the drought and fire hazard, but that's OK, Bubba, it doesn't apply to you.
I was in a sporting goods shop the other day and a guy called the proprietor on the phone asking if he had .223 blanks in stock because he wanted to fire his AR-15 rifle in his back yard on the 4th. It's all too common around here, to fire shotguns and pistols while drinking beer and barbecuing possum. To his credit, the shop keeper said he didn't recommend the practice.
Anyway, as long as you drive out the illegal aliens, you shouldn't have a fire problem.
I live in a community where for years it was just the thing on the Fourth to fire one's gun in the air as many times as possible. It sounded like a war zone. And most years, the Fifth contained a story or two about how some infant in a crib had been killed by a stray bullet descending at terminal velocity, or the cops had killed some drunken idiot in his own yard when he refused to put down the weapon he had been firing at the moon, etc. Thank the Dinosaur Gods, that tradition has pretty much died out in the past decade or so -- I guess the word finally got around that this wasn't the right thing to do. We still have the stupid fireworks thing going, though. I wish they would outlaw it.
ReplyDeleteI've always had this theory that the dumber classes of our society are particularly attracted to blowing things up... you know, the kind of people who are easily dazzled by brightly-colored objects.
ReplyDeleteI watched the neighbor kid last year lighting fireworks; bending over the things, looking right down over it where he would take it in the face. But Hell, what could happen, right??
Leave the fireworks for the big displays operated by professionals.
The Kentucky State Legislature were somehow able to pass a law this past term that makes it legal throughout the state to buy, sell and light fireworks throughout the state unless a local municipality forbids it.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same group of people who didn't have time to pass a budget, the real purpose of the body, without a seperate and additional [PAID] extention to the session. - Charlene
I note that (perhaps because I've already, to an extent, bitched about it in this forum), I didn't note the extent of the Wallow fire, other than it's the biggest in AZ history.
ReplyDeleteIt was started on May 29th. So far (and 24 hours later than the mother post here, it's at almost 90% containment), it's destroyed roughly 540 thousand acres. Six towns (Eager, Springerville, Nutrioso, Alpine, Luna and Blue River) were evacuated, and it's taken almost 2,000 people to fight it.
Just so you know.