A Good 4th + Fireworks Geniuses

I had a nice 4th, and SB, if you are reading I hope you did too. At 5pm, I took Pearl & Kobi to Lake Balboa for a little while The place was jammed, as it always is on July 4th, but we got a parking space and stayed for about an hour. The Kobester loved the smell of all the barbeques in use.

At 7pm, I met Grimsley up at Aliso for a short hike, and then at 8:00 I made the short drive to Shepherd Of The Hills Church in Porter Ranch for their annual fireworks show, which I've been going to for about ten years now. They stopped the old Devonshire Downs show in 2002 (I think), and then for a few years I went to Santa Monica to see their show with my sister, but in 2008 I discovered Shepherd, and I've been going ever since. It's as good a show as you will see this side of Disneyland, 25 minutes of non-stop fireworks set to patriotic music. There is always a huge crowd, and the event always features a short speech by our local Congressman Brad Sherman, the only member of Congress to have actually written up Impeachment Papers against Trump. Now that's patriotic!

Yeah, I know I said I don't wanna talk politics these days, and I don't.

But this guy has got to go. ////

'Nuff said.

Well, so I was driving back to Pearl's after the fireworks show, and I get back to her street in Reseda, and the geniuses across the street are blowing off their own stuff, fairly powerful as public-available fireworks go. I see not just the usual bottle rockets as I turn left toward her driveway, but actual "up high in the air, big colorful flower fireworks that go boom". Of the public variety, but rather substantial to be shooting off in the middle of a narrow residential street with trees and shrubs surrounding, not to mention shingle roofs and wooden houses.

I slowed before I made the turn into Pearl's driveway, because the neighbors were in the middle of the street lighting off a new batch. I had to watch my turn radius closely to make sure I would not run over any hot or smoldering fireworks. The neighbors had seemed to scatter as I drove up. Not in a "bank robbery" kind of way, but more in a "we know this is not cool" kind of way.

"Oh shit; here comes the guy who takes care of the old lady". More like that. They had lit their skyrockets just before they saw me, and when I turned the corner, they hid.

Here's what happened next. I saw the skyrockets go up in the air as I paused to negotiate my turn into Pearl's driveway, avoiding the smoldering casings. So I pulled in and parked, and I grabbed my shopping bags from the passenger seat, for I had stopped at Vons before heading to Pearl's, for water, avocados and yogurt. Then I got out of the car......

And the first thing I noticed was the heat. You could feel the heat waves coming at you.

The next thing I noticed, a split second later, was the brightness. High Bright Yellow.

Fire.

The skyrockets that the Geniuses Across The Street had lit, as I was pulling into Pearl's driveway, had - by the time I pulled in and exited the car - set a twenty-five foot palm tree on fire, and it was already engulfed. It took maybe 15 seconds for this to happen. The palm tree was their own, and immediately they ran back out of their hiding places, first staring at the Flaming Tree, which was giving off real heat, and then finally realising They Had To Do Something About It.

I don't know these people, and I was not gonna interact with them, but I did inquire if they wanted me to call the fire department. I did not call automatically because they had set the tree on fire in an illegal action (fireworks), and these days you must be cautious in what you involve yourself with, when dealing with the lowbrow element. But I was watching carefully as the tall tree burned, shooting sparks and embers.

Pearl has had experience with fire. Her house burned to the ground on Christmas Day 1972.

It was rebuilt, of course. But I was watching the sparks and embers from the tall palm tree very cautiously. 

Ultimately, the Geniuses produced hoses and began spraying the flames from two crossed angles. A random driver had by that time stopped and proclaimed that she had called the fire dept.

The Geniuses seemed nervous, because they would be in trouble if the dept. were to respond.

Fear can produce motivation, and results, and in this case, the Fireworks Geniuses kept pointing their hoses and spraying, and pointing and spraying, and lo and behold.......they managed to Put The Palm Tree Out. By that time, there was nothing left but a 20 foot charred trunk, but they did it.

Good job, Geniuses!

Imagine having that kind of smarts and wherewithall to put out a none-too-shabby tall tree fire, fully engulfed and shooting enough sparks to where it could have caught on a neighbor's roof, and yet being Stupid Enough to shoot said fireworks off in such a location in the first place.

Amazing!

The combinations of human thought processes, and their often divergent nature, are thought provoking to say the least.

But man, it's hard core and a bit weird how much heat you feel, just from a single tree on fire across the street.

Thank God the Fireworks Geniuses were good with hoses.

Other then that, it was a good 4th.

The Fourth Of July has great meaning to me, and it always will.

That's all I know for today.