Abstract Thursday

Passing a long row of self storage places (what do people put in these spaces, and why?) is not my favorite part of the Brush Creek walk, but they do provide a surprising number pf photo ops. 

A warehouse full of pyrotechnic explosives near Sacramento caught fire and exploded yesterday, causing me  to ruminate yet again about fireworks in general. I'm saddened that seven people are missing and presumed dead in the explosion, but it underlines the fact that I have no use for them. Although they can be spectacular seen in a dark sky, I hate the noise, and even more than that I hate what they stand for. It's probably why I have never been much of a fan of the Star Spangled Banner either.*

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
o'er the ramparts we wach'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

You be the judge. All I can say is a lot of people are flying the flag upside down this year. Not because they are unpatriotic, otherwise they wouldn't fly it at all, but because they hate what is being done to the country in the name of the phrase, Make America Great Again. That is not what is happening.

Several cities in Sonoma County have had to cancel their Fourth of July fireworks displays because of the warehouse explosion. The fact that the county is a tinderbox of dry grass already is another good reason to find another more peaceful, less explosive means of celebrating Independence Day. I hear they are having a giant pillow fight in Kenwood.

*I confess I had to look up the lyrics because I wasn't sure I even remembered them anymore.