One of my buddies moved to Alabama to follow some woman there. While I lament the loss of his companionship, the real loss is apparent at this time of the year: he used to run a fireworks stand.
Summer time is usually a slow time for my business. Not that it bothers me, once I learned the cycles, I’ve grown to accept it, nay, even enjoy it. It’s like last weekend, floating in a tube on the Comal River, looking for places to fish, then deciding, what with all the tubular traffic, there probably won’t be many fish.
But fireworks, that’s an idea. What I regret is not being able to hangout at the fireworks stand, out on some desolate stretch of highway, a parched corner of some farmer’s frontage acres, sweating, cooling off in the camper out back, coming back out and sweating some more, dealing with the variety of people who come to purchase small explosive devices. For fun.
That firecracker business, it has two peak seasons, and this is the main one, with a secondary season right between Xmas and New Years. Have to make the most of the seasons, and this one requires long hours in a sweat shop of a shack, surrounded by – perhaps literally – tons of visual explosives.
At best, it’s really just part-time deal, the problem being, it requires all of the part-time work at one time, the weeks leading up to this weekend. Have to lay in stock. Have to get the stock on the shelves. Then there’s almost 24-hour days, especially as the weekend gets here, and there’s not a lot of time for sleep. Then it’s all over. Empty the shelves and nail the shack shut. Over until next winter.
It’s the time in between, and sometimes, no one really gets that, unless that person has been in business, especially a business like that. The firecracker stand is such a good way to look at it, though, one peak, one frenzied period of activity and then not much lese bettween the the two peaks.
Due to a mild climate and an abundance of open space, fireworks are sort of hobby with some folks I know. A form of seasonal recreation, as it were. I don’t know if the idea, concept, or actual action translates.
Some tidbits from the road?
Friday night:
Headed into an Amy’s? I looked up, and in the western sky, just barely after sunset, twin pinpricks of light.
“I think that’s Venus and Saturn,” I said, “Mercury. Mercury should be there, too.”
If I can just find the quote, be right back.
“Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction what says the almanac to that?” Harry (Prince Hal) in Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, part 2 (Act 2, Scene 4)
Just a random bit.
Saturday:
Was a day long gone into frivolous summer fun, Nature’s version of a water park, the “shortest river in the world,” the Comal River. Tubing. Rent an inner tube for a ride in the cool, clear water. Sun burned, in a good way.
Stopped in Gruene, on the way back, for a little dinner. Which got me thinking about a new logo.
Gruene, home to the oldest dance hall in Texas, has a good tag line, “Gently resisting change since 1872.” One item lead to another, and I just figure, since I was reading about Shakespeare’s quest for a family crest, I could add Latin to my own.
