Boom Boom Pow

Stella: In case you guys have missed Loki's ramblings and have been wondering what deep thoughts have crossed her mind lately, here is a post she wrote by herself last month. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Loki: I sit here and ponder. Ponder what you ask? What I am doing here sitting in this firework stand by myself staring out at an open field and a cross section of road. Cars and trucks are passing by. Most of them are peering in at the stand to take a gander at all the product set up behind me. We are really too far from the road for anyone to really see anything but people look anyway. I watch and wait and yearn for them to turn into the parking lot. Some slow down and I think Yes! A customer! But no they keep driving by. Apparently Father’s Day is not a good day to buy fireworks or sell them for that matter. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am sitting in our firework stand by myself. It is father’s day and so my child’s father would rather spend his time with her instead of at this desolated firework stand. So off they went to play in a pool. A pool! It is like imaging a mirage at this moment. I am just sitting… and I am sweating my balls off. (I like that saying no matter who it offends) I am chugging water because apparently just sitting in heat you dehydrate. I feel thirsty and water logged at the same time. I have a very small bladder but I have yet had to pee.  I have this lovely lap top sitting in front of me but no internet.  What is good about a lap top if you do not have the internet. I could get some good time in scouring facebook or even job ads or I could even play angry birds. Most of this can be done on my phone but my phone has decided to be a pain and I cannot text properly and for some reason the battery depletes rapidly when I am out here in firework land. I have already been out here a few times working and while it was hot… I had company. It is entirely different when you are by yourself. Perhaps I should stop complaining. I have my ipod out here so at least I have music and there is a breeze, a very windy hot breeze but still a breeze. Although today has been slow we have been doing decent business the past half week. We have only been open for 5 days. …so who knows what will happen the next 2 weeks. Perhaps we will make so much money that Big T will quit herniating and take a breather. I know Stella is already tired of hearing about Big T and I’s firework stand. I am sorry for talking about it all the the time but it is going to consume my every waking moment until July 7^th. She should just be thankful she is going on vacation with the family and will be out of reach for a week.

 Did you know that my family is going on a “family vacation” but without me? I don’t think it should be called a family vacation unless the whole family goes. TMC isn’t going either. I refuse to listen about the cool water parks, awesome food, laying out, shopping and any other wonderful activity they will be partaking in while I am forced to sit in this tin box and sell explosives to people.  I was invited to go but I could not go for a whole week therefore I would have to drive 8 hours by myself and I just think that sounds miserable. My child would drive me nuts and I would probably just un buckle her and let her pretend to drive on my lap and then I would either get in a wreck and we would both die or get pulled over and get put in jail….or get a ticket whatever the punishment would be for letting a 1 year old drive. I also was talking to my mom about how much I would have to pay to go…and Stella was like  what? Do I have to pay anything? Apparently she is getting a free vacation. I guess that is the perk of living at home? Sorry maybe that wasn’t so nice but I get bit by the green monster quite often when it comes to Bess and Stella. Well, what a cheerful post this has been!! I have run out of things to ramble about… my mind is being sucked into a vortex of numbness. I just realized that I am typing this out on a word document so that I could cut and paste into our blog AND…I wont be able to take this laptop home until July 7^th.  Bahahaha I am the smartest person alive sometimes. Okay I am going to go and pace or try to rearrange some fireworks before I go insane.  

Loki: Hi its me again. I wrote that at the beginning of the firework season and let me just say that if you ever decide to run such a business, its not fun until the 4th weekend. I mean there were several interesting people showing up everyday but you dont get really busy until then. We ended up doing pretty well but with the burn ban A LOT of people were nervous to buy the big items so we ended up with quite a bit of left over. We did pay for our container (the actual stand) and we turned a profit so it was a success. Big T is all about having multiple stands next year so I am sure it will be equally if not more stressful. (I was about to delve into all of the decision making you have to do on a short notice, but thats just boring). Let me tell you about some of the characters I saw in my time as a firework stand owner. First you have the kids. These are by far the pickiest customers around. They spend only a few dollars at a time but they are serious about it. They want to know what EVERYTHING does. I am talking the $.50 items. Whats even funnier is we would have several kids that lived in the surrounding neighborhoods that would come every day to spend $2 or $3 and I would have to give the run down on every item, every time. I didn't mind this I just found it humorous. One kid did this everytime he came and I probably saw him 10 times and he would only buy smoke. The kid proably spent $30 on colored smoke. Next you have the big spenders. These guys want the biggest and the best. This one guy came at least 15 times to our stand. He would buy multiple big items and go and shoot them that night just to see if he liked it enough to put in his July 4th show. I have no problem with that ...but it amazes me how much people will spend on fireworks. We saw a mother drive her 4 children in a golf cart to the stand and when she got out she was CLEARLY intoxicated and drinking a beer. I guess she thinks as long as she is driving the golf cart it is not drinking and driving. I also gave a therapy session to a teenage girl who was very upset about her father's girlfriend. This all happend while the girlfriend sat in the car and screamed 10 feet away. I heard my husband say "it has a complex, it thinks its a 500 gram cake" 900 times. Yes I realize that probably sounds jibberish to you but we all had our own selling techniques for all of this product and you just repeat yourself over and over. Big T and I both realized that we did enjoy working for ourselves and we didnt kill each other. I am sad to say that I wont get to talk about the difference between a cake and an artillery, the Luna Chic, Hydrogen Bomb, or the Excalibur for a whole year. Stella can roll her eyes all she wants but next year she will have her own stand. Muahahha

This was my favorite "cake" (big show in a box) item we had. The hydrogen bomb.

Stella: I'm glad we let you have that time for yourself. It is probably a good release for you.

Did you pop fireworks this year? Do you ever?