July 5, July 6
This is one of my favorite photos that I've taken along Crown Beach/Harbor. (I believe I wrote about this previously.) We stayed at home on the 4th, and we had sparklers for our daughter but our son was too young to know what to do with them. In fact, I think Carl was getting ready to sail on the Transpac (yacht race) to Hawaii. The next day I smelled smoke. I walked around the house, went close to other houses on Janis Circle. As I went a bit further away, the smoke smell diminished. Had some firework landed on our shake roof? This went on for 2 days. Every once in a while I'd smell smoke. I'd go outside again. We lived in a duplex. On a quiet street. I smelled smoke again. "Dear Lord, please tell me where this is coming from." As I was walking around the house again, I stopped. I looked down. There was a smoldering firecracker wedged into the ground, right next to some plants, and inches from the stucco building. I lifted it out, threw it on t