Rose petals are edible, too, of course, and I've been eyeing the hedge of pink roses across the street. They do look tasty, piled up like great mounds of strawberry whipped cream- well, that's how they look from this distance, anyway. Up close they're just flowers. I probably won't go raid the bushes, though. I'll leave them for the deer, who don't have refrigerators or Safeway Club Cards. But I would enjoy a bit of Rose Petal ice cream from that place on Raymond Avenue in Pasadena about now (it it's still there.) That was always a nice snack on a hot day.
And a very hot day it is, with no end of hot days in sight. Here, we don't even get the compensation of blowing things up tonight, fireworks being illegal in this highly flammable place. In a while, I'll be able to listen to the distant thumps of shells being set off at the big fireworks shows in Chico and Oroville, but I will see nothing, and locally there will be perhaps no more than a few bangs and whistles from the yards of patriotic lawbreakers. But, if so, maybe the fire engines will come. I could watch fireworks on television, of course, but it just isn't the same as being up close and seeing somebody's fingers blown off. How can we celebrate a revolution without at least a little bit of blood being shed?
