I wanted to tell you about a fun party I attended in Southern California over the weekend, and I shall, but it is probably worth mentioning at the outset that during the duration of my stay in Orange County, the Apocalypse was raging on a hillside directly across from the one where I was staying.
So yeah. Apparently in California, stuff burns up.
We first noticed the Corona fire across the way from us on Saturday morning, and as the day wore on, the whole hill was engulfed. It closed highways, which kept many people away from the party, and as we watched the local news all day, we saw just how freaky and unreal the whole thing was. The fire was jumping across the highway. People were abandoning their cars. Trees were, well, they were exploding. I had to hear that from two different sources before I'd believe it. Exploding trees. I'm no scientist, but if you've got exploding trees, that might just account for your wildfire problem. I mean, it's probably worth checking out, at least.
The party itself was a lot of fun. It's an annual holiday shindig (called, appropriately enough, "Shindig") thrown by a group of people who have been friends for years, and one of whom was swell enough to invite me. I've been close friends with Monique for a long time, so it was nice to see her again in real, actual molecular form. (She recently helped me out tremendously by contributing something quite significant and very cool to the paperback edition of my book, which you will have to buy and read if you want to know more, plugga plugga plugga...)
Anyway, it was a fun party, the details of which I won't bore you with. I got to meet some people I'd only known online, made some new friends (which is always a little difficult for me, shy little bunny that I am), and most importantly buried the hatchet with someone with whom I should have reconciled years ago. I became quite blissfully impaired with strangely few consequences the following morning (aside from the wrinkles in the clothes I slept in, which I don't believe I've done since the blurry days of college), I got to dress fancy (although I'm still not entirely convinced that the outfit I chose for the "black and white" theme didn't make me resemble the love child of Johnny Cash and a clown-for-hire), and received (via the blind gift exchange) a bottle of local brew and a combination bottle opener/wooden dildo.
All that, plus the End of Days. Some people know how to throw a shindig.
glad you could visit our part of the world -- I'm just reading your wonderful book and am relatively new to the blog. Bravo.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell, the trees explode because the sap is heated so much that it expands beyond the space available for it inside the tree.
ReplyDeleteNo space = high-pressure sap = exploding tree.
I think this mainly happens with conifers.
I can not believe you were that close your Inland Empire fans and didn't do a book signing.......I mean what are a few exploding trees and 40 foot flames to the minions--we woulda been there....sigh......
ReplyDeleteWow. . .you were in our old neck of the woods. Corona. . . Riverside county. . .the 91 freeway. . .my husband's old nemisis. It's part of the reason we moved here to Plano. . .he had a 4 hour commute each day. . .partly on THAT freeway. He worked in Long Beach and we lived in Hemet. . .90 miles inland. Made him old before his time!
ReplyDeleteI asked my husband, who worked for the US Forest Service for a few years in CA about the exploding trees and he said the same thing as Jennifer. . .it's the sap.
Sounds like you had quite the experience!