Fuego: Part Deux

There was another fire this morning. I was washing dishes and I heard a crackling, which I mistook for running water, so I pulled back the curtains and saw flames leaping from the neighbor's trees. I called Ibis to the window, thinking we'd get our daily does of entertainment first thing in the morning.

"They must be clearing the land," he said.

No big excitement, just lawn maintenance. The flames were pretty high and, with the wind's help, were close to engulfing the entire block. I didn't see anyone standing nearby, but there's always people outside so I went back to cleaning and didn't worry about it.

Ten minutes later we left to bring Ibis to work and saw two armed policemen guarding the fire. Ibis' comment, "What, are they going to shoot the fire if it gets out of control?" made a good point. There didn't seem to be anyone with water ready in case the fire became an inferno. Just a couple cops with machine guns.

When I returned home ten minutes later the fire was out and two fire/water trucks were pulling away from the scene. I'm curious if people phone them before setting the fire, knowing they won't be able to control it. Then the responsibility is on the city.

*shakes head*

Another random thing happened in my bizarro-land last night. I joined Ibis for a work party and we stopped by our place between dinner and the beach. (Everyone goes there at night to celebrate whatever it is they have to celebrate. Last night was a birthday.) We turned onto our street and were stopped by a dozen men on horses.

Yes, horses. At eleven o'clock at night.

Most of them moved to the side to let us pass but one man refused to acknowledge our presence. I told Ibis not to honk - last thing we need is a horse hoof through our windshield - so he flashed his lights instead. For over five minutes. They tried to tell us we couldn't pass but we live there, not them, so we persisted. When we came back through they'd parked cars at each end of the block so no one could get through. (That's a common thing here. People have parties in the streets and just block off the road. No permits, nothing, and people accept it and just go around.)

Thankfully they were gone when we came home from the beach. I have no idea what they were doing there. Ibis said "practicing" but that worries me even more!