Rain = Lame

So, besides the almost constant rain, nothing too exciting has happened in the past few days, hence the non-daily posting.


Today Gabe was hell-bent on screwing with us... First he told some kids that something that wasn't even buy one get one free was actually buy one get TWO free... Then he tried to sell some of Craigs fuse to another guy, which we don't do unless Craig is there... Later he said out loud that these two guys "deserved" a buy one get two free card because they bought so much stuff. (Their total was about $40.) By the end of the day I had told him to leave the behind the counter stuff to me, he can focus on just being a salesman. :P

When I say almost constant rain, I mean for the last 4 days I think I've seen a total of three hours of sunshine combined. It's not great for business or my mood. (Or for getting good/exciting/funny/strange customers or stories.) So I apologize for the lameness of this years postings, hopefully as the big day approaches things will get a bit more entertaining. :)

Laptops, Kettle Corn, and Tasers... Oh my!

I would just like to announce to the world that at Pyrospot Fireworks we sell FIREWORKS! Not puppies (like some lady thought a few years ago), not laptops (like a guy thought yesterday), not wholesale cell phones, not kettle corn (yeah we got that one today...). We sell FIREWORKS. 


Not only did we get asked if we sold kettle corn, we then got asked if we would be willing to sell it!! Later, a lady came in trying to sell perfume, cologne, watches, tasers, cell phone cases... wait tasers?! Yep. She was trying to sell tasers along with her other random stuff!! 


Today was strange to say the least... :)

It cuts like a knife!

Today was my first day back this season and I'm way more than thrilled, I'm not even being sarcastic. :D I have missed this craziness much more than I expected...


So nothing exceptionally exciting happened today except Gabe, who is 11, decided he was gangster and pulled out his knife at every single person working. Besides that causing a lot of laughter and a few people to stop and ask me to take the blade away from him, nothing too special. Hopefully I'll have something a little more fun for you all to read tomorrow.

"Sometimes taking a piss can blow up in your face"

We were CRAZY busy today. It was pretty much non-stop so my stories about our customers today is a bit limited. What I do have is one of the funniest moments I think I've ever had at the tent.

So this is technically a story that happened after midnight but whatever... We finished our fireworks show and one of the guys (who just so happened to be Drunky The Bear on Real Radio 104.1) needed to use the bathroom. So he went to the Port-A-Potty. Well Craig decided to run in and get one of our loudest items. He decided he was going to light it and throw it near the guy and scare him... well his plan backfired... it landed UNDER the Port-A-Potty. The poor guy came out and a ton of smoke followed him. He came out holding his pants up around his waist and holding his ears. He said he couldn't hear well for about 10 minutes.

In case you were wondering... here's a link to the video (yes, of course we recorded it!!)
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

The Apocalypse is Upon Us!

So this lady in her early 30's came in and got a few small things and then made her way up to the counter. She set her stuff down then said, "Man this stuff is so expensive! It's like I should just take a match to my money instead... You know, this might sound a little morbid, but I probably was the same way when I was her age... but my thirteen year old wanted to have a Pre Apocalyptic Party. She said if the world is going to end she wanted to go out with a bang! I mean I don't blame her..."... This lady said this with the straightest face I'd ever seen but both Shanay and I looked at her like she HAD to be joking!! We laughed for about fifteen minutes after she left.

Strangest Question?

So this lady came in pretty late today and said, "Okay I've got what's probably going to be the strangest questions you've had all day..." So I say "Okay, let's hear it." While I'm thinking, I seriously doubt you can to some of these crazies... but I listen anyways. "Do you have some boxes you don't want anymore." ... Oh yeah, seriously the weirdest question we've had all day. I mean it totally tops "Do you guys have those things you had last year? The things that do that stuff. Up in the air. With the colors and the boom?".... Yep. Sure. We've totally got that. In about 50 varieties! ... Some people really should get their IQ tested... :)

... On another note, I'd just like to share with everyone that I'm a big freakin' chicken. All I'm missing is the feathers. That is all.

Playing Dressup?

Today seemed to be character day...

First we had Mario & Luigi, then Dumb & Dumber, then Larry Moe & Curly!

I swear... these people were the best entertainment ever.

Mario & Luigi came in and it was hysterical! They were picking on each other, almost doing slapstick comedy stuff!! But they looked the part! lol

Dumb & Dumber were the pair asking every question under the sun, even stuff not even related to fireworks or New Years!!

Larry Moe and Curly came in later on at night... three kids around 18, didn't know the difference between left and right... along with that they couldn't follow which way I was pointing since they couldn't understand the directions... I mean come on. The store is only so big... there are only 4 isles... Lol!

Overall a funny day! Oh and some guy about 25 or said "Thank you mommy!" to me... it was very awkward. lol

Alarms and whistles...

Well it seems as though I've missed my 'hot cop' the first time he stopped by this season. He came by about 9:30pm last night to stop in and check with the guy staying the night at the tent... And Mike had the guts to tell him I had been looking forward to him coming by.... lol

Well today nothing too exciting happened except I realized how badly I despise being whistled at to get my attention. I. Am. Not. A. Dog. Ugh! Also, another annoying sound today... At around 6:30 tonight the alarm at the Color Wheel store went off for about 7 minutes straight. Now, that may not sound like a long time, but after a long day being out there at work, 7 minutes felt like forever for the alarm to be blaring. The stupidity in it was it must not have been set to alert the police because no cops showed up to investigate or anything!!

Anyways, it was not a very quiet night, that's for sure. :P

Cops!!

Today seemed to be like Cop City at the tent! lol

Last night Michael stayed over at the tent to keep watch, and one of our friendly cops stopped in to make sure he had a phone in case something happened. Later in the day he swung by again when Craig was taking Mike home. I had a few customers up at the counter, three 18 year old kids, when I realized he was in the parking lot I smiled and waved, he smiled, waved back then left. Guess he was making sure I was alright. Then, later when Craig got back one of our other friendly cops stopped by with his new partner and they were looking around for a good 30-45 minutes. And then right as I was leaving a guy who works at the sheriffs department came in. He also informed us that one of their own was killed today in a motorcycle accident. :(

But, it seemed like cops were all over the place at PyroSpot! :)

P.s. It was actually cold enough for me to wear a long sleeved shirt!! First of the season! lol

Tricky kids...

On the second day of fireworks, Pyrospot gave to me...
An adorable kid and his tricky schemes.

So this kid who couldn't be more than 12 came into the store by himself and brought up one 3 for $1 item and asked how much it was for just the one. I said about $.33 he said he only had a quarter, I said I could do that for him, if he had an adult with him. He said okay, he was going to keep looking. He picked out an item that was $1.95 plus tax buy one get one free and asked me how much more he needed with his quarter. I told him and he said he would be right back with his Aunt. So they come walking in a few minutes later and he brings her up to the counter to fill out the paperwork, I ring it up and he hands me his quarter, and I said he still needed $1.84, he looks at his Aunt and she said, "It's my birthday and you expect me to pay for YOUR stuff?" He replied, "Well it's your birthday, you're supposed to be generous on your birthday!" He was so adorable, she couldn't help but smile at him and hand me a $10. It was the cutest thing. She then said, "Next time if you're wanting me to pay for something, let me know first, crazy kid!" She then ruffled his hair and they left. It was adorable. :)

New Years Photos

Day 2 of Set up 12/19/11

End of day 1 of set up 12/19/11

Day 3 of set up 12/20/11


And we're open!! 12/21/11

First day of fireworks...

On the first day of fireworks Pyrospot gave to me....
A day full of idiots and few almost wrecks!

For our first day of being open, I wasn't expecting it to be really busy, but our laughter was pretty full after the day ended. Now, some of the idiots weren't even our customers... while yes, some of them were... one of the biggest was someone who worked at the little accessories store across the parking lot from us. They had a A-shaped sign and the wind was blowing like crazy, well every 5 minutes or so the wind would knock it down, then we'd see this person come out of the store and set it right back up... if only they had turned it so the wind would go THROUGH it instead of AGAINST it... The second idiot came around 6pm... he came in with 2 young guys and a young girl. The kids were fine, looked around... the guy walked in with a lit cigarette, headed for the isles and I said "Sir, you can't come in here with that!" He said "I know, I'm just looking real quick." I repeated, "No, you can't come inside with your cigarette lit." He replied, "Damn can't a guy just ask a question?" I said, "Either you can ask your question outside, or you can set that down or put it out and come in and ask. Either way, you're not bringing that in here." He decided to stay outside and ask... :P People are so dumb, really really dumb, for real. ;)

Trees and Flan

Guess it's time to start this up again...
Today was the first day back at the tent for me for the season.

Only a few funny things happened.

1. Everyone seemed to want Christmas trees. They'd come in "You sellin' trees?" "No, fireworks." "Oh, well I want a tree.".... Uh...sorry? Then one guy came in "What are you selling?" "Fireworks" "Well I think that's the biggest waste of money, I don't see the point. It's such a waste of money in my opinion." ... No one asked your opinion, thanks.

2. A guy came by selling Flan... 1 tin of flan for $5. They had 3 kinds, cheese, regular and cocoa... he talked for about 5 minutes and that's ALL I understood from the entire thing. Who sells flan anyways?!

Imported

So, most of our fireworks come from China... a bunch of them got held up because of some reason or another this year so we didn't have some of the stuff we wanted to have... okay not my point. Anyways... so we were cleaning up and packing today. Putting things in boxes, moving them to the warehouse.. well the guys were collapsing all the tables, everyone was gathered in one area... when this GIGANTIC spider crawled out. I mean the head was the size of a quarter, body even bigger plus the legs! EVERYONE (yes I mean everyone) screamed! Shanay, Tay and I were sitting on a palate, I wasn't paying attention but screamed when everyone else did. Tay jumped up, Shanay did to, grabbing me in the process and dragging me away. Once I realized what was going on I freaked out even more... I moved in cause I wanted to see how big it was... I didn't get the chance cause Missy ran over and smushed it. She dragged her foot over it and the guts smeared for over 2 feet.. leaving bug legs and parts scattered all over. OMG it was HUGE. Afterward someone made the comment "How did the spider get through customs in China but our fireworks didn't?!?!"... We all had a good laugh about that one.

Ka-BOOM!

So, it's the 4th! The BIG day! Well.... it was a pretty slow day. But, everything seemed to be going wrong. At one point around lunchtime Shanay's credit card machine went down meaning mine was the only one that worked! So I had a line backed up all the way down the isle. I don't know how, but somehow I cleared it. Not without help from Brian and Marlene handing out clipboards so the paperwork was already filled out when they got to me. But still, it was crazy. I had to take a break afterward!

Then, so all of the workers could enjoy the show Craig was putting on at 10:30 we closed the tent for about 15 minutes. During that time a guy pulled up and wanted to buy The Godfather, aka a $699.95 pack that included a TON of fireworks. So of course Craig let him get it... but while he was on his way in to pick it up a lady (who was slightly intoxicated) who as watching the show stopped him, saying his car was in her way and she couldn't see the fireworks! She was so angry and adamant about him moving his car that he almost just left without buying the package! Finally she calmed down and we made our sale then went back to the amazing display of the product. :D

It's a small world after all

This guy came up to my line and he had a business credit card that he was paying with and it said his name and "Photography" at the end, and since we weren't insanely busy at that point, I decided to ask him what sort of photography, he said, "Boating, fishing, water sports type stuff". I said, "My uncle used to do graphics design and editing for a that type of magazine!" He asked if my uncle lived here and I said, no but he used to. He asked me his name and I told him he doesn't live here anymore. But, he said for me to tell him his name anyways so I did. Turns out, they know each other!! He had worked with my uncle a few times and even moved a few houses down to where they used to live before they moved to NC. I even texted my uncle and asked him if he knew the guy and sure enough, he did! It was cool. :)

The Zoo

So, today was insanely busy!! I'm so glad Craig called in extra cashiers so we could have all 4 registers going at once. But the highlight of my day happened 3 times.

1. A lady and her brother(?) came in and she was holding this tiny tiny dog and couldn't fill out the paperwork out while holding him, and I was oohing and ahhing over him so much that she let me hold him while she did that! I made Tay ring her up so I could play with the puppy.

2. This guy came up to my register and he had this little creature crawling on him! I stopped what I was doing and just stared at it. He said it was called a sugar glider! It was the cutest thing I've ever seen in my entire life! I was just afraid it would jump/glide off of the guy and run away!!

3. Close to the end of the night a couple came in with their dog and little girl. This dog was the color of red clay and looked like a greyhound with a little bit of weight on him. It was so pretty!! And it was cute, the whole family were in their pajamas like they'd decided on a whim to go get fireworks.

Return Visit

Today we had a guy come in and go straight up to Andy and say "Make me a deal on this, or I'm leaving." He was wanting the 8,000 firecracker thing that looks like a giant stick of dynamite. It cost $49.95 and he wanted it plus two packs of bottle rockets at $14.95 for $50.00. Of course Andy couldn't do that. So he said, "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't do that." So the guy and his teenage son left.

Not even 30 minutes later the guy came in again grabbed the items he had picked out earlier and literally threw them on the counter for me to ring them up. I had to stifle a smirk as he quickly paid for them and walked out without really speaking at all.

Temper Check!

It's been raining every day since last Thursday, so I'm seriously lacking in the Vitamin D department... grumpy, tired, and just not feeling well... So when I get a grumpy customer and I'm feeling like this, Iit takes everything in me to not snap at them.

One of my biggest pet peeves of my customers in the tent is when they ASK for free stuff. Usually we throw a little extra in for them to enjoy (about 10% of what they spent), but nothing makes me more put oft than when they say "where's my free stuff?"

Today I had a customer spend about $50 then say "What are you going to give me for free?" I was already irritated by him for how he'd acted toward me while I was ringing him up but luckily Tay was with me so I didn't blow up at him (I wasn't feeling well at all today and left early). Instead I turned around to grab something out of the box behind me. While I was turned around he said, "I want something that goes up in the air!" I wanted to yell a couple of things back at him... "THEN GO BUY SOMETHING THAT GOES UP IN THE AIR!" or "Hey if you light these sparklers then throw them up, they go up in the air!"... But instead I handed him 2 small things that did in fact go up in the air and let him move on... I was proud of myself for keeping my temper.

Sweet Sarcasm

Today's big question was "What do you do when it rains?" I'm not even joking, I got this question at least 5 times from different people throughout the day. My response was, "We let down the flaps of the tent and wait it out." ... What I should have said was "Sell fireworks." But, I chose to be nice instead of being sarcastic like I wanted to.

I wasn't as nice with one guy. He came in and grabbed two packs of big mortars at $79.95 each. When he realized they weren't buy one get one free he said, "Well Phantom has them for that price for two!" I said, "I doubt it, they probably doubled the price for two of them." Or it's their cheap knockoff, but I didn't say that... He said, "No, it's the same price. I'm going to Phantom." So as he was leaving I politely said, "Have fun at Phantom!"... I hope he got my sarcasm. ;)