I'm not sure if it's the heat, summertime blues, or some confluence of the stars, but the funny phone call quotient here at the Pine River Times seems to have spiked recently.

My favorite was a gentleman who left a message complaining about the noise caused by the construction at Bayfield Elementary School. The workers were firing up their trucks at 6:30 a.m., he said.

Well, that sounded about like a normal work starting time for me for a construction project.

For everyone's information, the school adminsitration's office is 884-2496. I can't do much about the issue, although I'll be happy to print a letter to the editor about it if someone chooses to write one.

Then we had lots of calls on Monday.

"Are there fireworks tomorrow?"

Well heck yes, folks. If they were cancelled, I'd be helping get the word out. With no fires in either the Upper Pine or Los Pinos districts, plus the Bayfield fireworks are shot over a river and wetlands, it seemed like a pretty safe bet to have our show go forward. Vallecito's show on Saturday, by the way, was spectacular, and I heard the Bayfield show was excellent, as well. I was home recuperating from the long day!

Anyway, I had a nice chat with a Durango lady on Monday, giving her directions for how to get to downtown with Bayfield Parkway closed.

People always ask when the fireworks show will start, as well.

"Dusk," is my standard answer. With a big show, lots of volunteers, and lots of shells to detonate, things can sometimes go wrong. The show will start when it starts!

Finally, as I was heading out the door Monday, I got a call from New Mexico by a lady with a really thick accent.

She said she'd been driving through town recently and got a ticket from the Marshal's Office, but she'd lost the ticket and needed to call them.

Fortunately, I don't get a lot of traffic tickets, but I can empathize with someone who loses her paperwork, so I gave her the number. I also suggested she call back later this week if she didn't get an answer right away, as Monday and Tuesday would be pretty busy in our fair city.

I checked with the Marshal's Office on the Fourth, and they said it was fairly quiet, considering our town population triples or quadrupes or whatever it does for the Fourth of July. It's a heckuva lot of people.

Anway, it was a wonderful day, and thanks to all of the employees and volunteers who work so hard to pull it all off every year.

Thanks for reading.