July 4th, an old excuse
I like fireworks, I like anything that makes a loud pop or bang, and gets people wondering what you are playing with. Last night was no exception. I used the holiday as an excuse to play with explosing tubes of cardboard. That is in essence what a firework ends up being. It is a container of some sort [tubes mainly] containing a certain combination of exposive powder and desired effect in it. For me the simple black cats are powder and nothing more.
What differs fireworks from other explosives is normally the powder used. I know from experience watching people make firepowrks that gun-powder is a 'cheap' alternative, but to get the best brightest and quickest explosion, the use of flash powder is required. I won't detail contents or how to make it, needless to say, it is less complicated than gun powder and does a hell of a job.
So last night, Leroy and I set out to find something to use in addition to my firecrackers. We ended up with tanks and screaming fountains. I had some good ground flowers [they spin changing from red to yellow to green] that popped at the end that were a hoot to watch.
Needless to say, the tanks were quickly augmented with the firecrackers and ground flowers for a more explosive finish. It became an all out contest to see who could be the most destructive or leave the least amount of a tank standing. I dont think anyone won, but it was fun trying.
I did try to hurt myself a couple of times. The first time I was just throwing crackers, just to have the bangs, when one slipped out of my fingers and landed on the ground at my feet. [I was sitting down]. I am told my expression was priceless, but all I know is that my foot went to cover the cracker in time as it popped. I wish I could say that was the only one that was like that. The second one went off in my hands. I had a match lit, and one of the guys playing went to light his cracker, and I didnt notcie that somewhere in there mine had been lit. By the time I went to chunk it, it exploded as my fingers were releasing. It wasnt the first time I have had a firecracker explode in my hands, but it still was a shock or at least startled me.
Finally the last stupid moment of the night came as I lit 3 crackers off at once and threw them. One went2 feet and dropped to the ground. In all of this I was sitting and didnt have oppurtunity to run. So I did what made sense to me, I placed my foot over it and shielded myself the best I could from the explosion.
Oh what fun. And from it all I haven't learned my lesson I think. I still have 2 days of being able to explode things, and I think I just might do that. All it takes is any old excuse.