Before I start on today’s post.. I need to report that our friend Eric was in a serious motorcycle accident this morning. He’s banged up pretty badly,  but it looks like he’s goign to be OK. I don’t know much more.. but we’ll go see him tomorrow and I’ll fill everyone in. For now.. let’s all keep Eric and his family in our hearts.
For the mean time. let me report on the day.. It was  nice and slow..   lots of ‘fix-it’ projects aroudn the house. Midday I went and picked up Jim (Dylan’s dad) and took him to the hardware store and out for a beer. I remember how hard it was for me to get out of the house after Sam died.. so I want to help Jim get out in the world as much as he feels up to doing.   It was really good hanging out with him..he’s such a great guy.. it’s hard to see him hurting so much..  we taked about how hard it is to work .. or to care about work.. when you are graving.. it still happens to me sometimes..

Around 7 tonight I loaded my pyrotechnics stuff and my flamethrower in the car and headed over to Chris’s for his birthday.

It’s Chris’s 35th.. he and Homer had built this beautiful burning man in honor of that milestone.. I just love the face and other features of this guy.. He’s filled with kindling, paper, xmas tree boughs and other combustibles.. his clock was loaded with  pyrodex.

I mIt’s

I made a potassium permanganate and glycering timed reaction to set him on fire.. that was on a bed of zinc dust. sulfer and potassium perchlorate for a nice intense green flash..

It took a few min to react.. but when it did, it was beautiful. I wasn’t fast enough on my camera to catch it  catching.

I also had my flame thrower set up. it was working a little anemically.. until I noticed that the valve to the accumulator was shut.. then it sparkled ..

It was great hanging out with Chris’s friends.. such an eclectic and cool group of people.  .. and not people.. Here’s the piece I helped CHris with this past week. it uses ultrasonic distance measuring to detect folks coming near.. when soemone approaches, it blinks her eyes and starts a recording of a ticking time bomb.. very cool.. if I do say so myself..

OK.. time for bed.. more on Eric as we learn it.. let’s keep him in our thoughts tonight.

lnite all, nite sam

-me