Red rocket's glare

myriad of colors
Originally uploaded by MDH, II.

Well, the rain in the morning and early afternoon held a cloud of doubt whether there would be fireworks, but the sun and clear night prevailed -- explosions everyone! My folks and I went to my sister’s house. After a while, my sister came up from sewing with Mum and asked that Father make the pork ribs (pre-cooked). My Mom doesn't like her ribs sloppy and gooey like most people, so Father was light on the sauce. I ate fish (shrimp) as other meat is unappealing to me (smell).

One of the my family cooked a communal dessert -- a pizza pan size cookie with super sweet frosting and fruit topping. Later, everyone got more sugar with ice cream.

My nieces were happy about firing rockets and fireworks; no longer relegated to spectators alone. Despite her best efforts, one niece couldn't light a pair of rockets to fire simultaneously.

Father bought a fair amount of fireworks. The girls like the parachute type, but many failed to eject from their rocket and plummeted to the rocket cooking the chute. Angel tried to get into the mix of things by having her face right in the fireworks. She also rolled in the blackened grass, for dog reasons humans cannot fathom.

The girls disliked the Roman candles as they were limited in number of shells and the speed at which they fired. I tried to speed up things by lighting a series, but each burst blew out the lighter he was using to light the others. Typical of me -- a couple tipped over sending pellets horizontally through the grass. No one was hurt.

For a finale', the girls like the mortar shells. We tried to get three to fire at once, but that never happened. My older niece was able to ignite me with fiery debris and my other niece’s oddly exploded in the firing tube rather than launch out then explode. My older niece was also able to light me on fire a bit, though I was not really hurt.

Neighbors all around had thunderous quake fireworks sounding more like artillery and cluster bombs than real fireworks. Others still, had neat low trajectory shells that wee lovely to watch.

One big no no I did was not using fire, which some might believe was the greater sin or danger, but rather assuming. I assumed that the tubes were stand erect, but was wrong. I did, however show reckless disregard and held a couple Roman candles, directing their shots. Should a person do this --- no, but others do. They are, in fact, constructed a shielded in such a way that they is possible and the thump and fuse burning can be felt through the tube.