“Everyone’s Gonna Die”
First come first serve.
*************
Open sky near Ed’s cabin is a rare commodity. The two best places to look at the stars, or shoot off fireworks, are the pond and the field where rakkity and the Mrs. were married many years ago. On this night Dennis and Sandy’s home-schooled children are camping in the field to better view the Perseid Meteor Shower.
While we all watch an intermittent display of near commercial-grade fireworks setoff of by nearby neighbors, Daryl prepares to launch one of his own. The bright object in the video is the near-full moon. If you listen closely you can hear someone say, “Everyone’s gonna die,†and at the end, Matt says, “That definitely was a dud.†Matt’s comment gives me pause and I think you’ll see why.
Hard to count, but I’d say ‘t’weren’t no dud! A veritable Revolutionary war’s worth of fireworks that night, what with the even higher/mightier fireworks by the folks across the treeline both before and after this box o’ blackpowder.
Very different fireworks to the emotional ones of almost 30 years ago … Nice place counterpoint, Mike.
Comment by el Kib — August 21, 2006 @ 8:42 am
P.S. Since the weddings aside comments stream is for some reason an island cul-de-sac, I’ll ask here — what WAS your toast yea these many years ago — any idea … ? And how else was that day celebrated (what feasting, what revelry? Who all was there and who stayed over how long? Great pics!
Comment by adam — August 21, 2006 @ 8:46 am
Who was there? My dad & stepmom, Beth’s mother (who made the wedding cake) & sister (who brought the huge & tasty shrimp), Chile & Joyce Sullivan (who brought the champagne), Dick Kilkelly, and of course the Miller-Cannings and a few others whose names escape me. Mostly we celebrated the great September weather, sunny skies, and blithely ignored the fact that we had no backup plan at all in case of rain. (It had actually snowed in Gilsum a few days earlier!)
Comment by rakkity — August 21, 2006 @ 9:45 am
I just meant that there have been others which were much more impressive
Comment by Son — August 21, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
Matt, you want to be careful with a train of thought like that.
Comment by Jennifer — August 21, 2006 @ 4:26 pm
My speech was short and and sweet and tied the stars to the astronomer and his bride. At the time I don’t think I knew he was so focused on the sun.
Comment by michael — August 21, 2006 @ 7:50 pm
My memory is fading, but I remember enjoying that toast, Michael. The stars are suns and the sun is a star, after all. And I have fun looking at shooting stars, the moon, planets, plutons, arora bore-e-alices and whatever else appears up there in the heavens, whatever they pay me to do.
Comment by rakkity — August 23, 2006 @ 3:45 pm
Hey, rakkity, what DO you make of all this pluton stuff, anyway? It seems so clear to me that they should simply downgrad Pluto rather than upgrading Ceres, Charon and “Xena” … and open the door for umteen (57 was it?) already in-line-for-consideration other plutons … am I missing something? Is tomorrow’s decision final? (The article LAST week in the Boston Globe made it sound like the decision was already final, and then 2 days later they said something about Thursday.)
Comment by Jennifer — August 23, 2006 @ 4:20 pm