Fourth Of Blah

This is my first Independence Day in the Big City. And so far it sucks. KC has a no fireworks ordinance that is lightly enforced yet has most folks afraid to set any fireworks off. Now there a few folks in my 'hood that are making sparkler bombs or acetylene bombs or something as there have been many loud booms in the area. Personally though, I have been out of M-80's and Quarter sticks for a few years now and no longer have any contact to purchase said items. I am also out of Pyrodex to shoot in my little cannon I made several years ago. So no boom boom for me dammit.
  I made my little cannon from some 2 inch cold rolled steel, a piece of 2" x 2" steel and a length of rebar. I bored a half inch hole in the center of the 2 inch bar and then drilled am 1/8 inch touch hole. I then welded the barrel to the 2 inch tubing and then the rebar to the tubing.  Put in a tablespoon of Pyrodex P in the barrel, hammer in some newspaper wadding, add the fuse, jab it in the ground an touch it off. KAFUCKINBLOOIE!!! Yes it's pretty damn loud. And yes it will send a projectile waaayyyy out there. And it makes an impressive cloud of smoke. But no, I forgot to buy the powder so no cannoneering for me. I am going to the Riverfest tonight which will have a very nice pyrotechnic show. Which mostly bore me now as I used to shoot propyro. And sitting in a chair watching is lot different from touching off a five inch mortar up close and personal.
Here is my little cannon. And don't give me any crap about the welding, I was doing it on the QT at work.

The noisemaker......

The business end...

Does this give you any ideas? It certainly did for me. A series of these electronically fired for perimeter defense? And loaded with buckshot? Or some other nefarious loading such as launching noise distraction devises?

BOOM!

I am sorry for the lack of posting. My hours at work are ever changing, I have been looking for a place to live, working on the Harley and doing all those other things that a home and vehicles require. and of course mulling over my situation. Over and over and over.
On Independence Day however, after I got off work, I went to my step mothers place for a little get together. Lot's of good food, good people and of course fireworks. I do love fireworks. For a couple of years I was even part of a pro team that did the big shows. I was going to get my license to be a shooter then the pesky ATF/ USG changed the rules regarding fireworks. It went from being a one page form to a complete background investigation, fingerprinting AND getting a shooters certification. Certification from where? In Missouri it's at the University of Missouri where they have a school geared towards miners. Now they do cover fireworks and the end of the class involves setting up an a rather large fireworks show and shooting it. You also get to learn about shooting dynamite and other explosives. Now that sounds pretty cool to me but do we want every yabo that that wants to be a fireworks guy also getting trained in high explosives? By the way, the cost is rather prohibitive for an industry that really doesn't pay well. In fact most folks on a fireworks crew are working for.......FREE! That's right, most of the hard work and sweating is done by people that do it for the love of fireworks. Even when I was setting up shows, doing the labor, wiring the show and shooting the show the most I ever got was 50 bucks. Fifty dollars for a long, hot, sweaty, labor intensive day that usually ran 6-10 hours. Most folks do it for a T-shirt. So the next time you see a fireworks show thank all those unpaid, hardworking volunteers that make it possible.

What This Day Means

On this date we celebrate the freedom that our forefathers secured for us. They faced the greatest army and navy in the world, sacrificing their lives, families and fortunes.
Starting in the 30's we have seen these freedom attacked from within. Our freedoms and liberties have been whittled away until this nation is a faded image of what it once was. We still claim to be the greatest nation in the world and I suppose we are, in a global sense.  In reality though, we as a nation have surrendered our hard won freedoms. We have stood by while God given rights are shaved a way little by little, we accept incursions against our rights on a daily basis. We accept paying to exercise a right, we accept an illegal tax system, we accept a limit our speech  by way of official protest zones and a liberal information system that ignores and ridicules the voice of the right.
We accept schools that forbid any discussion of religion except that of our enemies, and promote immoral life styles, we tolerate courts that establish law instead of ruling on the legality of the cases. And the most egregious of all, we accept a over powerful government that touches every aspect of our lives, something the founders of this nation fought to escape. I urge everyone to pick up a copy of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and read it. Try it today at your family gathering, try it tomorrow after dinner. See how many people know what we have lost in the last hundred years. Compare what the Constitution says to  what we are ruled by today. The two are in no way connected except by a few phrases cherry picked to strengthen the governments position.
On this day watch the fireworks displays and think about what they represent and then ask God to bless this nation in these troubling times.