Ever wondered

what two grand of highly explosive fireworks would look like, should it come squatting on your walkway?

Wonder no more. It would look about like this:

Jesse and Jennie are, in my admittedly rather out-of-focus photo, standing both to provide a sense of scale and because they wanted a last photo in case in the course of transporting the 'works into Jennie's house we all went up in a huge and colorful smoke cloud.

Fortunately, we did not.

The pallet is deeper than it is wide, by the way.







Speaking of moving the fireworks, here's what they look like resting in Jennie's library--the very things everyone wants near their books!

The intrepid Maggie, aka Doodle, provides a different sort of scale as she rests atop Mt. Spazzatron (yes, that is the real name of one of the fireworks) after an arduous hike through the carboard mountains. Respect and fear the Doodle, for she is heavily armed and unafraid.

In just two short days, we will in the space of one hour turn the contents of all of these boxes into beautiful screaming shapes in the night--and then into one very large pile of trash for Dave to burn.

I am, as I've said, quite looking forward to it.

Rough day

First days back after trips are always rough at work, but today turned bad in other ways.

Rana took our cat, Lyra, to the vet today for an expensive test to check out a potential heart problem. Lyra proved to have a hypertrophic heart and related problems, which means we'll have to put her on a beta blocker and baby aspirin for the rest of her life. With those pills, she should live a normal lifespan.

At about the same time, Jennie learned that her cat, Maggie, had a bum leg. The injury turned out to be a shattered portion of her kneecap, which will require surgery tomorrow.

Then the worst of the bad news hit: on the way home from the vet, Rana was in an automobile accident. A car ran a red light in front of her, and despite her best efforts to avoid the car, she hit it. She was not at fault, and she was not hurt badly, but she was bruised and shaken seriously, and our van is a mess and left on a tow truck. She's going to the doctor tomorrow to make sure she is okay, but we think she'll be fine.

What a day.