Reflections on the 4th

Sorry for the light blogging. Life was happening.
We had a nice 4th here. Good food at my in-laws. The kids were reasonably well-behaved. The "show" was as good as ever. Note to self: DO NOT BUY THE 12 INCH MORTARS AGAIN. When we had them two years ago, on malfunctioned and detonated a lot closer to the ground than it was supposed to. This year, two of them barely made it back out of the tube before exploding. That was a little scary. Shrapnel from one of them hit me in the shoulder. Also scary, but no burns and nothing broken. We came home, and while Mrs. Blackiswhite carried in Heir No.2, the yeahoos down the street diliberately turned their mortar over afer droppibg a shell in it. As Mrs. Blackiswhite was in the line of fire, you can imagine that she was not amused. I'm starting to think they should make you pass an IQ test before you can purchase the big stuff. Ha! "I'm afraid I can't sell you any of these fireworks, sir. You see, the test says that you are too stupid to purchase them."

Yeah, right.