And now, the journey home

[mbarrick]

Again, in the line up for the ferry. I had a nice visit with mom, we have interesting conversations. We talked about the probability of live on Mars and Europa, the decline of the American empire, WWII, British naval superiority, chemtrails, cropcircles and other esoteric things. We also talked about the practical and the now and in those areas she is full of good advice and left me with a lot to think about.

I had a major scare just as the ferry was docking on the way here. I decided to snap a couple more pictures and as I was doing so the camera shut down, apparently for a dead battery. I thought that was a little odd because the batteries had a full charge on them and even though I had been snapping a lot of pictures I wasn't using the LCD much, not the flash. I chalked it up to ageing rechargables and returned to the car. Then I noticed the camera was rather warm. Again, I thought it a bit add since I hadn't worked it that hard. Then it started to smoke! My precious camera was spewing smoke. The heat was coming from the battery comartment so I dumped the batteries out. One of them was hot enough that I burned my finger. I was freaked that the camera was dead and also freaked by this obviously short-circuted battery sitting beside me. The casing was melting off and visibly expanding. The ferry was unloading and I didn't want to dump a little mini-bomb underneath someone else's car, nor did I want the thing to explode right there next to me. My lane started to unload and I drove off and at the earliest possible opportunity pulled over and pitched the thing out of the car.

That problem solved I began to worry about the damage to my camera. That puppy was hot and I was afraid the heat could have done some permanent damage to the camera, and the way things are now there is no way I could replace the thing. As soon as I got into town I pulled into A&B sound and picked up some batteries to put in the camera. I was very relieved to find that it worked just fine.

My mom has moved back into the same townhouse complex we lived in when I was 13/14 and it was deeply weird being there again. The house I lived in from birth to about one and half (of which I have a couple of vague memories) is just around the corner, the house I lived from ages three through ten (which I think of as "the house I grew up in") is also just around the corner. It was strange being in that neighbourhood again. I hasn't changed much. Sometimes, you can go home.

Comments

[sleeplessknight.livejournal.com]

Yipes!

Don't forget to yell 'Fire in the hole!' when you chuck that battery! ^_~

Timing is everything

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Forget about Hollywood. My dad taught me how to throw a grenade when I was little (exactly why I couldn't tell you). If you time it right you can get the thing to blow up *over* the other guy's trench, in which case he can't hide. The timing is done by pulling the pin, saying "Eat shit, you son of a bitch" with a certain cadence and throwing on "bitch". Similarly when I did basic they taught us how to fire the machine guns in bursts (keeps the barrel from melting and saves ammo). "Sonovabitch" all slurred together is three rounds, "Son of a bitch" spoken clearly is five. Unfortunately I injured myself in a field exercise and missed the live grenade training (apparently one of the girls in my platoon got nervous and dropped her grenade *after* pulling the pin. The corporal managed to pick it up and pitch it out of the bunker but it went off *very* close by... as bad as retail gets, there are worse jobs!).

Re: Timing is everything

[sleeplessknight.livejournal.com]

Yipes! O_O

That's all very interesting information though! ^_^