Stress Failure

Technology advances from mistake to mistake. Reading about bridge failures and aqueduct failure. Perfect day for it, rain all night and all day and I can't help but think of all the canceled cook-outs. They'll probably cancel the fireworks on the river in town. It's cool, when they have them, I hear them an see flashes in the sky from the house. I actually went once. Too many people, too much noise, but exciting. I read about the Chinese invention of gun powder and fireworks, one crazy dude strapped 15 rockets to a chair and blew himself up. His descent would have been by parachute, which the Chinese had a thousand years before the west. Rubber was first known in Europe when Columbus came back the second time, he'd seen some natives bouncing balls. The bouncing ball entered Europe about the same time as popcorn. They probably had an air-filled pig bladder or something before that, but no rubber. Rubber is interesting in many regards, specific gravity of .95, 59 pounds a cubic foot, but it doesn't absorb water, so you could float it downstream. Started raining quite hard in the afternoon, so I shut down and sat in the dark. Harvest enough rain to do some dishes, take a bath, and wash my hair; clean a bucket and catch an additional 5 gallons. A story by T. C. Boyle in the New Yorker, I like his stories but I'm not a fan of his novels. Sitting on the sofa, I haven't gotten dressed for days, reading with the headlamp even though I can see by the little green light on my monitor that I have electricity. Thinking about that old Tom Rush song, Driving Wheel, and I put on some music, Skip James, then Greg Brown. Reflecting. Then I hear them, the cloud cover is too dense to see, but I hear the celebration. The Fourth of July, bombs bursting in air, the rain held off for a while, so they could do the rocket's red glare. It's good that people not be disappointed. I'm slightly pissed that I can't grill the Chorizo, I just slice it in half, fry it in bacon fat, with a perfect sunny-side egg steamed in vermouth, and have it with buttered toast. It's good, but it's not what I had imagined. Jesus, if I'd have bought artichoke futures, last spring, I'd be a rich man.