Chilling Irony

I feel the urge to put something new on my blog, but I can't think of anything serious to say. No, that's not quite right. I have plenty to say; I just don't have the energy to say it. So with that in mind, I present an old photograph of a model rocket accident that I find amusing.

Behold my shirt and my hands. In my hands is a gloss red Gemini DC model rocket. Note that the rocket has a hole blown through the side of the rocket, and that the rocket engine (and its retainer) have been blown halfway out the back of the rocket. In the Gemini DC, the two recovery parachutes are stowed in the "nacelles" on the sides of the main rocket and are driven out backwards by the ejection charge. In principle, anyway. In practice, the parachutes stuck in the tubes and the ejection charge blew out the side wall of the rocket.

Not too memorable, and not too amusing. But what gets me is that the blowout in my shirt is almost exactly the same size as the blowout in the rocket. That, to me, is chilling. (For the record, the blowout in my shirt was not caused by any kind of gas expulsion; I was grinding something with a Dremel tool and managed to grind a hole in my shirt.)

In the background is my Chevrolet truck, which I think has to go down in history as my favorite vehicle. It was stolen from the parking lot where I work, and when the surveillance video was reviewed, we discovered that it took them less than thirty seconds to make off with it. It still makes me so mad I could spit.