Who says I don't work?

Just in case anyone believes my wife when she says that "I do all this work, while John goes to Virginia for school and gets to stay in a cushy hotel and see the family for Easter, and sit in a classroom all day and eat out every night, blah, blah, blah!" Well, it's mostly true. I did go to VA for a class at the FBI, and I did get to spend Easter with my family. I didn't stay in a cushy hotel. It wasn't the Ritz Carlton, but not bad. I didn't eat out every night, just on Thursday and Friday. Most important, I didn't sit in a classroom all day from Monday to Thursday. Just all day Tuesday. 1/2 day Monday, all day Wednesday and Thursday were out on the explosives range. Let me tell you, Wednesday was nasty. Upper 40's with rain and drizzle, and we were digging out what was left over from explosive shots. Enough of that....on with the pictures!



The first shot is 3 1-gallon cans of gasoline with a little explosive in them to get them to blow. Not that gas needs much! This is called a "Hollywood" shot. Most explosives don't have a long lasting fireball, but that wouldn't be good for a movie, so they add a little gas to the mix, and viola!





The next picture is a hand grenade inside a 55 gallon drum. Or rather, the results of setting off a hand grenade inside a 55 gallon drum.














Not much left. Imagine that going off near you....see all the little holes?

This is a very distant (~300 meters) shot of the drum before the grenade went off.

And this is the same drum when the grenade goes off.
This is three holes with 10 pounds each of C4 in them. If you look closely you can see two drums off to the left. They were previously hit with an improvised claymore. This is from about 300-400 meters away, and the blast wave rattled the shelter we were in...think tin-roofed carport with bleachers under it, and felt like someone giving you a good thump in the chest. If I had hair it would have blown back. Now for the results:
I know there's only two holes, but you get the idea. The explosive wasn't covered up with much dirt...just enough to cover it. If you fill in the holes around the charge, then tamp it down the holes would be much bigger. Believe it.

So that's what I did last week. In reality, I don't consider having that much fun to be work either!