bang!

happy 4th of july wishes to you, dear reader. i undoubtedly will be
spending part of mine with the paiutes on the moapa river reservation
(known by the overly cool, like me, as "the res"). sardonically i'm not
allowed to celebrate US freedoms with incendiaries on american soil ...
but i am on sovereign territory. or as they say in the native tongue on
moapapiautes.com

"The tribe's primary business enterprise centers on the Moapa Paiute
Travel Plaza, which includes a casino, convenience store, cafe, gas
station, and firework store with the largest and most comprehensive
selection of fireworks in the West."

it's like low-grade warfare, where you buy fireworks in the most openly
dangerous building i've ever been in (ever feel gunpowder crunching
under your feet?) and then walk in the desert (across *from the gas
station*) to shoot them off.

nothing makes me happier than the smell of spent gunpowder. it's a
unique and acrid odor that's gone hand-in-hand with terror, hardship,
death and tyranny throughout history; but has nothing but happy
associations for me.

again, happy 4th of july to you, dear reader.