Hope all of you had a great day. More tater gun adventures coming soon.
With much success on the first 2 outings the kids asked if we could go launch a few more last night. It was starting to get cold out, like 33 degrees kinda cold, so I told them we’d go out for just a minute. Now, I had been doing some research on this whole thing. I just felt like I was missing out on some of the fun somehow. And then I found it……
I bundle up the kids and head out the door. We ram a lovely example of Idaho perfection down the tube and I lay the gun down to spray in the propellant. Then I hear “Todd, can I get the hair spray?”. “Nope”, I reply. “We’re trying something new this time” as I pull out a can of WD-40. I then proceed to explain to the wide eyed onlookers that I had been reading about WD-40 being used for this type of thing and that as an added bonus, it lubes up the barrel real nice. So in goes about a 4 second spray and I tell them to get ready. I hit the sparker thingy and nothing. I hit it again and there is a slight whooshing sound from the end of the barrel. At this point I’m thinking I should have stuck with what I know. I announce that we will no longer be using WD-40 and “give me that hair spray.”
I load it up with Aqua Net and hit the sparker. With much more authority than normal the tater flies almost out of sight before exploding in the tree tops.
Me: Whoa
E: (eyes huge and speechless)
C: (eyes huge but never speechless) Did you see that!!
Me: Ahh, yeah…how could I have NOT seen that?
C: Fire came out the barrel about 3 feet!!
Me: Yes it did.
C: Wow! I’m getting another potato.
Me: Now just hold on a minute..
E: (still speechless)
Me: Let’s not tell your mom about that one…
E: She was standing in the window.
Me: What??
E: She was standing right there in the window watching us.
Me: Really?
E: Yup.
Me: Great
C: (holding a potato) Let’s do that again, where’s the WD-40?
I can only guess that the hair spray lit the other stuff and that caused the fire ball. The next one did the same thing but just on a slightly smaller scale. I think that any further testing will only be with other brands of hair spray and I’ll remember to check the windows before firing.
Thursday night at work I got an idea in my head that was haunting me all night. Friday morning when I got up it started to take shape. So I’m working on this “big idea” and thinking all the while how much fun this is going to be for the kids (read ME). They (I) love stuff like this. Now for the parts list. Let’s see….. PVC pipe, a can of hair spray, a lantern sparker thingy and….oh yeah, a bag of potatoes.
So out in the garage I go to build this thing from plans in a book. (Thanks Doug) Once it’s all glued together I figure I better go break the news to Lisa cause I’m guessing that she will not be as impressed with the potential fun factor as I am. Tip for the ladies: When a guy starts a conversation with “Now, please understand that I am not trying to make you mad or anything…..but I’ve built a potato gun" then you're in for a good time.
So I get that part out of the way and start painting the gun. A nice camo job was in order so that’s what it got. Then yesterday I figured that I should test it before the kids gets here. I loaded up a tater and let it fly out across the back yard. Not as far as I had hoped but then again, it was a test shot to check for possible explosions and stuff. Once the rest of my crew arrived I was able to get a couple out past the property line. I had hoped to take some pictures of the whole deal but Lisa boycotted it based on the potential explosion factor.
I’m hoping that later on today I can get some more distance and some pictures. It really is fun and I think the secret is using large taters. Getting the proper amount of hair spray each time is a key element also.
It seems like every day I see something that makes me think “Wow, people are stupid”. This morning I see there is a news article about a class action lawsuit where people are claiming that McDonald’s is to blame for fat kids being fat. People, as in more than one stupid person. Excuse me? In the movie Men in Black, Tommie Lee Jones say something like “A person is smart, people are stupid.” Apparently there’s something to that logic.
Stupid parent: Don’t worry baby, we’ll make those bad people pay for what they have done to you.
Fat kid: Okay momma.
Stupid parent: Eat your Big Mac baby. Once they pay us we’ll be able to Super Size those fries.
I mean really, let’s blame a fast food chain for bad genetics and poor (if any) parenting skills. Give me a break people. If you are fat and/or dumb, chances are that your kids will be at least one of the two. If you sit on your ass and do nothing about it, they will probably be both without much effort. The part about this that makes me worry is that the stupid people may in fact, get a stupid jury and win. In could happen. Stupid people hang together you know. If you find one there are always more close by.