Ramblings From Justin Penney

Ryan, John Corn and I took off and went on a little ride on Saturday. We took the outer road to M highway. Ryan had some "pucker factor" going on since he hadn't been on a motorcycle in 3 years. He got loosened up and we took M to 50, 50 to 52 and stopped in Holden. This was the first time I'd been in Holden. There were a lot of modified compact cars but it was mostly stereos and body kits. Boring in my book. I got a pretty good sun burn on the top of my arms since I was wearing a sleeveless shirt.

That night Ryan and Tiffany were DJ'ing a party. They did it gratis provided they could bring some friends. Jacey, Lily, John Corn and I were all out there. We played some badminton. I sucked really bad. My stomach was T.O.'d about the BK Veggie I had just eaten. I started drinking expecting it to make my stomach feel better... it did ;)

There were some kids trying to play badminton with us. Man they were annoying, just completely spasing out the whole time... and they couldn't even hit the birdie!

The guy throwing the party is serious about fireworks. He had them set up all around his pond with 2 or 3 other people helping. They were all fused together so they would go in sequences. At one point there were staggered mortars on opposing sides of the pond that had varying angles in a sweeping pattern. Just amazing. The display probably lasted around 15 minutes and was the absolute best home fireworks display I have ever seen.

After the party we continued at Ryan and Tiffany's. We had a good time talking about social order. Nice.

Sunday we went for another ride. Tiffany came with Ryan and Scott Sowers made it too. We went through lexington and were going to take 224 back over to 24. Well apparently that bridge is gone so we took 13 north to 10(?) to 210 and ended up having to go pretty much to Liberty to get back south of the river. None of us were familiar with the area and we were all a little flustered at the distance and time when we were all expecting a short ride.

Sunday night we went out to Jon Stubblefield's parent's house. It's pretty much a tradition, except last years since Jon had to work.

We first get out there and Jacey, Lily, Jon and I go out into the field to look at a calf. There's a bull in the field there as well and Jon points out to keep our eye on him. We start talking abotu de-horning the bull and Jon takes us over to the cage thing they do that in. So he's telling us all about it and we're looking then Jon says, "There's the bull."

I ask him what we should do and he says to not panic or run. So of course the bull charges a little right then. Jon give a loud, "YAH!" and the bull stops a little. I throw lily over into another pen then Jacey and I climb over. This is low but gives a little room. Jon climbs up on the de-horning thing. The bull is inching closer so we're trying to get a safe getaway. Jon has us get in the pen that he is on top of. His exact words were, "the bull won't come in here."

I bet you can't guess where the bull started to go. So we jump back out and go over to the next field. It's a delicate game of Jacey cilmbing over and me throwing Lily to her then me scambling over the fence. So we get out and walk back toward the house. This damn bull watches us the whole time.

Once I was calmed down and could laugh at the situation I asked Lily what she thought about being chased by a bull. Her reply, "hmm.... boring!"

The tradition at the Stubblefields is to take all of the left over fireworks, put them in some kind of container, douse them with a flammable liquid and lpay rock paper scissors to determine a "winner" that get to shove a sparkler in. This year didn't have many left overs since it was raining and no one shot off much, they were all saving them. So the final part is all of us gonig over and peeing on the fire that gets left after the explosions. It's good and scary when you have your private part in your hand and some firework starts sizzling.

So this year we weren't able to do it down by the pond and we did it a little closer to the house. We did do it in a plastic bucket that kept everything aiming up instead of the randomness that usually happens. The 200 shot missile battery that I bought didn't fit in so the lighting was tricky. Light the sparkler, light the missile battery, insert the sparkler in the bucket. Jud was the lucky man this year.

The missle battery started going off and it definitely looked like a small fire going inside the bucket but the missisles were exhausted and nothing was going off. We headed toward it to inspect and of course the fury started right then. This year wasn't long but it was a flourish! Some of the brave souls that ventured out to watch started running back to the house in fear! Screaming masses are definitely the sign of a great event! So it finished and we peed on it.

45 minutes later John Corn, Scott Sowers and I are outside dancing in the strobe lights and screwing around with sparklers when all of a sudden the bucket catches on fire! We peed on it... it raining... and the damn thing catches back on fire. I run up to the house to get everyone and had a total Kramer moment. I burst into the room, breathless, and gasp, "The bucket" and burst into uncontrollable laughter. I leave the house and try to get myself together but it doesn't help... eventually I communicate what is going on and everyone comes out to check it.

Obviously it needs more pee. Scott takes aim, pees on it and the damn thing flares up. His pee was like gasoline! I tried next and the flame just kind of dwindled as I walked up. That could be taken a couple different ways, but I'm keeping an optimistic view.

On the 4th Lily, Taryn and I set off some fireworks.

After Lily went to Angela's Jacey and I rode our bicycles on the Lake Vista trail. We hadn't ridden much since Jacey hit the tree. Jacey got breathless after the second climb we got to. It didn't help that there were some jackasses riding a tiny dirtbike on the trails. It was nerve racking and got me freaked out when he came around the corner. I was yelling at Jacey to get off the trail.

That night we went and watched the Blue Springs fireworks display. I was very impressed. Large explosions do that.

# posted by Justin @ 10:52 PM