Hang Fire

 In his career Kadizzle was involved with blasting.  As an underground coal miner Kadizzle spent some midnight shifts blasting the bottom of the mainline so the locomotives had the clearance to run through the mine.  All night Kadizzle ran a jackhammer. Towards morning we filled the holes with powder and set it off.  Later in Kadizzle's career he was in charge of the blasting operation at the mine where he worked.  Kadizzle and another safety director wrote the blasting regulations for North Dakota. 

A favorite blast was when a request came to destroy a beaver dam.  Kadizzle knew from experience too many times not enough explosives were used.  By himself Kadizzle poked some holes in the beaver dam about three feet apart.  Kadizzle used extra large sticks of dynamite that were about two inches across and 16" long.  Clear across the dam Kadizzle loaded the holes.  There was probably at least a case of explosives in the dam.  Kadizzle laid out the wire that would set of the blast and let it go.  It was a good display.  Logs and debris rained down on the road. Kadizzle always wondered what the beaver thought about the blast.  The Beaver probably attributed it to ISIS beavers.  Surely the explosion was hard on his hearing. 

Now, about the hangfire.  One potential problem with explosives is when they do not ignite as planned.  In the old days fuses were used.  A miner would light the fuse and then retreat to a safe place.  Nothing would happen.  The miner would go up to see what went wrong, and then the explosion would go off.  The could result in death or there might be another outcome.  Sometimes the explosion would occur as the coal miner approached.  When this happened the coal dust would get blown under the skin of the minor and leave his face with a strange tattoo.  There is a coal mining song that ask the question of a miner " What is that strange tattoo on your face?".    Kadizzle met a few old minors with the strange tattoo.  

Now Kadizzle is an old man and sometimes his thoughts are hang fires. The thought starts, and never finishes.  Winky has what we call fizzlers.  Winky will get the slightest pinch of information, and then use it to complete a thought that is entirely wrong.  For instance, Kadizzle just got up an walked toward a cabinet.  Winky instantly assumed Kadizzle got a cookie.  Kadizzle changed his mind and the Oreo stayed safe.  Winky always has fizzlers.  Her mind wants to conclude far too early when not enough information comes in.  Getting old means living with a brain that is slowly gumming up with hang fires, and fizzlers.  Of course when you live with someone suffering from an old brain it can be frustrating.  Add to that hearing loss and the world gets harder to navigate. 

Back to the hang fire.  The safe thing to do is wait when you might have a hang fire.  If you twist the blasting machine, and the shot does not go off it is a good idea to wait about ten to fifteen minutes before you get your tattoo.  Well the same lesson works well with thinking in general.  When you have a thought your not sure about wait a little while before you shoot it out your mouth.  This will prevent a tattoo of five fingers on your face.