Better than front row seats to a Gallagher show…
On May 18, 1980 the most spectacular, frightening, devastating and deadly volcanic eruption in U.S. history happened when an earthquake loosened the north face of Mount St. Helens in Washington state and unleashed an explosion of ash and magma that burned or buried everything in its path. Despite a potential eruption having been telegraphed by the seismic activity and huge freaking bulge that was growing out of the north side of the mountain since late March, there were still at least 55 people too close to the volcano that morning to live to tell about the awesome experience. This includes at least two members of the volcano paparazzi who were covering the story for various media.
If you think being baked in hot magma is your biggest concern with being near a volcanic eruption, try the suffocating gases and metric fuckton of ash that’s going to bury your ass as the most likely ways a volcano will kill you to death. That’s how many of the victims of Mt. St. Helens met their demise…
It looks cooler than those silly solar path lights you put out…
Well, now that the fun is over, let’s put away our soot covered umbrella and answer this week’s Share Your World questions from Di!
Mitzi will save everyone with her huge, fireproof chest…
Children aside, do you celebrate your birthday/anniversary or is it just a normal day for you?
I don’t do anything special or really want or crave the attention many people seek for their birthdays. As with pretty much every single day of the year for me, it’s just another day….
My Mom makes me chocolate cupcakes… not as cute as these, though.
Do/did you always give your child a birthday party when they were young?
Well, I don’t have kids… and probably one of the many reasons I don’t is that I wouldn’t be throwing birthday parties for some damned kid every year. I have a cat (which despite the protestations of many pet lovers, I do NOT consider to be a kid), and the only attention Ody gets each July is maybe a mention of his birthday on my blog. Adding insult to injury, the late, great Biskit still gets yearly birthday cards from Chewy.com (where I had to buy flea meds three years ago thanks to youknowwhat) while Ody was apparently removed from their mailing list…
Yeah, it’s just another day for you, too. Deal with it!
If your child was born on Christmas Day (or a few days either side of the 25th), did they have a ‘half birthday’ in June, two presents/celebrations, or something else?
I have no experience with this since five of the seven of us in my family have summer birthdays, and the other two being in November. One of my Mom’s sisters had a December 27th birthday, but I have no idea what they did for her. I do know that in Evil Squirrel’s world, where gift giving just because society says you;re supposed to give gifts is BANNED, this wouldn’t be an issue at all…
Merry Christmas AND Happy Birthday, schmuck!
Would you prefer to give your child a party, or take them and a few friends on a special outing?
Let’s take all of these mythical children I have and put them on a rocket with that persistent mythical partner I’m supposed to have, and let’s shoot it right into Mount St. Helens! That, I believe, would qualify as a special outing…
I think most real parents would prefer the rocket into a volcano over a typical Chuck E. Cheese party.
Gratitude: A child’s laughter is infectious, contagious and a bringer of memories to those of us in our twilight years.
Yes, memories…..
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I never heard of a half birthday, but the idea is great… can I ask my parents for all the gifts of the half birthdays I missed?
I knew a girl once who insisted on making a big deal out of her half birthday. She was born in the summer like me, so she just wanted the extra attention and any potential gifts it might bring…
My Mom’s birthday was Christmas Day but that didn’t stop the family or anyone who knew her chair. She had a mountain of Christmas gifts on one side of her and a mountain of birthday gifts on the other side. It was fun watching her open them all up although she was always so busy watching the rest of us open our Christmas gifts and took forever. Still, I’d give anything to watch that again-I love it when an adult shows genuine childlike enthusiasm when it comes to gifts.
My Mum was like a big kid sometimes and many of my fondest memories are of her watching the doughnut machine (hay baler), looking for rabbits with fluorescent vests because she couldn’t see them otherwise (Hubby’s private joke), bluebell woods, roadside daffodils, and her blowing a single candle out on a birthday cake I made for her when she came to stay. Her birthday is on the 22nd so she is more on my mind than usual (she would have been 101), though she looks back at me every morning from the bathroom mirror.
I lost that enthusiasm really early in life, probably before I was even done being a child. I can show some genuine joy for a surprise or serendipitous gift, but I’d long grown to despise the “expected” gifts that would come around on birthdays and Christmas. Just one of my misanthropic quirks, I guess…
Interesting reminder of the volcano … We were in Japan when Mt. St. Helens blew it’s top. When later in the year we flew back home the pilot in the plane we were in flew over it he pointed it out so we could see the crater. It was still smoking all those months later. At home they were even selling small jars of the volcanic ash. 🙂
That would have been cool seeing it from overhead….. or anything at all for that matter! I had a middle seat on both flights I’ve ever been on and never got to look down at the world from up there…
It was sure something to see, and say I saw it, too. Plus being from flat west TX mountains of any kind are awesome.
I love sitting by the window in the planes. Maybe someday you will be able to. 🙂
Well, I got stuck in a tube at CEC for my kids’ 4th birthday party extravaganza, so yeah, I can attest to the fact that CEC sucks ass for an adult.
That’s got blog post written all over it. Did you ever share that? Did Chuck E. have to come to the rescue? You should have sued for a shitload of tokens…
Yep, I shared it years ago. I called it Totally Tubular.
If he’d came near me, I would’ve screamed and beat him up using a toddler as a weapon…
Restaurant Mascot Beaten To Death By Woman Swinging Toddler! But first, Jim at the sports desk with up to the minute cornholing scores…
And after that, the weather forecast. We hope you enjoyed the summer temperatures today because tomorrow it’s going to snow…
Thanks for joining in………………. must try a set of Q&A for readers with no kids.
See you next time!
I do what I can with the family questions even though I live alone. Still fun to come up with stuff for them!
Thanks again for taking part.
Not a fan of birthdays either. Neither is my teen, i mean, I made big effort for their child birthdays as is what is required of you as a parent, and theyd always be like meh, i just want to go out with you shopping or something, no fuss. We’re more into celebrating achievements, exam results, life events etc, you know things you can work at and have some control over, rather than random days of forced joy.
That sounds like a much better philosophy than finding significance in an arbitrary calendar date. And I love the phrase “random days of forced joy!”
That “rocket into Mt St Helens” excursion sounds awesome. Is there somewhere I can book? One of those “extreme sports” websites? Or should I just book on SpaceX or Virgin Galactic and wait for it to go horribly wrong…
Buster just happens to have a spare ticket for the next rocket, if you don’t mind a possum as a seatmate…
Half birthday? Never heard of it…..At my age birthdays are just another reminder of how “old as dirt” I am. I gotta know – do some bathrooms still have balloon machines and Nerf dart dispensers??????? Or has bathroom society advanced along with the advent of self-flushing toilets?
Pam
Well, I know there aren’t balloons in the men’s rooms at Mecca…. though I kinda doubt there ever were. That comic was largely inspired by my fascination with that particular machine in the men’s room at the local bowling alley when I was a kid and had no idea what it was trying to sell!
I had a half birthday, but it was for the immediate family– no friends or relatives. Kind of a big deal that wasn’t one.
We were too poor growing up to have half birthdays. One per child plus Christmas was already more than my parents could handle… and probably one of the reasons I’m not a fan of the concept of “forced” gift giving…