Dinner

Dinner conversation ranged far and wide tonight. We were calmly explaining to David that Daddy was not related to Mommy, and that yes, we were related to our cousins, but not people like the Murrays. I think he was struggling with the difference between blood relationship and marital relationships.

Suddenly in the middle of the discussion he said, "Do you know how you could stop an avalanche?" Always willing to leap from one conversational saddle to another we followed him. After successfully stopping avalanches and establishing various preventive measures, we touched lightly on the topic of blowtorches and the relative inflammatory nature of baking powder (or was it soda?), and swiftly passed to bigger and better things.

Would a 55 gallon drum of gasoline explode when lit, or merely burn forever?

Asked Daddy, "Well, is it closed or open?"
"Open," David answered promptly.
"It would light with a big woosh, then burn for a very long time."

So Daddy explained what would happen if you sprayed it with water, what would happen if it was closed and half full of oxygen and again we leaped a step higher.

Who lights oil wells on fire anyway? So we learned how to put out a burning oil well (place explosives all the way around and detinate them simultaneously to remove oxygen from the area). We were all very impressed until Stephen pointed out that it wouldn't work in the ocean.

"Well, there are underwater explosives."
"Nothing is going to be burning under there anyway!"
"Yeah, just oil rigs."
"And if they are on fire you can just sink them."

Moving right along we discussed the guy who was in the middle of a huge underground gas explosion and survived because he was in the center, kind of like the eye of a storm.

And the lady who got hit by lightning multiple times.

And the lady who was minding her own business sitting on her couch and got hit by a meteorite. For some reason we found this highly amusing.

And how Daddy saw a meteorite flaming across the sky while he was raking leaves with his mother and brother.

And that is the absolute truth.