Don't open your mouth around a BFE - especially if it's aimed at your head!

I woke up two morning’s ago to the sound of distant rumbling, which I couldn’t discern as either thunder or large gun fire or tank mortar rounds. Once I realized how early it was, I knew it could only be thunder. The rain had apparently been falling for a while, but it was spattering more than real rainfall, so there was only a bit of dampness to the grass outside my door and along the edge of the sidewalk.

Attended my first BFE demo in the box one afternoon a few weeks back, but have since had a real eye-closing experience with one up close and personal. Yes, that’s right, “eye-closing,” if you know what’s good for you. To be funny, the BFEs were having fun setting off rogue ‘explosions’ when a crew member would wander through a certain area of the beach. Dusty, but funny – and NO, they are not lethal – just really loud and messy.

Fascinated with the thought of having one of those cool dust clouds roll by, and being enveloped early on in the day by another, I became completely enthralled with the idea of how cool it would be to video one of the rumbling, rolling clouds to use as a transition. So I asked if they could let me know the next time they were going to light one off, and…being the kind obliging folks they are…they set one up just for me.

Sweet boys.

I watched with great anticipation as they charged the compression tank with “air”, then loaded the release chamber with their special brand of dust. After the process of prepping the IED, came the location of the human tripod (me). I had wrapped the camera with cellophane to keep the works from getting jammed with cloud debris, sadly leaving the lens exposed (to be able to film it all properly).

The idea was for the detonation to produce a cloud that would grow in scale as it rolled past me – picture that scene in Hidalgo where the dust storm races across the dessert to overtake all in its path. That’s what I was after. Um, I got a little more than I bargained for…that’s all I can say. The event was priceless, and is something Transpo, BFEs, and anyone else watching, still laugh over.

I still want my rolling cloud shot!

Yes, there are images I can share, and if you will be patient, I promise you it will be so worth the wait.

Thanks for checking in, and I will be home soon.