Having A Blast!

This week finished with quite a bang. Despite being extremely busy, I had to leave work early on Friday to oversee the destruction of two of our old vehicles. There's certain rules that have to be followed. The destruction site was about 45 minutes out of town, so when I left around 12:30, I thought I'd be back before the end of the day.

As it turned out, the destruction didn't go off until almost 6pm. Luckily, I had hedged my bets and bought several sambusas on the way, which kept my stomach satisfied. The weather cooperated as well and there were some clouds to hide the sun and keep it cooler than it's been. So I spent pretty much the entire afternoon talking to my driver and checking in periodically with my staff at the embassy. At least I got some good Russian practice in.

I was also able to get some nice pictures.

As the summer gets hotter, you can see that the hills have already lost their green from earlier this year.

In the end, the wait was totally worth it. I went with the team that set things up and we climbed on top of a viewing tower. The upper platform was over three stories high and the whole thing shook whenever we moved, so it seemed a bit precarious. Nonetheless, it was by far the best vantage point. I suppose at this point I should mention that our method of destruction was detonation. The vehicles were rigged with lots of explosives, so much so, that one of the guys jokingly wondered if the tower we were on would withstand the shock wave.

We were really far away, so I had trouble crediting that the explosion would be that big. Well, I was certainly surprised. We all had our cameras ready when the first fireball when up. Given the distance, it was huge. Several seconds later, the shock wave hit us with a thunderous boom that literally shook the whole tower. It was amazing. One of the guys mentioned that the first one was the smaller of the two.

The second explosion was behind a hill, but we could still see it very clearly. Again, a few seconds later, the shock wave hit us like a fist. It was up there on my list of coolest things I've ever seen. I figured that pictures wouldn't really do it justice, so I filmed both and made a short video montage. If you look carefully at the slow-mo repeat of the second explosion at the end, you can see the shock wave moving across the field to the left.

Of course, I still got some pictures of the aftermath, and we went out to the sites to ensure that the destruction was complete.

Boy was it ever! The first explosion only left some hunks of burning, twisted metal.

The second basically just left a hole in the ground.

The scrap metal can now be picked up and reused on the local market. As the video said, 'Mission Accomplished.'

On Saturday, we went to a farewell BBQ for one of my coworkers and had a nice time once the sun went down. It's been extremely hot during the day and from what I understand, it's just getting started.

To escape the heat a little, we planned a birthday party for one of our friends at a riverside resort about an hour outside of town today.

It really was a nice place and the river kept things a little cooler. We mostly spent the day eating, wading in the river, and generally having a good time.

Someone came up with the idea of making a vodkamelon, but not having the proper tools, we resorted to trying to inject it with a syringe.

It didn't really work, but the watermelon was good. By the time we left, the moon had risen over the surrounding mountains and Stephanie and I were more than ready to spend an evening in the A/C. With highs already in the mid-90's, it's going to be a hot summer.