When you're hot, you're hot.

Last night was McCallie's annual bonfire for Reunion (not Homecoming) Week. It includes a large dummy made to look like a member of our rival's football team, which is stuffed with firecrackers (64,000 this year, twice as many as last year). My crew spreads sand to protect the parking lot surface, stacks the pallets to be burned, mounts the dummy (estimated this year to weigh 240-250 lbs.) atop a 15' high pole, makes the torches to light the bonfire, provides trash cans, and cleans up the next morning. Two administrators light the bonfire. The students do nothing but scream. This does not help me like the idea.

Note #1: This is so small-scale compared to Zozobra, it's not funny.

Note #2: As an introvert, I accept that the bonfire provides students an opportunity to socialize, but why have a bonfire? Why not just put them in a room somewhere? Then I don't have to stay up past my bedtime and work.

Note #3: Since McCallie is a boys' school, our cheerleaders come from GPS. When I was in high school, our cheerleaders were thin (and the "fronts" in the marching band notably not so), but they also had curves. These girls are nothing but stick figures. If we're in the South, where everything is fried, why aren't their parents feeding them?

Note #4: I was literally "behind the scenes" last night. I thought it was amusing when the firecrackers in the dummy's rear end went off first.

Note #5: Next year, wear earplugs and bring safety glasses (to protect one's eyes from flying debris). Even though I knew they were firecrackers, and even though I had my hands over my ears, there is a certain point of self-preservation at which your brain tells your legs, "This much noise and all these explosions can't possibly be good for you. Run away! Run away!"

Note #6: Same time next year then?