Razing Cane

BOOM!!!

As part of our 4th of July celebration, Nick Martinez blew up Benjamin's cane.  Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "This was a symbolic explosion, right?"  I can understand the rationale.  I thought the same thing; actually asked the same question of Nick after he demonstrated what can happen when a smallish amount of black powder is heated by a lighter (the resulting quick flash fireball was most impressive).  But, no, there was no symbolism involved here.  He blew up the cane!  Still don't believe me?  Here is a still shot of the cane, seconds after the black powder placed inside of it had exploded, lifted from Ben's recording of the event.

Preparing the explosion.

So, now that I have your attention J, I suppose an explanation of this event is forthcoming.  Not long after Ben's hypermobility disorder began to kick in with a vengeance, we soon realized that he would need some sort of support to help him maintain his balance while at school—the several tumbles he had while attempting to walk from one class to the other was enough anecdotal evidence to let us know that something needed to be done. L  We decided a cane would probably be the best option for him, but being clueless as to where to obtain a cane, our first effort was pretty pathetic: a cane found in our umbrella stand next to the front door.  It's not that the cane wasn't ... functional—it worked fairly well under the circumstances—it's just that it was ... well, lacking in height for one such as Ben.  In order to use it, the poor kid had to hunch over it in order to get any use out of it.  At one point during the time Ben was using this cane, the school principal yelled at him from his office, "Metcalfe, get yourself a proper cane!"  Someone took pity on our cluelessness and suggested a trip to the local CVS Pharmacy.  I went, and after a bit of hunting found a "cane tree" offering a nice selection of adjustable canes (cue the Homer Simpson "d’oh!" and obligatory slap to the forehead).  After picking out a bronze colored model, I returned triumphantly home to adjust the thing for Ben's use—problem solved.

Being a 17-year-old young man, Ben "loved" his new accoutrement—which is to say; he didn't like having to use the thing, but he understood why he needed it.  During our vacation last year, there where times when he would try to conveniently hide the cane behind his back when a photo device was aimed in his direction, but there were other times when there was no place to hide it and it ended up in the picture.  Not long after returning home, after some fraying of the meniscus was discovered in his left knee during an orthopedic check-up, a knee brace was added to his growing list of helpful devices.  Consequently, for several months, he had to walk with both the cane and the brace.  As I’ve chronicled in other posts (like this one and this one), the pain management program did wonders for him.   First, off came the wraps.  Then, he was able to strengthen his legs to the point where the cane became less and less needed until it could finally be set aside.  A few months later, he was encouraged to ditch the knee brace in order to strengthen his left leg.  Eventually, he had rid himself of both devices and has been able to walk without mechanical assistance (he still asks me to be “human cane” every once in a while and, apparently, Alana has assisted as his “mini human cane” also J).

The fuse is lit!

However, after ridding himself of his cane, Ben developed a phobia about canes in general.  One night I had to take the cane out of his room and hide it in the closet of the guest room so he wouldn’t see it.  At times, seeing someone else using a cane brought anxiety.  My feeling is that the phobia stemmed from the fact that Ben did not want to have to go back to using this type of aid to walk; so much so that seeing other people using a cane brought on these minor panic attacks.  One day, Ben was mentioning a desire to blow up his cane as a way of feeling rid of it.  Nick Martinez heard him express this desire (which, at the time, was just an off the cuff statement) and he told Ben that he could turn the desire into a reality … and so began the countdown to the cane explosion.  The target date became July 4th.  Since fireworks are legal in town during the week leading up to the holiday, it was decided that one more explosion mixed in with all the others wouldn’t be a big deal. J  Also, I suppose a correlation could be made between the fact that America’s independence from England and Ben’s independence from the cane would also be celebrated on the same day.

The end result

As the appointed day approached, I'd be lying if I said Jennifer and I started becoming a bit nervous about this idea.  I think the only thing that kept us from nixing the whole idea was the fact that Nick, through his civil war reenactments, has handled black powder and knows what he’s doing.  Still, when plans began, Nick mentioned an idea consisting of taking the cane out into the desert and blowing it to pieces—maybe not the best way to start the discussion as my imagination had us all ducking for cover as cane shrapnel whizzed over our heads.  Another time when Ben brought up the explosion ceremony, Nick replied that he had set aside a pound of black powder for the occasion.  My stomach did a cartwheel while I smiled and tried to remain supportive of the endeavor while my mind screamed, “Are you two nuts??!!!”  At one point, I made the mistake of starting to plan our summer vacation around July 4th.  Jennifer had to pull me aside one day and remind of the cane ceremony in order for me to get it into my head to set that date aside as sacrosanct. J

"There's no more cane!  Happy 4th of July!"

Finally, in the days leading up to the actual explosion, Nick started talking about blowing up the cane in his back yard.  This seemed to indicate that the major “in the desert” detonation had been dropped for a more “safe and sane” (shall I say) idea.  Nevertheless, I still found myself wondering how such a thing could be pulled off without injury to bodies, but I continued to keep my reservations quiet and let the scenario play itself out to conclusion.  After the black powder flash demonstration, I thought this would be what I saw—a flare of fire shooting out of the adjustment holes of the cane.  Even though Nick said that he used only a small amount of powder, the results were quite impressive.  When the cane blew apart, I’m heard on the video saying, “Sheeze!” because the actual explosion caught me completely off guard.  But the aftermath of the cane’s destruction was exactly what Ben needed.  Immediately following the blast, Jennifer asked him if he felt better and he replied that he did—which caused Nick to throw his arms into the air in triumph.  I think relief was felt in several different ways when the whole “ceremony” had reached its conclusion. J

Lighting up the night

Later on in the afternoon we had dinner with the Velez/Hobbs family.  Lots of yummy, barbecued food was provided and we all stuffed ourselves while enjoying the company of those who were there.  As night began to descend and people started shooting off their fireworks (I have not been able to figure out why people fire them off while it’s still daylight and no one can really see what they look like), we returned home.  Since this is Ben’s last 4th with us for the next two years, he wanted watch the fireworks from home with us.  We brought our lawn chairs out to the driveway and watched as our neighbors sent their rockets into the sky to give us the appropriate “red glare.”  I think another reason Ben wanted to watch the displays from home was to make up for last year.  It was during the the 4th last year that he started developing his appendicitis (which we thought was the flu) and he wasn’t able to fully enjoy the experience.  He had to go back inside the house after about 30 minutes; Isaac and I were the only two who remained outside for a while.  This year, I think we sat watching for about 2 hours before calling it a night. J  From cane explosions and eating dinner with friends to watching fireworks from the comfort of our driveway.  It was a nice day.