I'm sure you don't have to go very far wondering about that - with a year in Iraq and another in Afghanistan behind me.

Fireworks are forever ruined for me.

Sigh.

Yesterday, on my drive home from work, I was tooling along in the fast lane, when, BOOM, a tire on a big rig two lanes over exploded.  It went flying out behind the truck and into the slow lane, so, hopefully it didn't ball up traffic.  Heck, who am I kidding?  It's the DC area.  Of COURSE traffic was balled up.

Anyway, when the tire exploded, I tensed up in my car and gripped the steering wheel so hard my fingers were white.  Well, whiter than my usual pasty color.  It was a few minutes before my heart stopped racing and I could send the signals from my brain to stop the eyes from tearing up and stop my shoulders from squishing into my neck.

I can see I still have some progress to make.  I'm just happy I didn't drive myself off the road. *grin*