Cripes is it hot!
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
These days are killer. Apparently Springfield, MA, has the most screwed-up weather, and I end up popping it it. Steve tells me because the whole thing is in a valley, all sorts of screwy cloud formations “fall” into the hole and dump their misery on us.
Last year we got a hail attack and at least one hundred degree day. This year we’ve already done (2) hundred degree days. Don’t forget, the damn kettle heats up to some crazy amount (glowing red hot), so add that temperature to the ambient 98 degrees IN THE SHADE. Oh yeah, I bought a little barometer/thermometer doo-hickey on eBay this week. I want to see if a change in barometric pressure affects kettle corn popping.
We’ve now got ourselves some “life support”, a pair of industrial fans which spit out a torrent of air. Last year on that hundred degree day, I was popping with nothing. No fans, not even that native guy who was sitting on the porch of Col. Saito’s office, pulling that flap in the ceiling in the film “Bridge On The River Kwai”. I was *THIS* close to fainting from heat stroke by the end of the day. Steve had to basically load the trailer by himself. I couldn’t even stand up. With these blowers, it’s at least manageable. We’re working on getting the super-duper “Kettle Corn Express” popper which allows you to stand NEXT to the kettle and crank a little handle, sorta like a kettle popping organ grinder. More on that later when it arrives.
As predicted, my buddy “Johnny” Macleod pulled a whole stint with us today. Steve was getting his “hand chopped off” and was showing up later in the day. [What really happened: he had carpal tunnel surgery on his wrists and had the cast removed.] I feel bad that I had insisted that Steve learn how to touch type when he was working with me at the corporate job. I still want to know how you get carpal tunnel by typing with two fingers. There are a whole bunch of other jokes you can make with the “repetitive stress” aspect of the injury and let’s just say that Steve had it worse on his RIGHT hand.
