NITRO LIFE
I once said, in reply to someone when I was asked if I have read a certain a book -,.
“Thank you for thinking of me, but if I read one more book I’m going to evolve into a new life form.”
Well. I did read one more book, and I did evolve into a new life form. I write.
I’m living my Nitro Life. That’s Nitroglycerin.
Back in the day of blasting tunnels through mountains in America - to forge paths for railroad tracks, certain men had to make nitroglycerin for the blasting explosives. This Miner Man lived alone, far away from the work site, up a mountain road, in a cabin.
Inside the cabin he had a large cast iron pot filed with water and dynamite. A fire was built under.the pot so this mixture would boil. In the process of boiling, the explosive ‘nitroglycerin’ floated to the top. At some point the man had to decide when to stop adding dynamite to the cast iron pot, and quickly, but carefully, skim off the nitro from the top surface. He placed the liquid in small, glass bottles. One wrong move, and the cabin would blow up, with him inside it.
The next step in the process was to place wooden crates full of the little bottles with nitroglycerin in them, on the back floor of a horse drawn wagon, and then drive down the bumpy, winding mountain road to the mining worksite, and deliver the explosives to the miners who were blasting through mountains. Once again, one wrong move, and he, the horse, and wagon would be blown up. Obviously, most of those trips made by such Miner Men were successful.
At a certain point in my life, I decided that it was time not to add anymore sticks of dynamite to the large cast iron pot of boiling water, and to skim off the nitroglycerin at the top… I’m living a Nitro Life, and writing Nitro things.
