I missed you all!

[vegassalute]

It's so great to reengage with all my pyro-buddies, I hope you are all staying safe! I've been off the pyro grid for a little over a year now. I regret to share that my mom got very sick early last year and my wife, brother and I cared for her until her passing late last spring. I don't mean to be a buzzkill, while her passing was terribly difficult, in the end it was a blessing. She is reunited with dad and that brings me great peace.
I'm just now logging back into Pyrotalk (thanks Dave for helping me reset my password) and I've been reading hundreds of posts that I've missed over the past year. It's great to see so many people continuing to advance in the pyro hobby. It's also great to see so many new names on here. I hope you and your families are all safe from Covid and you're all hanging in there during this frustrating lockdown period. I look forward to getting active again on the forum and getting back to industry events and club gatherings! Talk with you soon, Peter (vegassalute)

PS - to the guy in Georgia that was seeking help with formulating flash for his 12" flash crackers last year, I hope you ended up changing your mind! I'm sure you're a very nice person and please don't take this the wrong way my friend, but based upon the questions you were asking, you're hundreds of hours away from attempting flash. I hope you ended up either abandoning that project altogether or you subsequently found a more experienced fireworker to understudy and learn from. I hate to preach, but the whole point is to have fun practicing the fireworks arts while minimizing unreasonable risks to your safety and the safety of those around you. My advice is to take your time, read all the books, white papers and articles you can find, work under experienced pyros, and know what you don't know. Stay Green!

[DavidthePyro]

Not sure why, but halfway through reading your post my eyes started to water up, maybe its hope and maybe it's just the feeling I have for this great community. Its been a short time that I've been a part of the forums but I look forward to the future and seeing you more present on site!

[Mattp]

I am truly sorry to hear about your mom.. but also glad to see your back on!! It could definitely occupy some time reading through a years worth of posts.. LoL

[Icooclast]

i am sorry to hear about your mom.i wish you all the luck there is in recovering from that loss.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Vegas!! I was literally just thinking about you last week and I was going to shoot you a message on here to see what happened to you. But I didn't want to look like a stalker so I didn't. Glad to see you're back, although I'm very sad to hear about your mom. However, I think you have the right attitude. She's back with dad and I'm guessing a whole lot more people who love her! I worked for a guy who had a similar situation with his father. He was having a particularly bad day one day, and he told me the latest that was going on with his dad, and he said to me, "You know.. It really makes you question your mortality doesn't it?" I just looked at him and smiled and said, "Hell no! I've got a lot of really neat people waiting on me!" Anyway... Glad you're back!! ;)

[vegassalute]

Thanks DavidthePyro! That's why of all the hobbies in the world, the pyro hobby and its community are hands down #1. As Trump would say, "its not even close." lol

[vegassalute]

Thanks Mattp, there's definitely a TON to catch up on. It's great seeing all the activity on the forums!

[vegassalute]

i am sorry to hear about your mom.i wish you all the luck there is in recovering from that loss.

Thanks Icooclast!

[vegassalute]

Vegas!! I was literally just thinking about you last week and I was going to shoot you a message on here to see what happened to you. But I didn't want to look like a stalker so I didn't. Glad to see you're back, although I'm very sad to hear about your mom. However, I think you have the right attitude. She's back with dad and I'm guessing a whole lot more people who love her! I worked for a guy who had a similar situation with his father. He was having a particularly bad day one day, and he told me the latest that was going on with his dad, and he said to me, "You know.. It really makes you question your mortality doesn't it?" I just looked at him and smiled and said, "Hell no! I've got a lot of really neat people waiting on me!" Anyway... Glad you're back!! ;)

Thanks brother! I missed talking pyro with you too. The moment I told my wife I was going to email Dave to reset my password and get back on the forums, I immediately wondered what you'd been up to and I couldn't wait to see if you were talking about July 4 prep! And I couldn't agree more with the answer you gave your friend, all our lost friends & family are up there waiting for us. It reminds me of that great quote from the movie Gladiator, "I'll see you again, but not yet!" How have you been? I noticed you guys are letting people back on the beaches down there in Florida. I hope you're safe, can't wait to see what you're drawing up for this year's show!

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Peter, I am glad to see you back on the forum. I am very sorry to hear of your loss, but the grief can be balanced with the joy of knowing she is in a better place. It sounds like you are handling it well. There will be good days, and bad days, but keeping a PMA {Positive Mental Attitude} will get you through. You do have a lot of catching up to do. Settle in and know we are here for you.Prayers for peace and comfort for you and your family members.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks brother! I missed talking pyro with you too. The moment I told my wife I was going to email Dave to reset my password and get back on the forums, I immediately wondered what you'd been up to and I couldn't wait to see if you were talking about July 4 prep! And I couldn't agree more with the answer you gave your friend, all our lost friends & family are up there waiting for us. It reminds me of that great quote from the movie Gladiator, "I'll see you again, but not yet!" How have you been? I noticed you guys are letting people back on the beaches down there in Florida. I hope you're safe, can't wait to see what you're drawing up for this year's show!

Oh man... It's been one hell of a year so far. Since Thanksgiving actually. I got so overwhelmed by work and kids and drama I told the wife I'm not doing a show this year. Figured that would make her happy. Then she told me I had to because she already invited her family down to see it. smh... Okay. Twist twist. So I threw together a product list and placed an order. We decided to split our order this year based on the Dominator stuff we saw at PGI last August. So we ordered Dominator stuff from AWF and pro-line from SO76 this year. I got the AWF order a few months ago. Going to get the SO76 stuff delivered next week. Then, like a DA, I started a masters program. So there went all my free time. So like I mentioned in the other post, I just now, just this week was able to finish my script and drawing. Oh.. I also converted half my firing mods over to quick-plug cues, and I bought enough slats for 6 of my 12 mods. So the scripting was actually easier. Although, I used the new online web version of Cobra Show Creator. I talked to a guy at Cobra and he told me the PC version is going away next year, so everyone better get used to the online version. So.... Lots of new stuff. New products, new cues, new slats. Should be an interesting show. It's going to be a great success, or a great disaster. lol...

As for Covid... I am so over it already. I seriously don't understand all the fools wanting to rush back to work and especially out to the beaches. I live here and I don't go to the beaches! So I'm hoping those fools are just the tourists that paid money to come here and couldn't get a refund. Me, I'm considered mission essential so I'm still going to work. The wife lost her business though. All her clients either got laid off or fired. So that stings the budget. So for her sake I hope we get past this sooner rather than later. I told her she needs to keep me living the lifestyle I've become accustomed to, and I'm not cheap!! (That's actually not true, but she doesn't need to know!) :rolleyes:

What have you got on the drawing board for the 4th?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Just to solicit input from the pros in here.... Here's my drawing for this year's show. I finally took Esgrillos advice and bought some slats. I'm also taking the advice from everyone that chimed in last year and told me the show looked like everything was too close together. So I'm going to fire from a Left - Center - Right position this year, and the right and left are going to be 75' apart. the firing mods on the left are going to fire the boards with the slats on the right. So down the center I'm going to have firing mods with the standard cues firing mines and slices. Having the slats this year gave me the luxury of being wasteful with my cues. So down the center I basically have 1 effect per cue. I'm sure there's a more efficient way of putting this all together, but with my limited brain power and time, this is what I came up with. If anyone has any ideas for how I can arrange it better, feel free. I have more slices and more flame effects. If time allows I might find a way to work them into the show. I have the whole thing loaded up on the online version of Cobra Show Creator. I'm told you can view other people scripts and shows, but I have no idea how to do that. But if you do and you're inclined to look, it's all there. I'll shut up now....

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