Buying Stuff I Wanted When I Was A Kid: Rocket Powered Edition

The older I get, the more prone I am to intense bouts of nostalgia. I will often see things that will cause my brain to reach deep into the archives and trigger memories and sentiments of my "golden years of youth". This feeling of nostalgia is kind of like a drug, somehow triggering the release of chemicals in the brain that cause a nice, warm, fleeting feeling of euphoria. So lately to get my fix, I have been indulging that nostalgic part of my brain by buying back my childhood one piece at a time. This, my friends, has its ups and downs. Because reliving the excitement of viewing The Indian in the Cupboard on VHS or Ghostbusters on Laserdisc comes at the price of having to own and store VHS tapes, a VCR, Laserdiscs, and a Laserdisc player. But because my nostalgic brain can scan back and remember how I loved the mounds of out dated electronics I used to hoard as a kid, it's just a nice little two-fer. However, the downside to buying back all the electronics, vintage video games, books, and movies of yesteryear, is having to painfully recount all the awesome things that I always wanted as a kid, but foe whatever reason, never got to own. But I am an adult now and I have adult money with no real supervision to speak of. That means I get to track down some of that crap and experience the wonder and excitement two decades later. And for some crazy reason, owning all this crap as an adult is waaaaaaaay better! R/C cars are faster, the outdated electronics are cheap as dirt, the weaponry is more dangerous, and you can compound the excitement of all this stuff with alcohol for a more dramatic effect. Next on my list: ROCKETS.

BOOM! Since the is no one to tell me I'm gonna burn my own face off, I'm finally going to  play with rockets. Today I strolled into Michaels, grabbed this bad-ass rocket starter set, and plopped a twenty dollar bill and a 40% off coupon on the counter and walked out of there with slice of reclaimed childhood. 

Yeah, look at that launch pad! And that controller! I am so hyped about launching this rocket. Not only because it's a damn rocket, but also because a coworker bet me he could skeet shoot a launched rocket out of the sky with a 12 gauge shotgun. I can't wait to see the look on his face when that tube of cardboard screams right past him into the atmosphere, laughing at him as it does. And I'm going to be over in the tall grass giggling at that dude like the dog from Duck Hunt. But that's the long and short of it, folks. Being an adult sucks more than half the time and you have to work for the Man as another cog in the gears of the complex economic machine, but you can finally afford to buy toys without having to beg, borrow, or steal. Plus, guns and/or booze can make all the epic childhood adventures that you would have had back then that much better. Coming soon: Pictures and or videos of the rocket launch of the century.

My face when this dude gets skunked