It will take your breath away!

 Update: July 19, 2010
 Received my camera back from Canon Repair. They actually had to replace the flash unit. It appears to working normal again so all is right.

Dateline: Florence, AL
Recently I upgraded my camera to a "new to me" good used Canon 50D and was completely thrilled with it.  The image quality is vastly superior over my Rebel Xsi and I was just getting comfortable with the controls on it.
On my day off a friend of mine and I had taken a ramble down south through Russellville around US278 to Tupelo and back up the Natchez Trace home.  When I got home I grabbed my gear out of the backseat of the truck, my camera was attached to a Rapid Strap which I slung over my left shoulder and my backpack case over my right shoulder.  I was just about to step up the first step to the porch when "BLAM" the camera came loose from the Rapid Strap and hit the concrete.  My heart STOPPED and I let out a stream of cuss words that would have made my old Navy Chief Boatswain's Mate proud of me.  The camera dropped approx 2 feet and the impact point was the mode selector switch.  Fortunately, the lens had the cap and hood securely in place and it prevented the lens from sustaining damage.  I picked up the camera and rushed into the house.  I started to inspect the camera for damage and thought at first it had survived without damage.  Well, I was wrong, the mode selector switch while still operable would no longer select the various modes correctly and I no longer could select "manual" mode at all.  Since that is the primary mode I shoot in, I knew then that my 50D was going to have to take a trip without me to Newport News, VA and the Canon Repair facility.

I packaged the camera in 3 layers of bubble wrap (I know "Overkill"), so there would be no more damage during transit.  I shipped it USPS Priority mail, signature required, insured for the cost of a new one and let it go.
Prior to actually shipping the camera I had gone to Canon's website and entered a repair request into their system.  The system gave me a repair ticket number for tracking purposes  and instructions on what to send with the camera body.
About 4 days later I received an email with a repair estimate that again made my heart stop, however, I just had to bite the bullet and pay up since it was way cheaper than buying another camera.  As of right now, I'm still waiting the return of the 50D which I expect back sometime next week.
The lesson learned here is to only have the camera out of the case when using it. A point of note was that the Rapid Strap itself did not fail, it was my error, in not insuring that the attachment screw was tightly secured.  I won't make that mistake again.
So, for the fourth of July fireworks pictures I had to breakout the Xsi again.  I had to work on the 4th at the Depot and didn't get off work till 7pm.  I rushed home, grabbed my gear, loaded Debra in the truck and off we went to the big fireworks display.  Since I am a board member of the Old Railroad Bridge Company, we decided to go to the Old Railroad Bridge to watch the fireworks and take pictures.  There was a huge crowd there and I got several excellent shots of the fireworks. Here are the pictures I took: