telophase | (no subject)

(no subject)

Wow, gas explosion in downtown Dallas. 45 minutes away from me, and I don't think anyone I know is working that close to the area, although traffic in Dallas is going to be hell for hours, since two major freeways are shut down.

Utilities explosions in New York, San Francisco, Dallas. You'd think someone had something against infrastructure. :)

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Am I the only one wondering if these things aren't somehow related? I don't know that there is a conspiracy here, but it's odd that no one's even suggesting one ...

I'm fairly sure it's all coincidence, but you'd expect the conspiracy theorists to be running around madly and I haven't seen any.

The worst traffic I've ever been in in my LIFE was in Los Angeles, after a freeway got shut down because a pickle truck spewed gherkins all over the place.

Stupidest reason for an hour-and-a-half drive taking SIX HOURS ever.

LOL!!

Well, yeah, it's funny now, but at the time...

Let's just say there was a whole lot of moaning and occasionally screaming from the occupants of the van. As well as stabbing of yarn with knitting needles (that happened to be in the car at the time).

I can imagine. XD

LA traffic just sucks regardless. We always dread having to plow through it to get to Anime Expo... there is ALWAYS yelling, because if we yell (inside the car where nobody can hear us, naturally, as we're just being dumb and not rude) then we are not stressing the hell out. XD;

"RAIDERS FAN! GET OFF THE ROAD!" "THAT CAR IS SO FUCKING UGLY! OFF THE ROAD!" "YOU'RE A MOTORCYCLE, GTFO!"

And eventually we get to the con. Eventually.

This sort of thing is why I try to always have the yarn and needles in the car, and a book too. Sucks to be stuck. Sucks less when I have something to do.

fordprfct works within about 2 miles. Fortunately his building is pretty much a bomb shelter. From a hazmat pov, he's way too close still.

My coworker's son works somewhere in the area - not the evacuated area but nearby. He was able to leave for lunch, but I'm not sure he's been able to get back to his office.

Maybe THIS will be enough to get TPTB to take *seriously* the engineers' chorus of "our urban infrastructure all through the nation was built anywhere from the late 1800s to the 1960s, with a design life of FIFTY YEARS! We're a disaster waiting to happen!" and the political/budgetary types will spend some actual money on replacing/upgrading/maintaining this stuff?

Oh, good grief, of course not. Sewers, water mains, and gas lines are non-sexy (worse, non-visible) and thus won't get the attention they need until after some large-scale disaster, like tens of thousands of Manhattanites going without water for months (and the ensuing doubtless-botched emergency relief efforts with concomitant large numbers of fatalities, and not all lower-socioeconomic-strata).

*grumble* Not exactly a Mad Scientist, no--just a Rather Upset Engineer.

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