Stuff happens by Geezer

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Stuff happens

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Thursday, April 11, 2013 07:30
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 11:54 AM

Keep the Shiny side up

Madame Geezer and I decided to go into D.C. today to see the Durer exibit at the NGA. We do this maybe a couple of times a month - go down on the Metro, have lunch, go to a museum or shopping, and come home.

We walked around in town a bit and then stopped for lunch. The weather was nice - one of the first really warm days - so we sat outside under a large umbrella.

As the waiter was about to bring our our food, The steel cable used to raise and secure the umbrella arms snapped. The umbrella was about 15 feet square, with 3x3" steel box beams radiating from the center to hold it up. If Pythagoras is right, that makes the arms (half the hypotenuse) a bit more than 10 feet long. They all dropped, just like an umbrella closing.

One of them swung down from behind me and went by about six inches from my right shoulder, missed the table top by about three inches, and Madame's left shoulder by a bare inch. It proceeded to hit the heavy table behind her, move it about a foot, and smash all the glassware and china on it. It was over before we could even react. If the waiter had arrived 10 seconds sooner, it would have caught him full in the face as he served Madame (it was that kind of place. Serve the lady first and serve from the left).

No one was hurt, apologies and free drinks were provided (and needed), we moved to another table (inside), and finished lunch (it was delicious. Madame has grilled Black Bass with asparagus and I had Tajarin with bolognese & porcinis), then went to the museum.

Stuff happens. All your care. All your precautions. All the looking both ways and crossing with the light. You can improve the odds, but if we'd been sitting a few inches over from where we did, no amount of caution on our part would have done any good (although we might have ended up owning a restaurant, if we survived).

But you can't live worrying about it. Sure, take precautions, but know that stuff can happen no matter what you do. You can't be afraid.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 11:59 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
If the waiter had arrived 10 seconds sooner, it would have caught him full in the face as he served Madame

Man, that'd have been fun to see!

( provided no one was seriously hurt, of course. Then, not so fun )

My day was less eventful. So far.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

Resident USA Freedom Fundie

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:06 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:

Quote:
If the waiter had arrived 10 seconds sooner, it would have caught him full in the face as he served Madame

Man, that'd have been fun to see!

So Rappy thinks seeing someone get smashed in the face with a 3x3" steel beam is "fun".

Go figure. Says a lot about him, really.

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero

"I was wrong" - Hero, 2012

Mitt Romney, introducing his running mate: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!"

Rappy's response? "You're lying, gullible ( believing in some BS you heard on msnbc ) or hard of hearing."

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:38 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Glad you are alright, Geezer

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:52 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:

So Rappy thinks seeing someone get smashed in the face with a 3x3" steel beam is "fun".

Go figure. Says a lot about him, really.

C'mon... EVERYONE would have thought that funny.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

Resident USA Freedom Fundie

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 3:14 PM

DREAMTROVE

Ah, but whoever had their phone out has already uploaded it to youtube for their FAIL compilation.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013 3:38 PM

MAL4PREZ

Reminds me of a comic strip, I don't recall which it was (Bloom county maybe?) where a few of the regular characters were sitting on a bench eating junkfood and being lazy, and some middle aged health granola type jogs by and stops to tell them how much he exercises and how he plans his diet to keep his colon healthy etc etc.

Then a meteor lands (or a lightening strike?) and the healthy jogger is toast. The lazy guys on the park bench toast their milkshakes and go on with their lazy lives.

Wish I could find that. A prof had it posted on her office door when I was in grad school. Maybe the best thing I learned in 6 years of study. :)

Glad you and the missus are OK, geez.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 4:40 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Omigawd, how frightening! I'm so glad nobody was injured.

Me, it reminded of the end of Final Destination. And of course, you're right. Live life to the fullest; nothing we can do can guarantee how long it will be.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 5:58 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Ironic.

One of the enabling bastards which works with/for Cassidy, a State run bootcamp/hellcamp over in Chelsea, got stuck by lightning yesterday.

This was immediately followed by snarky comments in my direction.
*eyeroll*
I told em, not-guilty, take it up with Zeus.

-F

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 6:03 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Me, it reminded of the end of Final Destination. And of course, you're right. Live life to the fullest; nothing we can do can guarantee how long it will be.

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." - www.answers.com/topic/eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-we-die A conflation of two biblical sayings: ecclesiastes viii. 15 (AV) Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry ... and isaiah xxii. 13 (AV) Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. There are a number of jocular variants. . .

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 7:14 AM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Stuff happens - but it happens a lot more in America than anywhere else...

We were alluding to gun violence, right?

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 7:30 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Kinda misleading...depends on the KIND of gun violence, doesn't it? Mexico has its kind, Somalia has it's kind, Syria it's kind, and we have ours...

...could say something about the company we keep, but what the hell...

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