Playing Dodge Ball

How many times does it happen that when you are watching the news on the television or reading up a newspaper to catch up on that day’s news that you come across something that jolts you? I was watching today’s news about a driver (a women) who was driving in Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, Maryland, when suddenly out of nowhere a manhole cover shot into the air, striking the driver (obviously after breaking the windshield of her SUV), hurting her critically. She was rushed to the Baltimore emergency center for treatment and face job. It was told that the manhole explosion was due to a gas leak in that area.


Firefighter and Washington Gas officials and crew members arrived at the scene to investigate the incident. The fire fighters told the reporters that they had evacuated the residents until the problem of gas leak could be fixed but some residents said that nobody came to evacuate nor did they know about any evacuation procedures. Why is this confusion that the residents and firefighters have different versions? Possibly, the firefighters came knocking and nobody was there in the house at that time but later the residents drove back or walked home. But the authorities had blocked the road of any traffic, so the residents could not drive home on that road. When they were blocked, that would rise questions among the residents to find out more about the incident and hence the evacuation. Instead of the reporters giving haphazard news to the public, it would be better if they give a complete analysis of the situation. Sometimes I feel that the reporters are just playing the role of ‘Narad muni’ to get a story.


So, coming back to our lady who was driving the SUV... Poor lady… she must be driving back from work and this had to happen on Monday evening. She would have been a little happier that the manic Monday was over when the flying manhole smacked her on the face. Driving has become so difficult these days, that one should expect the unexpected while driving. With the way we see pot holes all over the roads that we drive on, one must be good at playing Dodge Ball in driving to avoid them. Just like ‘Monk’, we should be able to zig-zag when we see flies (those who have watched ‘Monk’ will know what I am talking about) That reminds me, we being in the snow season still, I have seen cars driving with an inch or two of snow slabs on top of their cars after snow days. When I drive, I try to avoid those cars. If not, a slab of snow is bound to hit your windshield any time. Those drivers don’t have the time to brush of that snow off of their cars’ top.


To add a little pun to lighten up the situation – I heard an ad over the radio that Taco Bell is selling bean burritos for $0.38 today. Is that the reason for this manhole explosion? Maybe!