Spontaneous implosion, boss broccoli, sucked me in

So last night I was working on putting entries in for the race I am timing today and my cell phone rings.  I see it is my neighbor from across the street.  He told me he was on the road but had just gotten a call from his wife that their one rear sliding door exploded.  She was freaked out and was scared somebody shot at her or something.  He asked if I could run over there until he got home.  I said of course, and headed right over.

I was a bit nervous when I knocked on the front door and no one answered.  I then went around the back onto their lanai when Carol came out.  I saw the shattered glass, it sure look like it had been shot.  However a quick inspection of the screen around the pool cage showed no rips or tears where a projectile could have entered.  Also the curtain behind the slider was intact.

Carol said when it happened she was literally sitting right next to the slider, it understandably scared her to death.  She had already called the police.  The police showed up, a full three cars worth, a minute or two before my neighbor got back home.  When we described what happened the first thing they did was ask how old the house was. (16 years old)

They said this actually is something they have seen multiple times, especially with older construction.  The single pane glass eventually fatigues.  This process is amplified by the difference in outdoor Florida heat and humidity and the chilly indoor temps many people keep their AC cranked down to.  Having one side of the glass hot and the other cold, over time, with older glass, can result in the implosion like my neighbor saw last night.

I asked my neighbor if he wanted any help with the clean up process or sealing the hole temporarily, there was glass everywhere.  He said he would be fine so I headed back across the street to continue my race prep.

Last night in addition to my salad and veggie wrap, I decided to cook some broccoli.  My cooking abilities are extremely handicapped.  Not because I can’t do it, just because I never had to do it.

I had prepared some broccoli a couple times recently by nuking it in the microwave.  It was edible but not much beyond that.  Well on the way home I called my mom to ask for broccoli stove top prep instructions. After all the less nuking of food I do, the better.

Mom said prep was pretty straightforward.  You basically dump some water in a pot with the broccoli, add some salt and bring it to a boil.  Once it boils you turn off the burner and cover the pot, letting the broccoli cook in the steam/hot water.

I was quite pleased with the end result, broccoli came out much better than my previous nuked attempts.  Broccoli is the second item that I discovered comes out much better when cooked conventionally.  Gortons grilled tilapia was the first.  Gordon Ramsey better look out.

After I finished all the prep for the race I am timing this evening it was almost 9pm.  I decided to flip on the debate as I was folding laundry in the bedroom, despite my intentions to not even bother watching it as I knew all it would do is deepen my disappointment in the American political system.

The actual words that came out of the two men’s mouths were pretty predictable, with a lot of “you did this”, “you said that” and lots of  loose “facts” that were meant to discredit the other.  However I focused more on other aspects of the debate, a lot of non-verbal things.

Mitt’s eyes looked like he came off the set of Walking Dead, bloodshot and tired.  It was interesting how Mitt chose to direct his comments towards Obama as opposed to the camera.  Likewise it was interesting how Obama for the most part spent the majority of the time Mitt was speaking with his head down, taking notes. Conversely, most of the time Obama was talking Mitt had a ridiculous looking grin on his face that to me, came off as very disrespectful.  I have little doubt that both candidates had planned this body language ahead of time.

I felt bad for the moderator for whom the most part got stomped on by both men who repeatedly ignored the efforts to keep their answers within the time constraints laid out for the debate.  He would ask them to stop talking and the candidates rambled on, acting like there was a ghost in the room.

Tonight I have an oddball Thursday evening.  I go straight from work to time the club’s only evening run of the year.  This race is typically a bit of a mess since there are tons of exercise novices and children that participate.  They aren’t familiar with a race environment so typically there are tons of human related errors that pop up for the event.