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1. So around 3:40pm on Thursday afternoon there was a bit of excitement in downtown Ithaca: a dump truck coming down State St. lost control (brake troubles, perhaps), jumped a curb, spilled a load of gravel, smashed a car and a pickup truck, and crashed into the side of the CSMA building at the corner of State St. and Seneca Way.
The CSMA (Community School of Music & Arts) building is right next door to the building in which I work.
Fortunately the truck driver lived and no one else was seriously injured -- the smashed vehicles were empty, nobody was driving through the intersection, and the worst that happened to anyone in the building was a few cuts from flying window glass -- but it was a hell of an accident. Seneca Way and the CSMA parking lot were closed off until at least 9:30pm; as I left work after closing the smoke shop, they were just hauling away the dump truck itself, having previously cleared out the car and pickup that it crushed.
This sort of thing does happen every few years in Ithaca -- we are a town at the base of some fairly steep hills, and brakes do fail now and then -- but it's rare enough and dramatic enough that it's always rather startling.
...
I could do without everyone and their dog asking if we knew about and/or were here when the accident happened, though. What, do they think our store miraculously moved to the other side of town for a couple hours Thursday afternoon? Of course some of us were here! Of course we knew! Bah.
I realize it is churlish of me to gripe, since this is just how people connect and interact and show concern, but after the tenth person... no, I lie, after even just the fifth person, it gets very tedious to keep repeating the same damn conversation ad nauseum.
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2. In other news, I wrote 250 words of "Lemonade" ch. 18 tonight, as well as 450 words of "Clouds," which is another component of "The Transient and the Eternal." That is 700 words total, which is really quite productive for me. (I can write as if possessed when deadlines or inspiration strike, but normally getting more than a couple hundred words a day is like pulling teeth.)
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3. In other other news, today (Sept. 4) is my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! Now you and Mom are the same age again for four months. :-p
On that note, it has always amused me that my mom is both older and taller than my dad -- only eight months and half an inch, but still. Also, she earned more money than he did through much of my childhood, and after he lost his job when I was 17, she definitely was the sole breadwinner. And neither of them ever acted as if these facts were at all unusual. I love them for that.
The CSMA (Community School of Music & Arts) building is right next door to the building in which I work.
Fortunately the truck driver lived and no one else was seriously injured -- the smashed vehicles were empty, nobody was driving through the intersection, and the worst that happened to anyone in the building was a few cuts from flying window glass -- but it was a hell of an accident. Seneca Way and the CSMA parking lot were closed off until at least 9:30pm; as I left work after closing the smoke shop, they were just hauling away the dump truck itself, having previously cleared out the car and pickup that it crushed.
This sort of thing does happen every few years in Ithaca -- we are a town at the base of some fairly steep hills, and brakes do fail now and then -- but it's rare enough and dramatic enough that it's always rather startling.
...
I could do without everyone and their dog asking if we knew about and/or were here when the accident happened, though. What, do they think our store miraculously moved to the other side of town for a couple hours Thursday afternoon? Of course some of us were here! Of course we knew! Bah.
I realize it is churlish of me to gripe, since this is just how people connect and interact and show concern, but after the tenth person... no, I lie, after even just the fifth person, it gets very tedious to keep repeating the same damn conversation ad nauseum.
---------------
2. In other news, I wrote 250 words of "Lemonade" ch. 18 tonight, as well as 450 words of "Clouds," which is another component of "The Transient and the Eternal." That is 700 words total, which is really quite productive for me. (I can write as if possessed when deadlines or inspiration strike, but normally getting more than a couple hundred words a day is like pulling teeth.)
---------------
3. In other other news, today (Sept. 4) is my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! Now you and Mom are the same age again for four months. :-p
On that note, it has always amused me that my mom is both older and taller than my dad -- only eight months and half an inch, but still. Also, she earned more money than he did through much of my childhood, and after he lost his job when I was 17, she definitely was the sole breadwinner. And neither of them ever acted as if these facts were at all unusual. I love them for that.
