I've already commented on Peter's blog about this, but this story was just too good keep to myself. Note to self: when hauling dynamite take it slow and watch those curves. Luckily, nobody was killed.

Oh, and new Dinomyn pictures on the website.


Truck carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives crashes in Utah
11/08/2005


(SALT LAKE CITY, Utah) — A tractor-trailer carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives overturned and exploded Wednesday, injuring four people and leaving a huge crater in a Utah highway.

The truck driver, a passenger in the cab, a motorist and a motorcycle rider were hospitalized after the truck "pretty much vaporized," Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Todd Royce said.

The explosion left a crater in two-lane U.S. 6 estimated to be between 20 feet and 35 feet deep, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Hudachko said.

"The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder, there's no asphalt left," he said.

Witnesses said the truck's driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle after taking a curve at high speed, Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve said.

The driver, a 30-year-old man who was not identified, was transported by helicopter to University of Utah Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition.

Witnesses rushed to help the driver and his passenger, freeing the pair from their safety belts, McCleve said.

The dazed driver was just coherent enough to say the word "explosive," giving rescuers a sense of the danger, he said.

Two men were taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, where one was in fair condition and the other was treated and released. The motorcycle driver, J.D. Herbert of Denver, was taken by ambulance and was in satisfactory condition.

Herbert, a nephew of Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, said he was trying to warn motorists about the truck accident when the explosion blew him off his motorcycle.

He looked up to see "a mushroom cloud of fire, and shrapnel just starts falling down," he told KUTV of Salt Lake City. "The shrapnel is hitting the forest, and crackling like bacon."

The rig, from R&R Trucking of Duenweg, Mo., had just left commercial explosives maker Ensign-Bickford Co. at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon when the accident happened. The truck was headed to Oklahoma, company officials said. They wouldn't say what type of explosives the truck was carrying.

Wow, has it really been two weeks since I've blogged? Maybe I'll go revise the date on my last post to make it seem like it hasn't been that long. But that would be cheating. Maybe I'll just have to blog more often, as my older and much wiser sister told me tonight. Here I am doing this while Duchess is out of town. Mu ha ha ha...she's always telling me to blog, and now she can't read it. :)

Bathroom Etiquette

So there's all this discussion about taking your cell phone into the bathroom and continuing your conversation while forcing your conversation buddy to listen to all of the activity around you. Gross. I'm guilty of that, I must admit, but I was alone in the bathroom and it was my mom, so that doesn't really count. I mean the woman used to wipe my butt...she knows what's going on down there. Dinomight often uses his 30 minutes of toilet time in the evening to catch up on missed phone calls or read electronics catalogs. No one seems to mind talking to him in there. I occasionally come in for a chat as well. No biggie.

The problem I'd like to address here is taking one's food into the bathroom. That's just nasty. While at a movie the other night, Dinomight witnessed a fellow men's room visitor put his popcorn and drink up on top of the urinal and proceed to do his business. Doesn't that just make your nose wrinkle? Wasn't he concerned about splatter? atomized toilet contents? bacteria? I guess not. Seriously, dude, if you're all alone at the theater (who does that??) go find a seat, put your popcorn and drink in that seat and ask the nice people sitting beside you to watch it for you. It's Provo--people will do that here without batting an eye. If you've got a date I'm sure he/she won't mind holding your food for 2 minutes while you take care of things. I'll fess up to the fact that I've taken a Jamba Juice into the shower before, but I was starving and the shower is relatively clean. In fact, it was kinda neat to have the coldness of the drink contrast with the hotness of the water. Yum. Butan open container in a public restroom? No way.

Mynamyn, PhD (in Maternal Science)

See, you can put the word "science" after anything and make it sound official. So, remember in 4th grade when you learned the Scientific Method and you whined "Whyyyyy, whyyyy do we have to memorize this?" and your teacher said it'd be important and you'd use it later in life? That's absolutely true!! I've used the scientific method often in rearing my child. For instance, the other night we were having issues during Dinomyn's dinnertime. When I'd approach him with a spoonful of food he'd grab it and want to do it himself. I'm all for learning and exploration, but when he'd gotten the food off of it he wouldn't give the spoon back. That's no good. Feeding time was taking twice as long as I pried the spoon out of his slimy little fingers and dished up more. He was also getting fed up (ha ha) with me taking his "toy" away from him when he clearly wasn't finished with it yet.

At this point I applied the Scientific Method. I identified a problem: dinnertime was taking way too long and Dinomyn didn't want to give up his toy spoon. I hypothesized a solution: by introducing as many as three spoons into the mix I could rotate them, successfully allowing Dinomyn to play with spoons in each hand while continuing to eat. I identified my materials: two more spoons, along with the one I was already using. I tested my hypothesis: I brought over two more spoons and renewed my feeding efforts. And I compiled my results: it turns out that I only needed one more spoon. I'd approach his mouth with a spoonful of oatmeal, at which point he would grab it from me and eat/smear the food around his mouth area. Then, while he was preoccupied with the first spoon (looking at it and talking to it) I would zoom in with the second spoon and get some food into his mouth while he wasn't looking. I could do this three or four times, at which point he got wise to me and grabbed the second spoon, dropping the first. I'd pounce on the first spoon and we'd start the cycle all over again. I call this the Rotating Spoon Method, and it seems to work rather well. So, there you have it. The Scientific Method is extremely important. In fact, you may want to go study up on it right now if you can't remember the specifics. See how much you use it in your daily life, you might be surprised. Or you might be mad that you wasted 10 minutes looking up the Scientific Method when you could have been emailing someone. Whatever.

I’m getting more forgetful and it’s starting to have repercussions. I’ve forgotten lots of stuff in the last few months, usually the faceplate for the car radio or a meeting that my boss has asked me to set up. Several times I’ve forgotten my pump and had to go home and get it or else Dinomyn wouldn’t have anything to eat the following day. This morning, though, I forgot something important. I got all the way to work before realizing that I’d forgotten to include a crucial bit of undergarment in my daily wardrobe. This wouldn’t be the end of the world for most girls, but for a nursing mother it’s vital. I was already late to work so I couldn’t go home and get it and my boss started me working on things right away, so I said “Oh well” and got on with my day. Luckily the outfit I chose to wear today hides my mistake pretty well. Still, I can’t help but wonder what other important things I’ve been forgetting lately. I think it’s a direct result of sleep deprivation. Dinomyn (even though he’s six months old now!) is still getting up at least 4 times a night and with Dinomight’s meds knocking him out like they do, I’m the one getting up to calm the baby, feed him, and get him back to sleep. I’m soooooo very sleepy. Something has got to change. I can’t remember the last time I had more than 3 hours of sleep in a row. Kids are great, but the reason parents are so goofy with them is because they can’t think straight from not sleeping. Oh well, hopefully this will teach me to do an undergarment check in the morning before I leave home from now on.