It has not been a good week
On Friday night, 23 lives suddenly ended, crushed under rolls of paper and flying metal.
In a tragedy this big, and in a country as small as Finland, it is almost inevitable that it touches you or someone you know. Be it a brother of a friend, or someone you once taught, or someone you know used to work with.
It hurts, even when watched from far away.
I cannot imagine the pain that those closer by must be feeling.
Farewell, you beautiful souls. You will be missed.
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| "Main_blogentry_210304_1" last changed on 21-Mar-2004 23:11:45 EET by JanneJalkanen. |
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In 1985 I was driving across the US with my college buddy. We happen to hit Los Angeles right at rush hour and the cars on the freeway were packed bumper to bumper - but unlike most cities, they were moving at 80 miles an hour. Right in front of us was a flat bed truck, loaded with 4 rolls of what appeared to newspaper. Each of these rolls was as big as the car we were in and probably many times heavier.All of a sudden one of the bands holding the rolls snapped and whipped back behind the truck - Oh shit! Head for the next exit, no place else to go. Bad move, the truck with the paper (of course did the same thing). Now the band had worked itself under the tire and sparks were flying out from behind the wheels covering our car.
At this point I was sure we were going to end up being the first thing printed on that newspaper - we hit the exit at about 65 miles per hour - we could only slow as fast as the truck, there was no room to move.
Luckily, after a few hundred yards, he slowed enough and pulled to the side and we passed by unharmed and ready for a change of underwear.
To this day I am certain we escaped being crushed by the narrowest of margins. It's nearly 20 years later and whenever my friend and I get together we still compare notes on that event.
Whenever I hear about a tragedy like what happened in Finland I feel very lucky. -- Scott
--ScottHurlbert, 22-Mar-2004