Saturday, August 11, 2007

Fire Safety, or A Tale of Two Matches

This may not be "substantive," but I'll post it anyway.

I grilled this evening, instead of around noon, thanks to some mis-communication between my wife and our oldest daughter.

That was a good thing, I think, since this way I grilled in the shade, and the temperature was a little lower.

Thanks, possibly, to getting very little sleep last night, I pulled a really stupid stunt while lighting the grill. I lit a match, dropped it near the gas manifold, and turned the valve. Then I noticed that the match had gone out.

So far, not stupid.

Here comes the dumb part: I left the gas running, got out another match, and dropped it next to the first. I heard, felt and saw the dull-orange FOOMP! of the collected propane igniting.

I am not doing that again. Not soon, anyway. And not intentionally.

I could belabor the point, but you know this already: Stunts like that belong in the old slapstick movies, not contemporary grilling.

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