(no subject)

[asimplechord]

It's gotten so that I don't pay much attention to the emails we automatically receive warning us about construction in the medical center. As far as I can tell, construction is continuous. The crews just move from one building or lot to the next. One block closed off one month, another block or lane closed the next. So I skimmed my emails this morning and only just came back to read:

A 25-foot sink hole has been discovered under the sidewalk in front of the Marriott Hotel in the 6600 block of Fannin Street. The City of Houston has mobilized to repair a pipe and backfill the void area. One southbound curb lane of Fannin Street will be closed adjacent to the Marriott Hotel during the construction.

A 25-ft sinkhole? How is one of those "discovered", short of it, you know, opening up and swallowing whatever car/person/pet/other thing happens to be walking or driving on that bit of pavement or sidewalk at the time?

Comments

[why-me-why-not.livejournal.com]

That's kinda crazy! We had a sinkhole just kinda "appear" on the interstate once here, b/c there's a bunch of caverns and limestone and whatnot under us.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Apparently they're kinda common here? IDK, when I first moved here a whole bunch of them opened up when we'd had a lot of wet weather.

[inkandchaos.livejournal.com]

maybe your former lab idiot found a new career? one more fitting to his talents?

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Possibly. He is not my problem anymore, yay! Actually, he didn't sign some paperwork that we need so I called over to his new lab, and they were like, "Um, he works here, but haven't seen him and don't know where he is." and I was like, "Shocking. Really, except for how it's not. At all."

[inkandchaos.livejournal.com]

Well of COURSE they haven't seen him; he's busy being a 25-foot sinkhole...

Seventeen or twenty years from now, y'know, you'll be minding your own business and suddenly come across a newspaper article or TV spot lauding him for some extraordinary discovery or scientific advance, and you'll be like, Bzuh? HIM? ...It's Murphy's Law of Relativity. You can count on it.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I'm sure. He'll be on some paper that gets cited a bajillion times, and I'll still be plodding along...

[inkandchaos.livejournal.com]

And he'll still be that much of an Idiot, is the thing.

[vic-ramsey.livejournal.com]

Uh, that's actually kind of scary.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Like, would it just OPEN UP while someone was walking or driving down the road?