during marching season, you would think they had their fill. But no, now the police have gotten into the action.I was falling asleep on Friday night after a surprisingly wonderful youth club, but otherwise crazy week, when a huge explosion woke me up. Its amazing how quickly you become accustomed to a new environment. If I had woken to sounds of explosions in Cincinnati, I would have been up and running around in a panic. In Belfast, I turn over and try to decide after the third explosion in a half hour how close a firework would have to be to my house to make the windows rattle.
I found out on Sunday that some bank robbers left their vans near my house and so the police called the army in to blow them up...you know standard procedure. I guess it has to do with the popularity of car bombs? Its called a "controlled explosion", but I don't really understand--an explosion is an explosion right? If it was a 400 pound car bomb, like the one that only partially detonated last week, wouldn't that be like still a really big explosion...like a "controlled" huge explosion? I know its just that I don't understand and there really is a reason. Someone please enlighten.
Here is a link to an article about it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8409519.stm
Good one Becky, a controlled blast is one were the one doing the blasting is no where around. The people, shop owners, or users of street and walk who's property or activities are destroyed or damaged are not in control so their loss is not a loss of control. So if my controlled blast destroys your house I can call it a controlled blast because I was in control.
ReplyDeleteWe would do controled detonations all the time in Iraq but we were nice enough to move the munitions away from where people lived before blowing them up. Although one time the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) guys misjudged the size of the explosion a couple anti-tank mines would make and we blew out a few windows. The worst part was the poor family we scared to death. We gave them money to fix their windows and then some, but the real lesson we learned was to tell the people in the area before conducting a blast. Woops.
ReplyDeletewow, lady. gotta love the coppers!
ReplyDeletehey, great blog, I just read the whole thing, sounds like you are having a fascinating time in Ireland. Bet the weather there doesn't suck as much as the weather here in Minneapolis right now though haha. Can't wait to read more :) Be safe.
ReplyDeleteps white people love blogging about their travels :)