BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

Was just working away here at home when suddenly someting exploded loudly outside. I looked out my window and saw people running across the McDonald's parking lot. (I live just over the McDonald's at 125th St. & Broadway, lucky me.) They didn't seem to be running in utter panic, and the explosion was loud enough to get my attention easily but not so loud as to terrify me, so I didn't figure the whole McDonald's had blown up. Nonetheless, my mind immediately turned to terrorism, anyway.

I went outside and around the corner and could see a few dozen people rubbernecking from across the parking lot. A fire engine was already there and sirens signaled more on their way. As I approached but couldn't yet see around the corner to the source of the explosion, someone asked me, "That's not your Lexus, is it?" Not bloody likely, fella, but thanks for asking.

As I got close enough, I could see a car parked on the street in front of the McDonald's was smoking from its hood. Not a car bomb, apparently, as it was intact, just smoking.

What I gathered from a couple of folks milling around was that something under the street had blown up, like a gas main. The unlucky car just happened to be parked in the wrong spot. Seems to me that one of the fire engines was already on the scene before the explosion, as it was parked there as soon as I looked out my window immediately after the bang. For about an hour before the explosion, the lights in my apartment had been flickering, to my increasing annoyance. After the boom, they're back to normal. I should be glad, I guess.

Ah, life in the big city.