I did something today that I've never done before: I placed a call to 911. I was in my car running some errands, stopped at a red light, and I looked over to see a little pile of trash burning in the street—some flattened cardboard boxes and such. At first I figured that it would burn itself out, but then I considered that it wouldn't hurt to call in a "small trash fire." So I turned on my mobile, placed the call, gave them the particulars, and the dispatcher said that someone would be out to take care of it. Very business and straightforward. Once the call was complete, my phone wanted to go into some kind of emergency calls-only mode, but I persuaded it that I wasn't being mugged, raped, or otherwise assaulted, and it was okay to turn off again.

posted: 6:43:54 PM