1. She busted the window with a piece of ceramic it only takes a small piece

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2. imagine driving near a dump truck full of these

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3. Here because of the thumbnail

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4. Glass can be very inconsistent. Back in the '90's, I had one of the most bizarre and funny experiences because of a 1/2" thick piece of glass used as a desktop in an office.

   At the time, I was building boxes, setting them up for businesses and doing their network related stuff, as well. I was the IT Dept for companies too small to afford an employee.

   A client ordered a nearly top of the line box &, at that time, a 'huge' 17" monitor. (A 21" tube monitor was in the $2k range. The price of 17's had just dropped a week or so before. Originally, the system was spec'd w/ a 15". So, a 17 on a desktop was a big deal at the particular moment.)

   The system was for the woman who managed orders, scheduking & such for a nearly 100 year old glass company. Did both commercial windows & auto glass.

   (Be sure to remember they were a GLASS company, It's a critical plot point to the story.)

   I always delivered & set up my systems, making sure all was good, the user waan't left w/ new computer paralysis, etc.

   I asked if she wanted it set up the same way as the old one, & was told identically. Other than going from a 14" to 17" monitor, not much else changed; size or weight. Both systems were mini-towers & the printer was not being replaced. No sweat.

   The glass was supported by two file cabinets. One cabinet was about 6" from the left end of the 7-8' long slab of glass.

   The right end of the glass hang over the right cabinet by a foot or so, & that R rear corner was where the new 17" monitor was located.

   To the left of the monitor was the printer, & the box was to the printer's left, leaving lots of desktop space for KB, mouse & still have room for files or other paper & such.

   The 2-3 sales guys were all in the same room; it was an open office design. The CAD guys were across the hall in their own cave.

   As I was unboxing, attaching cables & all the other highly skilled things, I was chatting w/ the sales guys & made a comment about the thickness of the glass & wouldn't a desk have been cheaper? Nobody else had a piece of glass for a desk, so it wasn't a design or fung schway(sp?) thing.

   "Oh, that was a chunk left over when we put in some glass balcony floors at Nike a few years ago. The shop mgr was trying to get next to 'Xxxxx', so we figured that was the reason he offered to build her a desk. (Mind, this woman was a drop dead gorgeous Latina; she made it very difficult to concentrate any time I helped her or interacted w/ her, at all. There's been, at most, 3-4 women who affected my thought-speech functions after I reached 22-23.)

   After hearing about the glass' history & a story 'bout some other glass floor the company had built, I remarked it certainly should be up for the task of desktop.

   I said this as I was finishing. I hit the power to give it a chance to boot, and went across the hall to see the 3 AutoCad users, BS a bit & see if they needed/wanted anything in the future.

   It couldn't have been 4-5 minutes when there was a loud noise followed by some even louder crashing and crunching, immediately followed by, after just enough silence to be obvious, a mixture of louding male swearing, mixed w/ laughing & loudest of all was some of the foulest Spanish language in the sweetest Spanglish accent imaginable. (I worked in pro baseball as an athletic trainer in my younger days. Until then, I considered myself somewhat of an expert on foul language of the Spanish variety.)

   When I ran into the office, I could do nothing but bust a gut laughing.

   The gap between the file cabinets was enough to easily push an office chair w/ airs into the space & not be crowded.

   The 'structural floor quality' glass had split diagonally to the left of the case, under the KB & mouse.

   The left 1/3 of this 150# miraculously stayed in place; not so with the left 2/3's. It was tilted, leaning on the right file cabinet with the KB & mouse crushed somewhere under the case & HP II or III laser printer, (which are NOT in adjacent weight class as an HP inkjet; we're talkin' feather weight vs light heavyweight!)

   The first thing that popped in my head, other than relief I didn't build the desk, was where the heck was the 17" monitor.

   I took a step or two further into room w/ the now, 4 laughing men & 1 mad as hell, mid-20's, Latina, who has finally inhaled, so she can keep pealing the paint & withering her plethora of well-tended, just as gorgous as her, office plants.

   (Oh, yeah, there was botanical involvement in this 'structural floor quality glass' disaster. Dirt, plant matter & pottery shards were well represented along w/ plastics, circuit boards, cabling & printer sub-components.

   Overall, it was a nice beige, natural & artificial green & dirt brown motif, with just enough silver from the solder to give it some bright accents.

   The monitor, you ask? Well, the combined weight of the objects, to the right of 'The Structural Failure Frature' NOT supported by the right file cabinet created a launch trajectory NASA would have envied.

   I later borrowed a tape from the glass shop, (so I could make sure they heard about 'The Glass Failure', as it now seemed to be officially named. Also, so I could make a timely, & much needed, exit when the office mgr came to investigate, because I had still not stopped laughing.)

   The monitor traveled straight line just over 8 ft; didn't have time for the trajectory geometry, but we guessed at 5-6 ft, high.

   The length of flight would have been considerably longer if not for the pesky 1/2" sheetrock covered wall. You know, sheetrock is pretty tough, even when the corner of a brand new, 17" monitor is bounced off it.

   Lucky for the monitor impact locale was between steel studs.

   By the time most of the clean up was done, I was back from my home office, <10 minutes away, w/ a new KB & mouse.

   There was a 3/4" sheet of plywood instead of the chic modern glass, but when I plugged it all back together… everything worked.

   The monitor looked like it had been in a hatchet fight, the case had a few scrapes & dents, plus it was gonna need a new CD as its' tray didn't survive.

   The printer had a couple cracked flaps & need a paper drawer, but the worst loss was the KB & mouse. The least expensive parts.

   Once the office mgr discovered it was a financial disaster, (which also meant the user wouldn't have to wait as long as she did to get THAT new system. (Somewhat typically, the AutoCad boys got every toy they wanted, while the sales, accounting & such 'waited for budgetary concerns to ease.'

   Hell, the office mgr, also the comptroller, was forced to work on a pre-Novell, obsolete & unsupported ten years prior, PC based server. I could only keep it alive because of programming I had studied in the '70's.

   Don't even get me started on trying to get paid for training their employees how to use the systems & network I built them.

   Until I took them on as a client 4+ years before, the ONLY computer user was the office mgr.

   But, for all the headaches I got from 7 years of having them as a client, I got two things making it all worthwhile.

   A friend who would go to lunch anytime I asked, especially when I needed a bit of an ego boost; she was cool, knew the score, but gave zero shits about her beauty & gleefully would make me the envy of everyone at a restaurant, & even performed admirably as a wing woman, after my divorce.

   The 2nd thing? Laughter is good for ya, and that day stocked me up for life, & gives me a boost just thinking about the trajectory of a 17" CRT, let alone when I get the chance to tell the story.

   Hope you enjoyed as much as I did living it, & re-telling it.

   GeoD

   Oh, to make a car connection to the story, as well, Culver Glass had been in the auto glass biz since the '20's. Some brilliant person kept & inventoried every pattern for every piece of flat glass they ever cut.

   When I was in the street rod & restoration biz in the 70-80's, Culver was my glass supplier. Back then, even a common Model A door glass was 3, 4 or 5 times the cost of the glass, & their was only a handful of companies, in the US, where you could order them.

   If I needed all new glass for a '36 Plymouth coupé. I called Culver, got clear or tinted, was never xharged a cutting fee, & paid per square inch of glass, wholesale price, yet.

   To make any car guy cry, when Culver was sold to a national chain, they THREW away all the patterns.

   "Took up too much space.", I was later told.

   G

   Just ask if you want to hear how a '54 Fat Fender my partner & I built for him ended up with rose tinted flat glass to go with the paint & interior.

   The truck still lives, ex-partner just died & his daughter wouldn't even consider selling 'HER' truck.

   Has a frame swap from a early '70's C10, including tilt wheel. The cab was a direct bolt on; the bed needed two custom mounts. It IS the perfect chassis for a Fat Fender; looks channeled & even w/ 15" wheels & tires, the fenderwells are filled, perfectly.

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5. This is bs, I tried with ceramic and a rock that weighed the same amount in grams. The spark plug was NO more effective at breaking glass than the rocks.

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6. I remember doing this to a Window at the wreckers on an old rusted out panel van that had half a forest grown inside of it. It melts the windows with the lightest throw of force

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7. I like to carry a cupholder full of sparkplugs incase people on the road get lippy, tough, or otherwise piss me off. 🙂

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8. Please tell me that’s not your girlfriend

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9. Shes fine

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10. ur wife looks different than now. but I need front windshield information. my hairline isnt holding up either brother

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11. New use for broken coffee mugs?

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12. I just hope no one walks on that grass barefoot (OUCH)!

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13. When was the last time that you washed your nails??

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