Strange Timing, again

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Thanksgiving day can be emotional for me. I have lost three important men in my life all within a week of thanksgiving. This year we lost our dog on nearly 17 years the week before. I’d been in good control of emotions most of the day and felt ok with the world. We watch tv a lot in the evenings but always try to be in bed by 10, we are rarely, if ever, up later than 10. Thanksgiving this year, 2020, our daughter left after dinner so my husband and I settled in to watch a couple episodes of new series. It was early enough and we wanted to squeeze in 3, but after 3 it was just after 9 so a third episode would put us around 10 for bed which was ok since we were off tomorrow. We started watching the third episode and about 10-15 minutes in decided I wanted a snack, a Klondike bar, my husband had just been thinking about getting an apple then changed his mind cause my idea was totally better. We pause the show and I get up and open the freezer to get the bars then out of nowhere a grief outburst hit me like a train and I sobbed uncontrollably for at least a half hour. I just could not regain my composure no matter what I tried. My husband sat with me, he held me and comforted me while I sobbed hysterically while trying to eat my ice cream bar. Gross I know, that’s just how outta control and non-swank also it was. I finally regrouped and regained control and we had to decide if we wanted to resume the show which seems totally stupid we are both beyond exhausted and yet we were both also hyped due to my meltdown, so now we’re like whatever, why not we were both off Friday off anyhow. We finished the show at 10:45 and my husband took the dog out and saw that our neighbors across the road’s home was in fire, one side in full flames. He was on the phone to 911 immediately and thank god the house was empty, but it’s weird to think that that if I hadn’t have lost it emotionally like some nutter we’d have been long asleep and that 911 call would not have gone out as soon as it did. It ended up a total loss, regardless, but we were able to get emergency services there and their son earlier to make sure the older couple was out of the other nearby house, it’s an old farmstead that had two homes on it. Additionally, three or four years ago they lost their barn and half their heard of dairy cows in a fire after we’d just moved here. We slept though the whole thing that night, windows shut, air on and our room is in the other side of the house. Didn’t hear a thing til the following morning we woke to see all the lights and devastation. I carried tremendous guilt over that for a quite awhile as I am a huge animal lover. I kept thinking if only we’d have stayed up later that night maybe we could have seen something and called it in earlier and saved some of them. Anyhow, because I started bawling like a baby over an apple vs a I’ve cream bar we were awake this thanksgiving night to be the ones to call the fire in and get the son who lives nearby.
Total votes: 354
Date submitted:Sat, 28 Nov 2020 19:45:57 +0000Coincidence ID:10570