Tempered Glass

Let me begin by sharing with you an official definition. Ahem...

Tempered Glass: " is glass that has been processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass.  It will usually shatter into small fragments instead of sharp shards when broken. As a result of its safety and strength, tempered glass is used in a variety of demanding applications, including passenger vehicle windows, glass doors and tables, refrigerator trays, as a component of bulletproof glass, for diving masks,and many other assorted uses.

Pictured here you will see that I did indeed own tempered glass at one time.  In fact, I have owned a piece of tempered glass for over 5 years!  We use this piece of glass to cover a game board for our Empire Builder game, then we can mark up the glass and if it gets too late we don't have to destroy everything, we just pick up the glass and put the game away and pick up where we left off next time.  What-a-great-idea.

We keep this special piece of glass standing in a safe closet so that it doesn't get bumped and bonked and get broken.  What-a-great-idea.

Just the other night, we were going to have a lovely time playing this game together.  Brian was out running and errand and it was my job to get the game set up so that we could begin playing right away when he got home.  Another-great-idea

I got the game down from the higher-than-the-kids-can-reach shelf , put that on the kitchen table and went to fetch the glass.  There it was, nice and neatly stored in its proper place.  It was even streak free (a favorite feature about any glass especially since my windows rarely look like this).  I picked it up caaaarrefullly, carefully, and took it through the living room and into the kitchen.  Imagine my great surprise when as I stepped through the kitchen doorway the entire sheet of glass exploded (yes, really) into 

"small fragments" (see above)!!!  

I hadn't hit it, bumped it, jostled it, bonked it, jerked it, waved it, OR ANYTHING!! It just shattered into a billion pieces!!  And then...as I stood there in shock, with my fingers tingling (literally), it continued to pop, and crackle and snap, almost like a very large bowl of Rice Krispies!!  Actually, that's not true, the pieces of glass were not just making a popping sound, but they were also popping up like popcorn, or mexican jumping beans, or something else that pops up.  It was weeeeeeeeird.  The glass continued making popping sounds  and such for the next 30 minutes or so. Even after we had it cleaned, swept, and vacuumed up it continued to "POP!" in the garbage can!  Crazy stuff.  And they say that they make bullet proof glass with this stuff?!  I'm not sure I'd be a trustin' in that stuff anymore!  How can someone be safe behind bulletproof glass if I can't even carry a piece of tempered glass from the living room into the kitchen?!  I ask you, how?

Of course, there is also the "Karilee Phenomenon" that  may have stricken this situation.  If you're not familiar with that Phenomenon then you probably haven't known me very long OR you've known me too long and would rather not remember this part about me.  The fact of the matter is that things very rarely happen to me that happen to other (so-called) normal people.  Take the fact from the past that I broke my foot when I was 14 years old while walking in our garage.  Yes, I promise that's all I was doing.  Our family was in the garage cleaning it out and my Dad actually heard the Popping sound of my bone breaking.  In fact, I still have part of that bone that sticks out from the rest of the side of my foot!!  See?  All I did was walk.  So, it is really that suprising that this whole tempered glass shattering thing has really happened to me?  No, not really.  All I can do is take this knowledge and be prepared for the next time an unpredictable weird thing happens to me.

Hey, maybe this is a sign that I should stay away from glass as a whole... wouldn't it be safer for my family and my home if I don't do windows?  Just sayin'.