Since yesterday was a public holiday with beautiful weather, we were puttering around the yard all morning till we were really hungry. Drove to the store and bought some meat, lit the grill, and it went BOOM! My husband clearly made some basic grilling safety errors, because the fireball made the grill jump back about 6 inches, he jumped about four feet back, and he got minor burns on his face and neck. His eyebrows, eyelashes, and forearm hair were singed too.
He was spared a lot of grief because he was wearing his eyeglasses and a baseball cap. Without the hat, his whole head could have caught fire. And if he'd been wearing contact lenses, they'd have burned too and there probably would have been a hospital visit. Thankfully the burns really were quite minor -- more annoying than dangerous. We took quick action which probably helped too -- he stood under the garden hose till the pain stopped and then he dried off and sprayed that blue gel aloe stuff on the burns. I advised him to spend the rest of the day out of the sun, since the heat would surely hurt like heck.
He refused to re-light the mean scary grill so he stood back while I got it going. He was giving me instructions the whole time too, demonstrating that he fully understands the theory of grilling safety. Just failed to put it into practice I suppose. The meat, however, tasted fabulous. Thanks mostly to the new remote grill thermometer we got for a cool $15 at BJ's.
Today he's doing well, but decided to work from home because it's difficult to wear a collared shirt and a tie when your collarbone and neck are burned. One thing that's really funny is that he now knows what a sunburn feels like. He has brown Indian skin that has protected him from UV his whole life, and he has never had a sunburn before!
