So Bob and his dog Stain got run over by a garbage truck today. Literally, like in a MAD Magazine cartoon.

I found this out because I was reading in the patio when my phone said “DING” and the message was a Facebook update. A few of my friends I have set to text me when they update. Bob’s one of them. His update was, basically: “Stain and I hit by truck. No phone. At home. Bloody mess. HALP”

I zipped over there to find them both bloody and shocked. A garbage truck had essentially parked on Stain’s front paws and he was licking them mournfully. Bob was a bit of a scratch and dent himself. The kitchen looked, as Bob put it, “like Charlie Manson came over for lunch.”

So far, so good. Remains to be seen how badly Stain’s paw is injured. Bob appears intact.

This is an example of the power of the Internet, though. With no minutes left on his prepaid phone, the $200 netbook plus some neighbor’s wifi plus facebook plus text alerts meant that several people immediately saw an alarm. Daniel turned around and biked back from Seal Beach on that alarm, I went across town here, and half a dozen other people immediately responded.

Here’s to a fast healing dog.