Cheeky Little Devil.

Several weeks ago I was driving along on a pleasant spring day, one with not a cloud in the sky. I'm all alone on a side road, cruising along with the windows down.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see something small and white, about the size of a pinhead, bounce off my left cheek. I dismissed it as just a bit of road debris thrown up by my tires... until it began to burn.

Whatever stuck me was really hot, hot enough to leave a little red mark about the size of a mosquito bite near my left nostril. It didn't blister but it stung and it stayed red for hours.

The only thing I can figure is that I was probably struck by a micro-meteorite. That sounds goofy until you realize the Earth is constantly being bombarded by these things. Millions upon millions every day. I didn't tell anyone about it, until now, because the tale has an unpleasant "alien abduction" quality to it. I only mention it now because I happened to stumble upon this story.

It's about a German lad who had a similar tale. Except his meteorite was pea-sized and left a one-foot-wide crater in the ground after glancing off his hand. It also was big enough and travelling fast enough to make a sufficiently loud enough sound that temporarily deafened the kid.

Scientists calculate this kind of event as literally one-in-a-million. By comparison my tale is penny ante, but considering what could have hit me, I'll take it.

=mike=