Flapping In The Breeze
And You Thought You Had A Rough Weekend!
You know when you know something bad is about to happen about a millisecond before it does but you are powerless to stop it? See the picture below? That was my Saturday night.
Allow me to explain. It's dinnertime-ish, and I'm helping a friend of Ally's (I'll call her "G") move a desk since I have a car (she doesn't) and am visiting Boston for the weekend. We loaded the desk into the car and I went to the front seat to grab something. I looked up to see G closing the trunk door. I wanted to say "Nooooo!" but it's too late. The desk, not quite into the car enough, smashed out my back window.
Being that it was Saturday night, there was no way I could get it fixed. There was also the added problem of leaving it parked on the streets of Boston in that state. So we dealt.
I sent two people to get electrical tape and clearish plastic at the hardware store while I brought the desk to the apartment with G. G and I cleaned the glass out of the car as much as we could (wearing thick gloves). Upon our return, Ally and company taped up the back window (painter's tape = won't ruin your paint job). I decided I should head back to Maine, not wanting someone to vandalize my car (or worse) that night. I packed a quick bag and headed north.
The flapping of plastic was a little annoying and my gas mileage got cut substantially by the drag from the sheet of plastic. The good news is the rain held (as did the plastic) for the entire trip. I pulled into my driveway at 1:30 a.m.
There are a few things that I think that made this not the most annoying thing ever:
1) G apologized but didn't repeat the apology over and over. I tend to do apologize obsessively and annoyingly, so that fact that G did one sincere apology and moved on to helping solve the problem was helpful.
2) G borrowed a phone book and proceeded to call companies herself. This was much appreciated.
3) The group attempted to think of solutions for the car (back it into a driveway, park it in a garage) but did not attempt to sway my decision to leave town once I had made it. As a result, I didn't feel guilty but did appreciate that they gave the problem some thought.
4) G offered to pay for the damage. It was not only helpful but the right thing to do.
5) The radio volume was able to be cranked up pretty high.
6) The temperature did not get below 57 degrees F, making me warm enough in the car.
7) While I couldn't see out the back window, I could hear cars coming.
8) Driving with a big sheet of plastic covering your back window makes driving in Boston with a normally functioning car seem like a piece of cake.
So my car looks a little ghetto in the driveway but it could have been much worse. Tomorrow (hopefully) it'll get fixed. Another exciting weekend in my life, hope yours was also but in a more fun way!
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