Shortly after we bought our current minivan (in 2012), Mr. FG’s company had a work party at Six Flags.
We initially parked pretty far back, but at some point during the day, I had to go back to the van to get something. On the way, I noticed lots of closer parking places, so I took the opportunity to move the van from its far-away spot.
We finished our day out at the park, walked back to the van, and I let out a small shriek when I saw that the back window of our brand-new van was shattered.
I thought someone had broken into our van, but someone walked up to me from the sidewalk and said, “It’s ok; I ran into your back window with the bike rack on my car.”
She gave us her insurance information, and we took our van to the shop and had to get a whole new liftgate put on.
Interestingly, they tried to give us a salvaged liftgate instead of a brand new one, but I politely pointed out that, according to their policy, our van was new enough for them to give us the brand new part.
And I had to drive a much crappier rental van for a while, which wouldn’t have been a big deal except…we were due to leave for vacation in a few days.
We had to take the rental van on vacation, and since our own van was going to be finished while we were away, the insurance company said they wouldn’t cover the rental van for the whole week.
I was very upset about that…like, seriously, it is not my fault that my van window is smashed, and now you expect me to pay for the privilege of driving a crappy van on my beach trip? I think I cried when I was on the phone with the agent because I was so frustrated.
Anyway, it turned out that they did not charge us (whew!), but my goodness, I can’t tell you how many times I thought to myself, “If only I hadn’t moved the van, none of this would have happened!”
So. That is a bullet that I most certainly did not dodge!
In Junior High our P.E. teacher made the girls divide into teams and play basketball as part of our Phys.Ed. Our game was over and I stood at center court talking with a friend as we got ready to leave the court. I turned around to go to the locker room just as a girl playfully tried to make a basket over the backboard while standing behind the goal, but she missed it by a mile. The timing was perfect; the ball hit me right in the face the second I turned, breaking my glasses and making me wonder for a second if my nose had broken as well. I went several days without glasses, and since my vision was 20/300, that was not good. The girl apologized and I accepted it, but I think I was most aggravated by the idea that she threw a large ball wildly in the direction of two unsuspecting people. Common sense tells a person not to do that, or so I had thought.
I can’t help but think that the “bad” thing that happened sometimes saved us from a worse thing, like a passenger that missed a flight that later had a plane crash. If you hadn’t moved your car, maybe it could have been hit worse in the original spot, or someone could have twisted her ankle on the long, tiring walk at the end of the day. Or you left the park later and missed a car accident that happened on your route home, but you missed it because you were still in the parking lot dealing with the window. This might seem crazy! Now, I can’t think how buying a more expensive house or other examples could work here. What do you think?
I agree 100%. I think about this all the time. It definitely helps me to get through life’s hiccups. AND feeling this way is probably why being grateful is my default.
My husband was demonstrating how he hit a ball at his first “old guys” team game, using a table leg that he was working on in the garage. I was unloading laundry and stood up just as he did a practice swing with the leg…and hit me square on the nose. He broke my nose and both my eyes got spectacular shiners. Worse, we were leaving the next day to go to London and the entire trip he would whisper to me that people on the bus or subway were giving him stink eye after seeing my face. I finally bought a cheap pair of sunglasses so he would feel better, even though there was no sun to shade my eyes from. Two years later he accidentally broke my nose again. I think for a time that my father thought my husband was hitting me.