I was up in Greenhood, er, Greenwood yesterday morning, and trying to get my overtired and crabby son home for a nap. I found myself inching down one of those streets that you Seattleites know well- maybe ten feet wide, with cars parked all the way down on both sides. Ah, yes. An oncoming car tries to parallel park real quick, so I can get through, and he's sticking out just a LITTLE too far. I wanted him to repark to make it a little less tight, but he was adamant about motioning me through. So I slowly worked my way forward.
And this part still baffles me. I could have sworn I had enough clearance as I was passing this large white work van with oversized side mirrors. But obviously, I didn't, because as I crept past him, my passenger-side window LIT-TERALLY exploded into a million pieces. I was so confused about what just happened that I kind of thought someone had shot a gun at my car. I screamed, praying to God that flying glass didn't just hit my baby in the backseat, and pulled as fast as I could into the very next parking lot.
I was so shaken up and scared for Max that I was crying...although he was absolutely fine, and happy as a clam in the backseat. The two guys in the white work van, the guy who had parallel parked poorly, and a random bystander who lived nearby ran over to check on me....and coming upon a crying, emotional woman....all four jumped into superhero-consoling-friendlyneighboroftheyear award. They spelled out what happened, basically, my window tapped that side mirror at a really unfortunate angle, and just broke. Plain and simple. Not a scratch on the van, nothing wrong with anyone, just me with a shattered window. One pointed out that it was a beautiful sunny day, and I really couldn't have better weather for this to happen.
They picked out the remaining glass out of my window, and then a couple of the guys took 30 minutes to vacuum out my entire car. MAJOR SCORE. They all were so great, and offered all these places I could get it fixed, and then I finally made my way home. On the way home I set up an appointment for a car glass company to come fix my car the next afternoon, I parked my car downstairs in the parking garage for safe-keeping, and called it a day. An emotionally exhausting day.
Then came yesterday. At one o'clock, the glass guy showed up a perfect ten minutes early, and I was so excited to get this taken care of! I ran with max down to the garage to pull my car out onto the street....when I discovered my car battery was completely dead. Apparently, I had left a light on inside so the guys could see all the little glass shards as they vacuumed it out. Oh my gosh, I was so mad at myself. I ran out to explain the situation to the glass guy, and apologize my little heart out, and then began asking everyone I saw if they had jumper cables. (because of course, our set is in our other car.) No one did.
So I called up AAA to get someone out to jump my car, and they said they would be an hour.
The nice glass guy was so relaxed about the whole thing that him, Max & I sat outside in the sun and talked about parenting, religion, and world war II. It was actually, a very nice hour, ha.
Finally AAA arrived, it was a quick jump, then I pulled my car out onto the street for the glass guy to do his thing...which he predicted would be a quick 30 minutes.
I took Max back inside for a bit, and was back to feeling good about things on the car front. This would be over soon. About an hour went by, and Max was getting a little crabby. I needed to put him down for a nap, but I knew that Mr. Glassman would need my credit card soon, so I stepped outside again to check on things. I knew things weren't great as he was hunched over the car window, looking a little frustrated. He looked up, and it was his turn to be sorry as he explained he doesn't know what in the world is going on, and the glass was installed, but he could not get the door to open whatsoever. Not from the inside or outside. It was as good as sealed shut. And he broke the inside panel on accident. He promised he would order a new panel as soon as he could.
Um, okay Mr. Glassman. I smiled and said it was totally okay. I'm not going anywhere important today, and he wanted to keep working on it. I'm going to put my kid down now, just let me know if you need anything from me. That's what I told him.
Put Max down, he took a 45 minute nap, and then I let TWENTY more minutes go by...and I'm thinking, sheesh. I still havent heard anything? It's been a whole hour again. So I went BACK outside, and knew the situation had unraveled. The guy was in my driver's seat, on the phone, steam coming out of his ears. No, but seriously. His face was all red, and I think I saw a giant vein sticking out of his forehead. I meekly poked my head in the window and asked if everything was okay.
And this is the part that kills me. He tells me that he undid the door on the driver's side, just to glance at the wiring, and figure out what he did wrong on the other side. He didn't touch any of the wires, he swears. But when he put the driver's door back together, it too won't open from the inside. It opens from the outside! But not the inside. Heaven help me. His shift was up, he really really had to get going, he was sorry to the moon and back, but he really did have to go. He told me I'd have to bring my car up to Speedy Glass on Aurora (this is where I drop their name, because they have to assume by this point that I'm NOT going to be referring people to them), and they would hopefully fix everything then. Or else ship it off to a Honda dealer.
So there it was. My window is installed, my two car doors are broken. Thank you, and amen.
OH WAIT! You thought that was the end? Haha, no no. The story continues today.
Jon had to go to work (normal saturday in busy season), and I really really need to fill my tank with gas and get the post office to mail my mom's birthday present that I've been trying to do, unsuccessfully, for three days. [I'd like to take this moment to say I'm Sorry, Mom.] So what if I can't open my door from the inside? I can roll down my window on this sunny day and reach out and open it. Its running fine, what's a couple broken doors?
Get Max in the car, turn the key aaaand...click click click. Dead as a doornail. I really had to take a deep breath at this point. I had truly been laughing up until now, at my dumb luck, but I wasn't really laughing anymore. Also, I was in the car by this point, and couldn't open my door from the inside. NOR could I roll down the window to open the door, as the battery was COMPLETELY dead. I had to crawl over the backseat, over my confused son and get out thru the back door, call AAA, and wait another hour for them to jump my car.
After starting it, Mr. Jumpman tells me there is something seriously draining my battery. I told him what happened yesterday and how my doors don't work, and he goes, "Ah, yeah. Mr. Glassman left something wrong in there that is draining your battery, and as soon as I turn this back off, it will be dead again." He showed me just so I would believe him. He gave me a little speech to light a fire under me that Speedy Glass better get their "rhymes with glass" out here TODAY to fix this mistake they created. He gave me a sympathetic look, and drove away.
I got on the phone with speedy glass, which was not speedy glass at all, but a call center that they route their calls to on the weekends, because they are closed all weekend. I explained my situation to the girl, who didn't seem to have a lot of sympathy for me. I finally got real with her, and told her to make my problem her problem. I let her know that I have a baby, and ZERO way to get around all weekend (she may be under the impression that I'm a single mom. I didn't really say that, but I guess that's what it sounded like, and I didn't bother to correct her. I kind of wanted the sympathy points). That they turned my simple problem into a completely broken car, that they had the nerve to charge my credit card for the window service, and that I dont care if she had to call someone at home about this, but she'd better.
So she did end up calling the regional manager and left him a voicemail about the gravity of the situation, but I still havent heard anything from anyone. I guess that's where I sit right now. Nowhere really important to run off to, but ticked off just the same.
Anyway, I feel better now that I got that out there. The sun is shining, and most problems are not as bad as they seem when it's warm and sunny out.
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