It’s Just How We Roll

Ever since we got married, Bill and I have had amazingly bad luck. Murphy’s Law is the only law around our house.

I’ve had this story rolling around in my head for the past couple of months because it’s the kind of story that cannot be told right away. Why you might ask? We (mostly Bill) needed some time and perspective to turn this story from aggravating and possibly embarrassing to kind of funny. The fact that I’m pretty sure Bill doesn’t bother to read my blog is helpful.

On to the story…

A few months ago I was up early. I was laying in bed checking Twitter and facebook on my phone since it was still WAY too early to be out of bed on such a cold morning. I had texted Bill just to say good morning and wish him a good day. Looking back, that could have been where I went wrong…I think I jinxed him. I received a text back letting me know he was on his way home to get something he had forgotten, it was in the garage, so he was just going to grab it and go. That was fine by me, and by no means reason for me to get out of bed.

Back to Twitter, I went to catch up on what I missed while I slept. A few minutes later I hear the garage door go up, but not all the way. I don’t really think anything of it since it’s after 6am and his door is super loud. I lay in bed, tweeting and listening, listening and tweeting. What the hell is taking him so long? Then suddenly…BAM! If I didn’t know better I would have sworn the front half of the house has just imploded. What ever had happened down there, it was loud and it couldn’t be good. The BAM was directly followed by a tirade of curse words that would make even a Deadliest Catch Captain blush.

Crap!

I rush to put pants on a run downstairs to see what happened. When I open the door to the garage it was most definitely an unexpected sight. My garage door was caved in and hanging at a very unsafe looking angle. What the hell happened? Did something snap and it fell on itself? Then I see it from between two panels that had been bent apart…Bill’s Trailblazer. The truck went through the garage door, stopping inches from the backend of my brand new Outback. My crap quickly turns to a few choice words that I will refrain from using out of respect for my mother.

The world may never know what really happened. Was it vehicular malfunction that caused the car to lurch forward sending it careening through the door? Could it have been driver error, perhaps Bill was on the phone, wasn’t quite paying attention and left the car in drive? Personally I don’t really care, what’s done is done and it can’t be undone. I’m just happy for two small things, one that no one was hurt, this could have ended very badly. Two, that I wasn’t the one who did it.

Notice the bottom panel is inside out

There is one small detail you may or may not have picked up on…MY CAR WAS IN THE GARAGE. That door wasn’t going up without some major effort and I had to get Cameron to school. Here’s were the mad skills and the backup camera come in handy. Bill took my car, which was parked facing in in my garage, and pulled it out nose first from his garage. It was about a 400 point turn. As he neared the half way point I was watching, thinking of Austin Powers. You remember the part when he gets that little golf cart thing stuck in the hall. I though for sure he was getting my (new) car stuck sideways in the garage. Luckily he did not.

Once normal business hours rolled around, Bill starts making phone calls to get people out for estimates. That’s when the seriousness of the situation sets in. Who knew garage doors could be so damn expensive? Not me. Of the first people to come out, no one was willing/able to just replace the damaged panels, they all wanted to replace the entire door. The other issue was that our door is insulated and insulated doors are nearly double the price. Oh, and lets not forget that this was the double door that the truck went through, not the single.

The other thing we weren’t prepared for was the turnaround time for getting the door fixed. Two to four weeks? Do you see my door hanging off my house? Once again, the single door would have been faster, double door, double time. Luckily we were able to get the door fixed enough that it could limp up and down and it wasn’t an invitation for someone to come rob us. In fact, the only way you could tell there was a problem we a few dents and buckles in the door.

Nearly three weeks later the new panels for our door were here and being installed. For a fraction of what we thought it would cost to get the door fixed we were able to just get the matching (insulated) panels. Presto, we’re good as new. Our silver lining to a crappy situation.

See, you'd never know

Safe and sound in the garage

Our life is always an adventure full of unexpected expenses. I just hope nothing else gets broken for a while. If there’s one law I’m going to try to break, it’s Murphy’s Law!