Monday, July 6, 2009

My wife's parking incident... My side of the story.

Ok, so on my wife's blog (http://lifeofawifemotheranddaughter.blogspot.com/) you will read about this incident and it's spin is strangely different. Of course, you have to read 5 paragraphs to get to the actual incident and then only 2 sentences are dedicated to describing it. Strange how we focus differently.

Anyway, so I get off work on Friday much later than I thought I would and as I am gearing up mentally for my weekend with the inlaws I get a little surprise. I am on my motorcycle and the fuel light is on but I am hurrying home because my wife has called me every 30 minutes asking when I was coming home so I knew she was anxious to leave. (Reason #1 that this happened: Ready to go syndrome) As I am driving down my street I see the garage door open and the Van backed in. I say to myself "wow, she is really ready to go." Now this to most people is mundane but to me it is a big deal as my wife is one of the worst drivers when it comes to parking and operating in tight spaces. She is great on the road but in close, you better watch out. So I pull my bike in and she meets me with her hands covering her face and says she wrecked the van. I am like what are you talking about? So I say "What do you mean wrecked the van?" Well, apparently she had apprehension before backing the van in but figured she should be able to do it so she went for it. (Reasons #2 and #3 this happened: not knowing one's limitation and ignoring gut instinct.) She got in the van, was super careful and what do you know she made it in. WOW!!! So she is pretty happy and confident now and here is where it all goes down hill. She goes back, pops the hatchback and begins to pack, but then decides to shut the garage door. I know, you are saying "watch out for the hood.." but no, she is on that, way to go honey! She checks the front and sees she is just 2-3 inches short of the door being able to close... Heck that is easy enough, so she hops back in and steps on the gas and CRRRAAAASSSSHHHH. UH OH, was that the hatch back? (Reason #4 as to why this happened: Being greedy... The van was in the garage, did we really need to shut the garage door) Now you have the picture, so let's catch back up to where we were. I am now following her to the back of the van and sure enough my shelving has some chunks out of it and the back lower left corner of the door is bent under. I think well, that isn't too terrible. Then I go to shut it and KERCHUNK! It doesn't close all the way and is obviously bent and raked out of alignment. I am thinking "Holy shit, I am going to be one of those people that is driving down the highway with duct tape and ropes on my vehicle to hold it together. Can anyone say White Trash?" I am determined not to allow this to happen so I bust out the tools and do my best Tim the toolman taylor inpersonation. (I am actually pretty good with tools and fairly handy.) So with some skill and some super human anger strength I physically overpower the door back into it's original shape. After a few minor adjustments I get it to latch and everything is ready to go. Really other than some paint flakes missing and some crinkled metal on the inside of the door you really can't tell. So we did eventually get on our way and had a nice visit in Salina. I tried to be as understanding as possible without losing it but I know I showed my frustration. Anyway, another lesson learned that if you don't get in such a rush in life things will eventually all just work out. Let's just take a step back and take a deep breath. It won't really matter in the whole scheme of things if we get there at 6:00 or 6:30 and more importantly know our limitations and embrace them.

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