A Window! My Kingdom For a Window!!

I live in a safe, pretty quiet place. Or at least I thought I did. And then on Friday I was awakened by a phone call telling me my car had been broken into. The driver’s side window was obliterated and a honeycomb of shiny aquamarine colored glass was strewn across both seats and the dashboard.

Bits and pieces of window saved for future artistic projects.

 The maintenance staff was already cleaning up the shards on the pavement around my car and helpfully putting a temporary plastic covering on the space where I’d formerly had a window. They pushed the black plastic back so I could look around and see what, if anything, was missing.

**Before I continue, let me make this disclaimer: I am the girl who locks her car no matter where it is, including her parents' driveway in Minnesota. I am also the girl who keeps her car in meticulous condition, inside and out. I love my car and treat it with great care. It is neither an old car, nor a customized car of any sort.**

Right, so where were we…? Oh yes, I was going to tell you what was missing. On first glance the only thing missing was an ancient 2nd generation iPod which I use only in the car and worked about, oh, say 50% of the time. It’s been obsolete for a few years now and it honestly never occurred to me in a million years that anyone would actually break into a car to get it. Everything else seemed to be intact, from my full little Liberty of London coin purse to a Dunkin Donuts gift card that was also pretty full.

Annoyed as I was, I came inside and called the police and was informed that this was a pretty typical crime, some kid looking to pawn something to buy a “dime bag” of some drug. I’m not actually sure what most of that means, but it suffices to say that it was unlikely I was going to get my iPod back. The policeman never even got out of his cruiser, looking over at the mess with a disappointing nonchalance. He then handed me a card with a number on to get the police report.

Excellent, I figured, police report taken care of, I’ll call my insurance company and file a claim and get working on a replacement window.

Um, not so fast. I have a $500 deductible and while the replacing of said window is not cheap, it is under $500. Okay…not amused but, that’s the deal. After a few calls to dealers and glass places, I settled on a national company--recommended by my insurance company--that said they could be out that afternoon. Huzzah and Halleluiah!!

Well, readers, let’s just say that things went down hill from there. I barely got the final chorus of Halleluiahs out when, while doing a more thorough check for missing items I found that the bastard thieves had also taken a small good luck piece--a tiny gold wishbone pin--that had been given to me by someone whom I love very much and which had, in turn, belonged to someone whom he loved very much, his mum. The small pin had been given to her by her father and had watched over me from my car's visor for a couple of years now. I’d not been angry about the iPod, but with this discovery I could immediately feel hot, angry tears streaming down my face and a sourness churning in my stomach. Insult had been added to injury and on top of everything else I needed to break the news that the pin had been stolen. I figured that once I had the window back in and the glass cleaned up I’d take care of that difficult task.

The glass company (to remain nameless for the time being) sent out a very nice gentleman who got straight to work and told me what to expect, etc. About 45 minutes later he calls me back down to the car and tells me there is a small problem--the window wasn’t the right one. It was the right shape, but two small holes, needed for bolts at the base, were not there. He did a quick little plastic treatment and told me they’d reorder the part and someone would be back out the next afternoon. I wasn’t happy, but it wasn’t his fault and I went about my business after a bit of a rant on Twitter.

Saturday morning rolls around and lo and behold, a call from the glass guys. The part had come in wrong again. It was going to be Monday (today) before they could get the part from a dealer or dealer’s vendor. Less amused than ever, but I was polite and thanked them for letting me know.

Morning came today with a renewed sense of hope and feeling that I was going to have a car with all four lovely windows in place once again. Alas, it was not meant to be. This morning’s phone call alerted me to the fact that the dealers hadn’t told them this was a special order and was going to take an additional 3-5 days…and when you add in the holiday, well, it was going to be ANOTHER WEEK. Next Monday. Meaning my car was STILL vulnerable and by the end of this all it would have been so for 10 days.

I really didn’t know what to do upon hearing the news this afternoon. I was furious beyond reason, but no one else was going to get me the glass any sooner at this point since it clearly had to be ordered and shipped in. After a few phone calls to area dealers I realized I was just going to have to suck it up. I asked the young woman on the phone if someone could come out and do a “new and improved” window treatment to get me through the next week…one that is forecast to include inclement weather. She said absolutely and they sent out a very thorough repairman who gave me about as sturdy a temporary window as a girl could hope for. Not perfect, but with any luck, it’ll do.

The "new and improved" temporary window, thanks to Paul!

As for blame…well, I’m as upset with myself as anyone for leaving even a crappy old obsolete piece of electronics in a visible spot in my car. As far as I can tell both the glass guys and the car dealers are equally responsible for how long it will take to get me an actual window, so that’s a wash, I guess. What is always interesting to me, though, especially in a time of crisis, is who steps up. Who comes thru and who doesn’t. It’s a good reminder of who has one’s back, isn’t it?

Oh, and the pin…I did finally tell him about the pin being gone. I sobbed through the telling of the whole sordid story and he interrupted by telling me it was going to be all right. I sniffled through more details and he said of course he was disappointed that the pin had been stolen, but what was most important was that I was okay. This induced more tears at which point he said, ”the pin may be gone, but the sentiments behind it still remain, okay, no one can take those.” 

That'll do...that'll do. 

Going Postal

I have to take a pause from other important topics to have a small rant about the US Postal Service. If this was the first time I'd had such a poor experience, I'd chalk it up to a bad day and/or my usual impatience. Unfortunately, I have had so many run-ins at this particular branch, I just have to vent a little. (You'd be right to ask why I go there, and I try to go to other branches or cities when I'm out and about, but today I just didn't have time to go to one of the more distant branches.)

I'd first like to say that I consider myself a good postal customer. I pick up my mail, don't expect my postman to take my outgoing mail and always suspend delivery when I am gone. I don't have unrealistic expectations about waiting online or the level of service. In other words, I hold up my end of the bargain.

But the USPS does not.

So I go today to mail a small box to my parents (mom and dad if you're reading this, package is on the way!) and there's the usual line, but that's okay, I'm feeling pretty patient today. There are two postal clerks and five or six folks in line ahead of me, some picking up mail others mailing packages, nothing out of the ordinary. As I stand on line I begin to notice that the clerks are having rather long conversations with the customers at the counter while we all wait. It's okay to be friendly, but when the clerk begins to talk about the weight-loss program he is on and how much he likes it--while the uncomfortable customer tries to extricate himself--it begins to wear a little. The other clerk goes to the back room to pick up held-mail for another patron and he saunters along, taking his own sweet time. And from the back room you can hear him conversing with another postal employee about their approaching lunch break. My compatriots and I are still waiting and begin to exchange looks as nearly 5 minutes pass while clerk B has his chat about lunch. Clerk A is by now trying to up-sell a customer from a simple package mailing into an overnight delivery. (The customer, upon arriving at the counter, said quite plainly he wanted to send it the cheapest way and no extras, yet the clerk took the time to run through all the options and how much each would cost and how long each would take.) I know the USPS needs money, but *sheesh* no one wants the hard sell at the postal counter.

By this time I've been in line for 10 minutes and only one person ahead of me has been helped. The next customer speaks broken English--it's understandable enough--but clerk A can't seem to understand him until one of the people on line ahead of me says what it is the gentleman is asking for. (Mind you, clerk B is still in the back looking for the held mail.)

Clerk B does eventually return, but without the mail because the postman has apparently taken it with him and will deliver it to the patron today. (This has happened to me at least three times, where I check the "I will pick up held mail upon return" box only to find that my postman has the mail with him and I've just stood on line for 15 minutes to find that out.) The woman was understandably upset after having spent her break waiting on line for mail that wasn't there. She gave clerk B a piece of her mind and I think all of us standing there wanted to applaud when she finished.

All told, I was at the post office for 26 minutes from leaving my car to getting back into it. All to mail one little old package. And I was treated to hearing clerk a's weight-loss trials and tribulations told to several more people, with varying levels of detail. Don't get me wrong, good on him for taking control, but really is it necessary to share with all your patrons?

I think all this came to a head for me because of the news of so many postal stations closing and the possibility of cutting out one delivery day. It just became very clear to me that part of the reason that the postal service has no money is that they really don't provide very good service. The level of inefficiency is positively EPIC. I know not all postal workers are like the two I describe here, but I've seen such a pattern of really crummy service at a few different post offices that I guess it's no surprise that as an organization they are failing, from both a service and deficit standpoint.

Editor for hire, and other oddities

It's Wednesday and it's been a droopy and drippy day on the East Coast. After sending out several more job applications (yup, me and half of the civilized world) I decided I needed a break to just clear out all the cobwebs. I watched some very bad (and utterly useless) television--who knew Maury Povich was still on? Or that he is now apparently taping here in Connecticut? Mon dieu!?

When that failed to cheer me (and how could it not?) I goofed around tweeting for a while and then this silly thing came along...a pseudo-sports video from The Onion. While I'm not a fan of the "sweet science," I found this amusing in that both boxing and horse racing are suffering from the same fan drought. They both appeal to a much smaller audience than they used to and both industries are trying to find new ways of bringing in a broader fan base. While I don't for a minute propose anything along the lines of what they do in the spoof, it's still funny. And the production value is pretty top notch, too, like most things The Onion does, as the fake ESPN set and anchors look totally real. I'm not sure that boxing and horse racing can really help each other (and I know that wasn't the point of this little exercise) but I have to believe that there is something out there that can make the sun shine a little brighter on the racing community.

So after a few giggles watching the video, the torrential, tropical downpours came. I'm guessing that the turf races at Saratoga will not be on turf. I don't live all that far away and unless the weather was significantly better there than here, which is unlikely, they got poured on today. That said, there appears to be some more unsettled weather in the works for the next few days, so let's everyone keep our fingers crossed for good weather and HUGE attendance at The Spa for this weekend's races. (And how about a massive finger crossing effort to help me find new employment, too!!)

After I finished all my other work, I started trolling the newspapers for fun stories. I came across this piece from yesterday's news about a group that is going to try to identify some remains and other artifacts as being those of Amelia Earhart. I love these unsolved mystery sort of stories and Earhart is a fascinating character all in her own right. Here's the original story from ABC News on Amelia Earhart and where they think she may have landed, etc. It's both interesting and tragic to think of her surviving for a few days on an island after the plane crashed/landed.

And apparently there's a movie coming out about Amelia herself this fall. It stars Hilary Swank (sorry, not a fan) and the trailer does make it look like a pretty standard bio-pic, but with some good ancillary characters (like her navigator, etc.) played by Ewan MacGregor and Richard Gere.

I think that's entirely enough frivolity for a Wednesday, so I'd best get back to the job at hand, that is, finding a job. That and wondering what in the world the world needs with a vibrating mascara brush. Really? Maybe I'm just old-fashioned (gee, what was the tip off??) but I think we've all done pretty well up to know with our non-pulsating mascara brushes. But that's just me...