JewelFreak
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Messages
- 7,768
This afternoon I turned around in a neighbor's driveway -- tiniest space I ever saw, no wider at its widest than my VW station wagon is long -- and in the process, barely touched the pole on their basketball hoop -- no dent in the car at all. All hell breaks loose! BANG, smashing glass, BAM! The hoop & backboard careened off the pole, shattering my back window. Once I got my heart started again, rattled home for DH to help me clean out the car & window.
It's 90 degrees & fairly humid. We park the car by the road in front of a vacant field across the street to keep from covering our driveway with shards & spend half an hour carefully clearing the edges of the window & picking up the big pieces. Then I worry about dogs, deer, bunnies walking through the tiny fragments in the grass -- so another hot, hot half hour on my hands & knees, picking glass pebbles out of the dirt in case a bird thinks it's something to eat. Bathed in sweat by now. Next, vacuum the rest of the glass in the car.
Neighbors weren't home anyway -- so I worried now that they'd get glass in their tires in their driveway. Haul a push-broom, trash sack, & dustpan over there & pant through another half hour sweeping. What a pretty sight I was!
A closer look at the basketball thingy showed the metal pole completely corroded -- it broke off a foot from the top. The part that fell was so heavy, I couldn't shift it an inch off the driveway.
The good news, for once: insurance covers it all without erasing my no-claim discount! The repair guys come to the house & fix it here on Friday. Finally, some reward for all those centuries of premiums! Till then, I feel like a teenager driving a jalopy with a ragged empty back window, but it's easy to find in a parking lot.
And the neighbors were very nice about it, as apologetic as I felt. It's actually lucky that pole didn't fall when someone leaned against it; would've killed them. I'm going to bed early tonight!
--- Laurie
It's 90 degrees & fairly humid. We park the car by the road in front of a vacant field across the street to keep from covering our driveway with shards & spend half an hour carefully clearing the edges of the window & picking up the big pieces. Then I worry about dogs, deer, bunnies walking through the tiny fragments in the grass -- so another hot, hot half hour on my hands & knees, picking glass pebbles out of the dirt in case a bird thinks it's something to eat. Bathed in sweat by now. Next, vacuum the rest of the glass in the car.
Neighbors weren't home anyway -- so I worried now that they'd get glass in their tires in their driveway. Haul a push-broom, trash sack, & dustpan over there & pant through another half hour sweeping. What a pretty sight I was!
A closer look at the basketball thingy showed the metal pole completely corroded -- it broke off a foot from the top. The part that fell was so heavy, I couldn't shift it an inch off the driveway.
The good news, for once: insurance covers it all without erasing my no-claim discount! The repair guys come to the house & fix it here on Friday. Finally, some reward for all those centuries of premiums! Till then, I feel like a teenager driving a jalopy with a ragged empty back window, but it's easy to find in a parking lot.
And the neighbors were very nice about it, as apologetic as I felt. It's actually lucky that pole didn't fall when someone leaned against it; would've killed them. I'm going to bed early tonight!
--- Laurie
I'm very glad that you weren't hurt - and that you didn't suffer a heart attack when that thing fell on it! You and your neighbors both are very lucky it got a back window (yours, as it happens) and not a front window or someone in the driveway. 
DH's car is...ssshhhh...
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