Thursday, March 1, 2012

Smashed Windows


The Husband walked back into the house this morning and told me that the passenger window of my car had been smashed to bits. I said Really? in just that tone that the word suggests and then I walked outside and down the steps to the driveway where I stood at the car and peeled off a few bluish shivers of glass and let them crumble to the ground. It doesn't look like they stole anything, The Husband added, and I agreed. The boys circled the car, amazed and titillated at random crime, I went back into the house to deal with Sophie and The Husband left with Oliver to take him to school. He came back to pick her up and take her to school despite having a late morning event he needed to cater. I found a place to fix the window, lay a towel over the pile of glass in the front seat and drove west on Pico Blvd then south on La Cienega. I travel this way at least four times a week, but I had never noticed the auto place or the coffee shop that the man recommended I go to while I wait despite the fact that both had been there for nearly fifty years. I sat at the counter and ordered blueberry pancakes and crispy bacon with a cup of coffee and read a tiny version of The Family Fang on my phone.  The blueberry pancakes were excellent, and I had whole milk in my coffee. Two hours later, the car was fixed and I paid the owner $237.00. The Husband said his luncheon went well.  Neither he nor I had lost our marbles that morning but had, apparently, resigned ourselves to smashed windows.


22 comments:

  1. Ah. Well. At least you have a new breakfast place, right?
    And I just checked The Family Fang out of the library.
    Is it good?

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  2. Sometimes I wonder if this kind of going through the motions numb to things we can't control is less a coping mechanism than it is aging in general. Or wisdom. I'd like to think so. I think:).

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  3. you made the proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear. the breakfast sounds yummy...I'm glad they didn't steal anything from inside the car. That has happened to me and it's a real sense of violation.

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  4. I love Nicks! We can meet there for lunch sometime if I ever get a free minute away from too much work.

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  5. We have random crime like this in our hood all the time. I have a huge dog that looks like a polar bear so I am usually passed by far except when someone stole the balls on my fence posts. I reported the stolen balls but no one really cared (expect me) and they were never found. What do you do with random balls? One has to wonder. And what is that orange stuff in the shaker next to the salt and pepper?

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  6. i admire your reaction to this calamity. its really weird that nothing was taken??? what was the point? simple vandalism? It sux to be out that money and time, but you seemed to have made the "best" of it with bfast and some quiet time waiting.

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  7. RATS! I'm so sorry for that pointless act of vandalism. What can be the payoff to a vandal? (I guess that line of reasoning is a dead-end.)

    Good for you for going to get a delicious meal in a new-to-you cafe while the window was being repaired; that is making lemonade out of lemons. The cafe looks like it could be the setting for a wonderful scene in a book or movie.

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  8. So sorry about the window, but I really enjoyed your pancakes with you, the photos were so moody and lovely.

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  9. It always seems a miracle (to me) when I can handle an annoying situation such as this with calm, and even almost enjoy the unexpected path I'm forced to follow. Seems like you, and the Husband, did just that this morning!

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  10. I think you and the Mr. sound completely awesome.

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  11. So coolheaded here! I think I would have felt it as a personal invasion and infused it with some powerful intent. Good on you for scaling down and finding a new food joint.
    Ciao ciao cat

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  12. It's better to take such events calmly. You deal with them better that way, emotionally at least, whatever the physical cost.

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  13. Ok so now you have me really thinking here...when one is able to calmly persevere in the face of random maliciousness, does one become more powerful? And when one uses the (bad) diversion as a (good) opportunity to just enjoy life, has one, in a way, graduated to a more spiritual perspective? And is your "broken window" experience and more importantly your attitude dealing with it, really just a methaphor to describe the transformation that occurs when raising our children?
    Elizabeth, Thank you for this. I think you are brilliant.

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  14. I appreciate that you managed to have an adventure and discover a new coffee shop despite the random act of violence. That's a big drag man.

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  15. I'm so sorry. Those kind of random cruelties feel like an invasion always. I love the diner photos.
    xo

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  16. I think you know that worse things can happen - because they do

    glad for the blueberries and whole milk and 2 hours to read - not glad about the life someone is leading by smashing windows

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  17. Oh, yummm. I love everything about this post. Delicious food, delicious moment, delicious life.

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  18. I love that the boys were titillated at the incident. That is so telling, isn't it?

    Glad the window was fixed relatively quickly and you had some quiet time to eat and enjoy a new place.

    I also love that your husband pitched in and things went smoothly.

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  19. Ugh. Life in the city. I had my window smashed two years ago. Years ago, when I lived in the Wilshire District, all the cars on my block had their windows smashed.
    Yay for pancakes! Hoping random kindness visits you next.

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  20. That breakfast sounds like a fair exchange for a smashed window.

    yay you.

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  21. You had me at blueberry pancakes and crisp bacon.

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  22. i'm sorry about the window, but glad you had a cosy place to eat your breakfast (and blueberry pancakes sound marvelous.) small mercies, right?

    you made me see that place... smell the coffee and almost taste the pancakes. thank you for that.

    sheesh. third try for word verification. guess i should go to bed...

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