Wednesday, March 16th, was BEA-U-TI-FUL! That was one of the things I focused on, as I cleaned up broken glass from around our van. Allow me to document this event. It was a "first," for our family.
The scene: My house; it was approximately 4p.m. Kids were outside, happily playing and enjoying the sunshine. I was inside washing a couple of dishes and doing a few other last minute preparations for our spring break trip. We were going to leave, after Chad arrived home from work.
I heard a brief crashing sound in the garage. It was as if something had clanked against something else; I simply imagined the boys getting out a few more toys. The noise wasn't alarming. Thirty seconds after casually wondering about the noise and with watering running at the kitchen sink, I barely heard someone say, "Mommy!"
Let me use this moment to explain that I hear my name 1.2 billion times each day. So, I waited a moment to see if I heard correctly and to accurately gauge the urgency in my child's voice. My best guess was that one of the boys just wanted to announce that they needed to go to the bathroom, that they were "hunnnn--grrrrryyyyy", or that one of them looked at the other one funny. Normal, run-of-the-mill, family stuff.
That's when I heard a knock at the front door. That was odd, because the boys typically use the door to the kitchen. Surprised, I saw L standing there...panicked and almost unable to speak about whatever it was he was trying to tell me. Something about how he didn't know what happened, but the the window just "popped out," and he wasn't right by it.
Window? Popped out??! Oh man! My eyes quickly darted to the neighbor's driveway. I squinted. One of their vehicles either had a window down...or a window not there at all. However, after looking for a moment longer, it looked fine. Phew! Relief.
Confused, I asked L what he was talking about. Which window? Suddenly, I found myself staring at a severely cracked and broken back window of our van. Hmm...that didn't really fit in to the plan of getting ready for the spring break trip. Nope, I hadn't counted on this one.
I should have learned by now to expect the unexpected. I reminded myself of the day Chad needed to leave on a ski trip and our washer flooded the basement. Then, I thought about the day we were to leave on our trip to Georgia, last summer. We discovered our cat (Harley) was VERY sick. We ended up having say goodbye to her. So, we don't have a great track record of non-eventful "day of leaving for big trips" days.
As I stood looking at the mess...broken glass scattered in, under, and around the van...the neighbor kid didn't waste any time pointing out that one could still hear the remaining shatterproof glass cracking. He also wondered what exactly I was going to do about it. :) It only took about four polite goodbyes to help him return to his own house. However, I had to laugh to myself, when he said, "Yeah...I just can't stop looking it." It was kind of mesmerizing, but I didn't want anyone getting hurt from all the glass casualties. And, I wanted to clean it up in peace, without all the commentary. ;)
The more I calmly questioned L (and I honestly was surprisingly calm), the more I realized I was still confused. Something about how he'd been playing with a racquetball and somewhere along the line the ball hit the van. However, he said the window didn't "pop," until much later. I do not know how a racquetball breaks a window.
My eyes weren't on him the exact moment it happened, but I was right in the kitchen. I supervise from the there, from the front door, and from other windows in our home, if I'm not outside with the kids. I can usually hear the kids, and I hadn't heard anything too rambunctious or out of the ordinary. I even knew he had the racquetball & Chad's old racquet, because he had come in to ask me if he could play with those items.
Neither here nor there, I really do believe L, because the kid is not good at lying. His story did not change, and the neighbor kid...the one who couldn't stop listening to the crackling whispers of the glass...concurred. L is also a child who is careful...overly cautious, if you will. So he wouldn't dream of purposefully throwing or hitting a ball near a vehicle. It's just not in his character. J might test those waters, but not his big brother. ;) It was apparent that whatever chain of events occurred, it was truly an accident.
Well, I wasn't exactly sure where to begin, concerning the clean-up. Eventually, the shop vac provided quick assistance. That's when another neighbor arrived home from work. He looked at me kind of funny and joked about how he knew that Chad had already mowed/took great care of the lawn. Now, he found me outside vacuuming off the driveway. After viewing exhibit A (window), he understood. If it hadn't been for exhibit A, it may have looked slightly like I was out of my mind. "Yep, we like an extremely clean driveway...no rocks anywhere," I joked back with him.
Maybe there was a weak spot in the window and the racquetball was the last straw. In that case, I'm thankful we weren't in the van when it happened. I'm grateful that none of the kids were injured by the popping glass. (The van was parked in the garage, and I found tiny pieces of glass at least a third of the way down the driveway.)
Considering the recent events of the devastating earthquake/tsunami in Japan, this "mess"...this little hiccup in my day...really was nothing compared to that. I thought about that and our beautiful weather, when I was tempted to whine internally about how this broken window event was inconvenient and how it would be expensive. Eventually, no glass remained on the ground and I returned inside to finish up trip details. Chad will take care of the window, once we return from our trip. C'est la vie. (Dad, if you read this, that last phrase serves as evidence that those four or five years of French class were not in vain.)
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