This morning I
discovered my car had been broken into. The driver side window had been
shattered, my personal belongings were scattered on the passenger seat, and my
proof of insurance had been tossed outside the car into a muddy ditch.
Miraculously, all that was taken was a phone charger. Perhaps the culprit was
not encouraged by my music selection deciding to forfeit the iPod in the center
console.
I felt no
vengeance, had no axe to grind. In fact, there was something strangely peaceful
about quietly sweeping chards of glass into a dustbin on a brisk winter
morning.
My insurance company
notified me that my deductible was too high for them to cover the cost. Anything below
$1,000 would be coming out of my pocket.
After punching in
a few numbers and clicking a few boxes, an online estimate rounded my troubles to
$354. I’m no car expert, nor a driver side window aficionado, but that seemed a
bit steep, if not unreasonable.
I drove to an Auto
Zone in my area looking for a makeshift window until I could resolve my loud
and drafty commute. I bumped into a close friend who was standing at the
counter in a bit of a daze. I explained what happened and he suggested I follow
him home where he’d put together a slapdash window, which is to say a plastic
bag cut at the corners.
We joked on his
driveway as we applied this silly car Band-Aid. Just as I was set to go he
asked if I’d like an estimate with his “glass guy” instead of forking over the
$350 I’d silently agreed to pay the following day. “I’ve troubled you enough,”
I said. “I’ve got the receipts and number of the company inside,” he insisted.
“Just wait right here.”
After a two-minute
phone call I was set to have my window fixed a mere 3 miles away. That certainly
beat the 30 I was set to drive to a town I’d never even heard of. It was also a
fraction of the cost at $160.
The window was fixed
in 30 minutes, the price stood as advertised, and I gleefully cancelled my
original appointment. A mess had not amassed into a bigger one. I’d persisted
and somehow found a silver lining among the broken chards of glass.
Don’t be afraid to ask if
there’s a better way to solving a problem. Our pride and limited thinking can
keep us from opportunities we’d never even consider.
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