Have you seen the van?

An open letter to the person who broke our van's rear windshield Friday night:

Dear Madam or Sir,

I know that when you broke that window, you intended to cause harm.  I'm not sure why.  While I am far from perfect, I generally like to make things better.  Maybe you don't.  You clearly weren't trying to break in to the van, since we left it unlocked and all our possessions (1996 tape deck, insulated Trader Joe's food carrier, child's pink plastic bracelet) were still there among the glass.

I suppose you may like to consider our distress.  We were distressed indeed.  That van was a gift from my father.  To me it is the freedom to take my whole family places in comfort and safety.  We haven't had it very long.  It was in amazing shape when my dad purchased it, and we have tried to take good care of it, even though there are a ridiculous number of small children who are allowed access to it.

This month we had a little more money than usual.  That meant we knew how we were going to pay most of our bills.  Not all, but most this month.  We realized immediately that bill money was going to have to go to replacing the window.  Our other option would be to drive it to the u-pull it, since it was essentially garbage in its current state.  Thanks to your 'fun' we will now scramble to try to make, or borrow enough to keep our utilities on.  We always enjoy that.

Kind madam or sir, you have convinced us we must park indoors, so as not to tempt fate.  Our 2 car garage on our duplex is kind of a laughable designation when you consider a minivan.  So my husband spent hours on Saturday moving things in the garage, and giving his trailer to his brother, so that we could just squeeze our van into the garage.

That was time well spent, as I learned a valuable lesson Saturday.  If not for you, neighborhood vandal, I might never have known that you must make appointments with auto glass establishments   If you just show up after talking to them, they haven't gotten the window from the warehouse, and you have to return Monday.  Clearly my life is richer now that I am up on that information.  We also had no ride to church, so my sister was able to render some service to us.  She never gets to do that.

Since you don't like me, or the idea of me, you are probably glad to know that I cried about it several times yesterday.  I was already sleep deprived, emotional, and my 2 year old had denied the baby most of his morning nap.  I hadn't realized just how much I love that van, so now I know.

All sarcasm aside, if we had to have a crime perpetrated against us, this was a pretty good one.  My parents have offered to pay to replace the window, and while I don't want to let them, we probably will.  I probably seem really angry at our little vandal, but I mostly feel okay now, I just wish we'd seemed worth leaving alone that night.  A neighbor told me he slept near the front facing window the next night to keep an eye out and I appreciate it, as well as our friends who let us know that the window was broken before it poured into our interior.