The Case of the Broken Window

Well hello dear readers,

I have clearly been neglecting you, and I will remedy that soon with a painfully long post about my vacation to UT, but for now, I would like to tell you how my day went.

7:30 am: Wake up to hear the landscapers working across the street. [Note: I would usually be at practicum on Fridays, but I had the day off because my supervisor was out of town. (I started there on Wednesday-- that's for another post.)]
9:00 am: Get up, take a shower, get ready to go grocery shopping.
10:00 am: Walk out to my car (which, to be clear, I brought to Boston 5 days ago. FIVE.) and notice this:



Well, ok, the hole wasn't there. That happened while I was on the phone telling mom what happened, and I closed the driver's side door and the broken glass fell out onto my flip-flopped feet. I'm pretty sure I cursed-- uh... sorry mom.

So anyway. I called mom, and then I called dad who said perhaps the landscapers threw a rock at it while they were weed-whacking. Well, that would solve the question about why they looked at me so funny when I went out there. Anyway, they had driven away and I had no way to prove it was them.

Then a 60-ish yr old man, who we'll call Bob, from the adjacent harvard-owned property came out and asked me if I was ok and what had happened. I told him I was fine; it wasn't a break-in, but my window was broken none-the-less.I told him Dad hypothesized it might have had something to do with the landscapers. Bob told me he'd call the landscaping company for me.

He did so, and said, "Hi, this is Bob. Your guys were out here today and threw a rock while they were weed-whacking that broke the window of a young lady's car. I figured you have some way to deal with that, so I'll let you talk to her." He gave me his phone. The landscaper man, whose name was Pedro, told me he'd call his workers and call me back.

I didn't think I'd hear from him again. Meanwhile Bob told me he's a professor at Harvard Medical School and then sent me an email from his phone so I would be able to contact him. He left.

Dad called back and had made an insurance claim and an appointment to get the window fixed, but I had to start driving to CT within the hour. So I started getting the car cleaned up and putting plastic over the window.

THEN, Pedro called me back and said he talked to his guys and they didn't notice it but that he was sorry and would send someone out to fix it today.

So Dad cancelled the claim and the appointment and I waited to hear from the auto-repair guy. He finally called; his name was also Pedro, and he told me they'd have someone out to fix it in a couple hours.

So I spent the rest of the day waiting for the glass guy and then I convinced my roommates to order Chinese food with me. You see, one of my friends introduced me to a Chinese food place that takes orders online. So you pick what you want, pay for it online, and then it just magically shows up at your door and you didn't even have to speak to anyone! So we ate Chinese food while the guy fixed my window.

The guy finished, took me out to look at it and roll it up and down, gave me his card, and left.I went out and washed the car to make up for the man-handling it had to endure today.

THEN, I thought I should email Bob to tell him what happened. So I wrote him an email thanking him for taking the time to call the guy and get things going (because I'm pretty sure if I had called that landscaping company, they would have said, "No way lady.") I told him I'd bring him banana bread if he gave me his apartment number.

I fully expected him to say something like, "Oh no, I'm just happy to hear that it worked out." But I got an email back from him about 10 minutes ago that said he enjoys baked goods and his "woman friend" would be visiting tomorrow and she'd "love to hear the story." And I "should stop by in the morning and join [them] for coffee or a soft-drink if [I] wish."

... Hahahahahaha. I laughed for a good thirty seconds.

So... the moral of the story is, Harvard professors have authority (and woman friends apparently); some companies are not all about denying responsibility for damages; and I made a new friend.

Now I have to find some bananas.