Well, this sucks…
October 25, 2008
While I was spending a couple hours at the football field in the pouring rain and gusting wind, without an umbrella. Or appropriate footwear. Or really anything that would be considered water repellant or resistant. I got a phone call from my oldest son.
“Mom, remember our big van?”
“Um, yes I think I remember it. Why?”
“Well, a tree fell on it and crushed it.”
“Crushed it?”
“Yeah, like I don’t think you are going to be driving it ever again.”
And then I laughed. And he laughed. Because that is what we do in our family when sucky things happen. We laugh.
All except for my husband. He doesn’t understand the laughing one bit. Because clearly this is not funny.
Except, you know, it is.
Posted by Chris @ 10:02 pm
RSS feed for comments on this post.
yeah, that sucks - Believe it or not, last Thanksgiving we had a tree, (1) tree fall and take out (total - not ever driving again) three cars (3) cars in our driveway. sucks.
Chris says: WOW. THREE?!?!
October 25th, 2008 at 10:09 pmThose are words you don’t want to hear from the other end of the line: “remember our van?”
Wow.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pmNo, it’s not funny… it’s hilarious!
October 25th, 2008 at 10:25 pmIt might be a hapy moment if it didn’t mean you still had to get another 15-pass van - lol. I must admit I feel a bit like a daycare driving mine, but I relish the fact that my kids won’t be excited about having to drive it. And I made my husband promise whatever car I want when we don’t need it anymore.
A note about replacing it…we got ours from a rental company that rented vans like that to corporations. It has captian’s chairs for the first three rows. Cuts down on number of seats - only 12 seats now, but it also cuts down on griping and it is easier to reach the kids in the way-back…you know…the ones in another area code!
October 25th, 2008 at 10:39 pmThe picture kind of says it all, really.
(I think the tree won.)
October 25th, 2008 at 10:43 pmLast year, my 1991 Buick LeSabre got stolen off of the street outside my house. When I called my parents to tell them about, my mom started cracking up.
“I’m so sorry,” she choked out, “it’s just [insert more uproarious laughter], it’s just so FUNNY.”
October 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pmOh. my. No words.
And…just a little bit of giggling.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:23 pmWow, that’s some tree!
October 25th, 2008 at 11:33 pmI am very sorry! Hopefully you hadn’t just finished cleaning it out and detailing it before this happened. That’s usually how these go, adding insult to injury. On the other hand I laughed my ass off, because you made it ok to do so. It just seems like the sort of thing you should be reverent and somber about…but then…LAUGHTER.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pmMy step-dad had a tree slide down a hill, cross a road, and fly into the driver’s side window and out the passenger’s side window of his truck. It was funny, but why, I’m not sure! (The truck was unoccupied).
October 26th, 2008 at 12:01 amWow, Chris, that’s crazy. I’m glad you weren’t in it… And I totally understand the laughing part. It’s more fun than crying.
Do you remember our old house?
October 26th, 2008 at 12:20 amEvery single time I leave the house in bad weather, I get bad news while I’m standing in the checkout line. It’s to the point that I don’t turn my phone on when I’m in a store. I just wait until I’m in the car again. You know, so I’ll be nice and calm while driving back to what’s left of my home in the only vehicle now driveable.
Were there any of your men out there when the tree fell? If not, did it make any noise?
October 26th, 2008 at 12:27 amoh my!!! yep, I think your son may be right - that thing definately does not look drivable!! Just think what a great picture you have though!! It almost beats the bathroom pictures.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:45 amOh wow, that really stinks! I guess it’s a good thing you weren’t just pulling into the driveway when the branch fell.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:56 amIf a tree falls in the woods …. on top of a big van …. and there’s no one around to hear it …..
actually, when it falls right on top of your big ole’ van like that, it *is* kind of funny! (usual disclaimer about thank goodness no-one was hurt, yadda yadda)
October 26th, 2008 at 1:07 am*Sounds* pretty damn funny to me. Looks like ~thank the Lord~ no one was hurt. So yes, that makes it funny. I have to laugh - long, hard and often around here or I’ll go crazy and I only have two boys left home. Does your husband understand how much FUN he’s missing?
October 26th, 2008 at 1:28 amI say laugh there is nothing else really to do about it.
Atleast everyone is safe. How scary.
October 26th, 2008 at 1:50 amOMG…….Thank goodness it wasn’t your house! We laugh at stuff like that at our house……..Seems to break the tension and anxiety, ahahahahahah!
October 26th, 2008 at 1:51 amWhen I was about 10 years old, my brother (who worked for my dad’s logging/timber business) left a logging truck parked in our driveway OUT OF GEAR. It rolled down the hill in front of our house and landed upside down in a pond taking a fence along with it.
I don’t think my dad was laughing at that one, either.
October 26th, 2008 at 2:01 amOh.my.word.
So glad everyone is safe.
Mary, also owner of one beast of a van
October 26th, 2008 at 2:22 amWe’re in Memphis, and in 2003 a huge windstorm tore through the city (Hurricane Elvis, we called it). Huge trees were uprooted all over the place, limbs were everywhere….it was a mess. Fortunately, our home wasn’t damaged, but I walked outside to find that the top of a sycamore tree was on top of my SUV…which would have been paid for in about three months. Had it fallen a couple of feet over, it would’ve been on our roof, so it could’ve been worse. But still…..
Sorry about your van.
October 26th, 2008 at 2:28 amSo NOT funny. I’m with your husband on this one. My littlest looked at that picture and said, indignantly, “we’d never do that to OUR baby van!” (we have a mini-van, hence “baby” van). Clearly, she thinks you did it on purpose.
But at least no one was in the van at the time. My in-laws woke one night to a tree crashing through their bedroom ceiling.
P.S. The picture is dark and I was wondering why you posted a photo of a dented pick-up truck. Didn’t realize it was actually your van until I read the first few lines of your post!
October 26th, 2008 at 3:04 amAll the words I’d have said are not printable!
October 26th, 2008 at 3:55 amthank goodness no one was inside!
do you at least get free firewood?
October 26th, 2008 at 7:04 amOh wow! I’d probably be tempted to laugh too, ’cause I laugh at things like that. What else ya goin’ do? Swear? Laughing’s waaay more fun.
And now you get to go van shopping! That’s also fun!
October 26th, 2008 at 7:13 amI’m sorry your van got crushed but I would have laughed too.
October 26th, 2008 at 7:41 amsurely funnier than spotted dick.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:00 amI don’t know why we laugh at things like that either. And when we tell the story to other people they laugh too. It sure beats the people who get mad and kick the tires and scream!
October 26th, 2008 at 8:19 amAlso, a good thing you have insurance. I am sure those vans don’t come cheap. It should feel pretty satisfying when the adjuster comes out.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:48 amOmg…it looks like a pickup truck at first glance! I guess the tree wasn’t fooling around.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:51 amoh, yes, I’d laugh, and cry, and laugh some more. because in those kind of things, there just isn’t anything else you can do. I think I laugh out of shock.
I’m sorry that your van got clobbered. I’m glad that no one was in it at the time, because it truly looks horrible.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:58 amI can’t even find words….. thank heavens no one was in there.
Did the van not move when it heard ” T I M B E R”
October 26th, 2008 at 11:28 amSometimes you gotta ask “Why me?!”. Glad everyone is safe. I laugh/cried looking at the pictures, goodness.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:32 pmoh my god, this your current-only -big -enough-for all -kids car is it?
oh my .
October 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pmThank goodness you or the kids weren’t in/around the van when this happened. Time to go van shopping, huh?
I swear there is a guardian angel looking after my kids - my back window ‘popped’ after being hit by a branch, shards of glass ALL OVER the back seat and everywhere. It was the ONLY DAY in FOURTEEN MONTHS that neither child was in the back (and hence weren’t sprayed with glass fragments). With the picture above and my story (and I am certain many others), you have to believe in something, right?!
October 26th, 2008 at 2:46 pmI guess that’s the upside for me, living in a place where we seem to have no rainfall/trees/anything green.
Wait. On second thought, no.
Sorry about your van!!!
October 26th, 2008 at 4:16 pmOh. My. Gosh!
October 26th, 2008 at 9:18 pmOuch!
Glad no one is hurt.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:51 pmI saw the photo first and got scared, but then I read the story and laughed. I think it was relieved laughter, but it felt good all the same. Thanks Chris!
October 27th, 2008 at 7:40 amOh no!
October 27th, 2008 at 12:11 pmThat is one of those things that shouldn’t be funny but is. I’m sorry, but I’m laughing my head off over here. And thank God, no one was in it!
October 27th, 2008 at 1:24 pmI would have to agree with Maddie, anything I would have said at first sight would not be printable. But after getting my composure together (and realizing I had insurance) I would have laughed myself silly.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:56 pmYep, totally funny. Sorry, but it is awesome.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:23 pmOkay, really, the funniest part for me was the way he phrased his opener. How much did you want to play dumb: “Van? What van? I drive a van!? Kickass!!”
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm