Everything is broken......

Let me start this post by saying I am feeling mentally positive about what I have to relate, although that may be incredible as you read further.


My catchphrase for this year is: Everything is broken


It all started, I think, last December. I got caught in that horrible ice storm that hit the northeast and to this day do not know how I managed to get home. My normal commute of 45 minutes turned into 4 hours and 15 minutes. At work, administration was not telling us who was going to replace our current boss upon his retirement (a boss that I could stand) and it became obvious that they were going to promote my long term tormentor. Knowing that he would force me out no matter what and knowing that I was going to go through hell before I eventually quit,I quit my government job at the end of December. The ensuing months proved that I had made a good decision. He was promoted and the winter commuting was hellish here.


At home everything started breaking. I am not talking about something that I had done to break the stuff...either through mysterious or through age my belongings started checking out. The list includes:
3 blenders
2 humidifiers
ceiling fan in the bedroom
1 cell
2 land phones
electric hot water kettle
fridge


I had had a tooth abscess in December and had had the tooth extracted. So I decided that as soon as I could get to the airport, I would be off to India for a little heat and my extensive dental check. I flew out the end of March. In India, dentist said another tooth is going so had two more extractions, redo crown, etc. Weather was quite good in Delhi, spent time with friends there and then in Pune, and returned the end of April. Now the story gets really intense. I had left the cat up in Rochester with a friend and flew in and out of Rochester (free pickup and parking of my car via my friend). When I arrived back, I became very very sick due to the return to cold temperatures. I was in bed sick as a dog for several days. During this time, my neighbor emailed me that the police were looking for me as there had been an accident to my house. So what happened was this: At 4 am on a April 26 a 36 year old woman (alone) had driven through the front of my house with a Jeep, depositing the entire car into the middle of one floor of my house and destroying a good portion of that floor. Amazingly, she was unhurt (although dead drunk), crawled out the hole in my house and walked downtown. As soon as I was well enough to drive, I came back. I could not even enter that level as the debris was so deep and antique furniture was thrown against the door by the Jeep. Coming from upstairs, the entire floor was three feet deep in pulverized wood, glass and concrete. She had broken through an 8 inch reinforced concrete foundation wall (later we also found out the impact had broken the footers) as she went through the wall. The officials had turned off all power and my heating system had also been destroyed on that floor. She even took out some of the recessed lights in the ceiling. But here is where it is really interesting. The one thing that had taken the most direct hit was my custom made altar....a huge altar that I also used for storage.....7 feet high, 5 feet wide of solid cherry, made by a Tibetan master woodworker from Dharamsala. It was my one big furniture purchase, made from wood from our family lands in New Jersey as a remembrance of my father. There was virtually nothing left of the altar itself after the accident. The house had a condemned sign on the side of it.


The insurance put me up at the local motel and sent in a crew to dig me out. It took three guys two days to get down to down to the floor. Pulverized glass was everywhere. All my food that was stored in the freezers went bad (the local vultures and crows had a subsequent feast but the documentation for insurance took me a week). Every see what happens to cameras that have been run over by a Jeep?


Getting back to the altar: here is the really amazing thing: although the altar was destroyed, the really important mementos were found strewn across the room on top of the ruble. Prasad from a stupa consecration, Tibetan money from before the Chinese invasion, pictures of masters, ashes from the Bonpo abbots (Mendup). Looking up at me from the front grill of that woman's car that was left after it was extricated was a picture of a famous master, now deceased. The glass and the frame were gone,there were some scratches to the picture, but it was more or less intact.


Since the end of April, I have been meeting with contractors (fired the first), insurance adjustor, district attorney, attending court dates (so far this woman has gotten off scott free and even still has her license to drive), documenting damage, selecting products and colors for the reconstruction, was sick for a full month when I got back, had a sick cat when he got back, and now having another bad tooth. The stress has been huge but frankly a lot of dross has been cleared out of my life. Going to drastically rearrange my house. Looking forward to the next chapter.


In case any of you consider not having home owner's insurance, remember my experience.

 

GG:
Thanks for the well wishes. Oddly, according to my whole life astrology, I am in the best phase of my life. I have tried to use objectivity to get me through this, but I must admit to some high blood pressure and increased need for naps.

 

Satchi:
Yes, this has been a good test of my limited spiritual progress. You never know until the rubber hits the road.....more apt saying in my case.

 

Akanksha:
Yes, I am hanging in there as best I can. You are right about dentists especially in USA...USA dentists are a bunch of crooks. Luckily I found a great dentist in Delhi whom I visit as possible. I have been going to him so long that when I called him Friday about this matter he answered with Hi Tina...how are you doing....even knows my number after all these years. Well, many thousands of dollars of USA dental are blowing up on me now and since my knee replacement I take no chances with dental stuff. The thought of having that knee replaced again is enough to get me to do almost anything to avoid it.

 

Viswamitra:
Thank you for your kind words. You know, it could have been much worse. If I had not made sure to pay the homeowners insurance payment before I left for India OR if it had been January and my house all froze up OR if she had hit six feet to the right and the whole end of my house had fallen down OR I had had insomnia and been watching tv down there (I would be dead now) OR even if I had been home at the time and gotten some problem from the shock (my bed being over the area of the accident). Many things to be thankful for. My young contractor has been a peach....his family and mine have known each other for decades and he has been very kind to me over the whole process.