We have had quite an experience here. Or I should say we are having quite an experience because it’s not over yet.
A little background:
Our house has lots and lots of big windows. This is wonderful as it allows the sunlight in and lets us look out to the beautiful landscaping Jen-Chi has done. I realize this would be most impractical in many climates but luckily we are mild here in Carmel, CA. I especially like our bedroom where fortunately we are hidden from neighbors and therefore have no drapes on the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. I enjoy waking in the morning and seeing the tall pine trees and, sometimes, blue skies.
In front of one of the exterior walls is a low bookcase. In addition to books there are cassettes and CDs as well as a small crystal pyramid about 6 or 7 inches tall. As well as being an attractive ornament there are those who believe crystals have some metaphysical powers. I know for sure they are hard because Friday night, while getting ready to go to bed, I accidentally bumped the crystal off the bookcase and it hit the base of a window which is 6 feet wide and 8 feet tall. Immediately a crack appeared starting at the point of impact and running diagonally across the pane of glass to the top corner. The glass is a tempered safety glass so I assume that is why the crack didn’t suddenly appear but rather traveled across the pane.
I uttered an appropriate metaphysical expletive and repeated it as a second crack appeared emanating from the same point of impact and running up the window. Then there was a third one and a fourth and so on. These cracks kept appearing one after another. As soon as one crack finished its journey to the other side another one started. These were not in rapid succession but maybe a second or two apart. The window continued doing this for about 4 hours quieting down around 1AM. By some miracle no glass fell out and the morning showed us a beautifully designed window.
We boarded it up and called the glass people about replacing it.
We also called the insurance people and here is where we learned something very interesting.
We have what is known as a "500 Dollar Deductible" policy. In case you don't know, this means in the event of some damage to our house the insurance company will pay for fixing it after we pay the first 500 dollars. There is one exception and that is for replacing glass. If that happens our policy covers all except the first 50 dollars! I know, we had trouble believing it too but have checked with the insurance company 3 times and it's true. This window alone will run over 2000 dollars and we will pay 50 and they will pick up the rest of the bill. Amazing!
Strangely, if we had a glass company boarded it up for us too it would go as a 500 Dollar Deductible. It didn't take a genius to figure out the way to go on that. We boarded it up and the glass company will do the glass. It will be interesting to watch and see how they will manipulate a sheet of glass that size up to an upstairs bedroom.
Stay tuned.
The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
August 2, 2007
