I. AM. MAD

Four. Tires. Slashed.   I. Am. Mad.

I had a nice weekend.  I love my new job.  Ben is back to college and loving life.  Sam is terrific. Everything that matters in my life is good. And then I got up Monday morning, on the same side that I always get up.

My neighborhood was all buzzy with activity for 7am on a Monday.  Vandals had struck and randomly left 14 cars with slashed tires, mine included.  The police had come and gone, doing the very minimal amount of detecting, having spent less than one hour investigating the vandalism. The two cars belonging to the two neighborhood busy bodies were untouched as well as the President of the Common Council and the head of NYS NAACP. The tow trucks were starting to arrive as I walked to the bus stop to get to work.

Arriving, I discovered I had no work ID and no office keys, but the lovely receptionist let me into my space.  I called my insurance company, arranged for a tow truck and attempted to work.  My car insurance would cover it all, except for the $500 deductible.  Did I mention that I was mad?  Shortly after that piece of good news, I borrowed a card key to enter the bathroom and landed on my ass knocking over the Caution: Wet Floor sign placed inside the door on the slippery, wet, hard fucking floor. The sign might have helped if it was placed outside the door or even with the door propped open, but it did no good behind a closed door.

The call came at 3pm that the tow truck was coming for my car, so I hopped on the 3:25pm bus home.  Sparky, my cute little blueberry shaped car, tires flat as a pancake, was towed away, followed 5 minutes later by another car and a few minutes after that, the last of the 14 cars with slashed tires. Everyone in the neighborhood was outside talking about the tires.  The lucky ones feeling lucky and saying sorry and the unlucky feeling..... well MAD.  It was completely random.  Some of the cars were on the street, some parked in driveways.  Mine was under a street light.  I called the police for an update. Nothing.  I asked about finger prints and I was met with silence.  How is it possible to slash that many tires and not leave prints, I asked?  Again, silence, and finally the response came, well we don't do that.  Talking to my neighbors, I asked about finger prints and many mentioned seeing hand prints, but were told by the police, they don't do fingerprints. WTF is my response.  I fail to comprehend that bullshit.  All towed away, any hope of finger prints gone.  All hope for recovery of funds....lost. $500 bucks no longer mine!!!  And they don't DO fingerprints!  Bet they would if it was their cars.

So I did what I love to do, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Times Union newspaper and then forwarded it to the Mayor, Police Chief and the President of the Common Council.  Feeling better I posted it to Facebook and then had some ice cream, cuz' that's what mad people do, and went to bed.

My car was ready today at 5:15 with four brand new tires that I had not budgeted for.  The total came to $583.20 and after paying my deduction, insurance covered $83.20.  Yippee!  Thanks stupid idiots who slashed my tires, thanks city of Albany for not checking fingerprints!  And a special thank you to the nosey busybody across the street who notices every frickin' thing I do, but missed this.  I guess I am still MAD.