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R TERRY (207.230.142.240)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 3:35 am: | |
Which is it? Is the cup half full or half empty?
I thought it was my lucky day. Recently, the proprietor of a large outdoor sign company gave me the unexpected opportunity to park the SYOW on their huge back lot, rent-free, water and electric provided at their cost. They cleared and leveled a space large enough to park the 35-foot bus and two cars, turned on the electric meter, fired up a mercury vapor security light, and ran a hose to the bus from a distant water faucet. They even offered to upgrade my 30-amp service to 50 amps, at the pole and in the bus.
I thought, Yippee! I get to pull the 4104 out of semi-retirement and take it for another four and a half-hour drive, which, because I have so much fun, seems to go by in about 30 minutes. Despite its well-deserved, deprecating nickname, this is one sweet running machine! I LOVE driving it.
So what’s the catch? This guy gives me free rent and utilities and all I have to do is… what? All I have to do is call the police if someone comes onto his lot and starts tearing stuff up. Ok… that seems fair enough.
Well, that is exactly what I had to do last Saturday, just two weeks into it. Only, it was YOURS TRULY that got burglarized and it was MY bus that got torn up.
In what seems like primitive resourcefulness and an extreme lack of imagination, this vandal threw rocks at the bus until he successfully bashed out the right side D-window, through which he made his entry. In the process, he shattered the large sliding passenger window behind it, broke the window in the door and the nearly-impossible-to-find glass clearance light above the door. A half a dozen rocks never hit glass at all; instead, they just banged up the side of the bus in various places. (Because this is the Salvage Yard on Wheels, no one will notice this except me.)
Once inside, he ransacked the bus, stole the brand new DVD player I bought for the kids, the Denzel Washington movie “Out of Time”, a stereo clock radio, a lantern-style flashlight, and possibly other stuff that I have not yet come to miss.
This is where the glass is either half full or half empty. On the one hand, I was victimized by a burglar and suffered unfortunate damage to the bus. Stuff was stolen and he got away with it. Glass half empty.
On the other hand, he was unbelievably stupid. Nothing of real value was taken. The DVD player only cost 40 bucks. No tools or cameras were taken, not even the jar of money sitting on the floor. (Ok, something like that could weight you down, making it hard for you to jump out a window. I don’t think he was that smart. In fact, I know he wasn’t: he could have unlocked the door from the inside and walked out. But he jumped out through the D-window instead.) Glass half full.
I spent Saturday night in the bus pissed off at my lousy misfortune, but happy that it wasn’t any worse, marveling at what a dumb burglar he was. It could have been a lot worse.
Sunday I decided the cost of free rent was too much. I disconnected everything, checked the oil, waited for the air pressure to come up, and drove off into the night, another four and a half-hour drive that seemed like 30 minutes.
RT |
CoryDane RTSII (66.155.188.242)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 5:08 am: | |
Yes, my how the world has changed these days.
I listen to the PO-lice scanner at home while working on my drawings for the bus on the computer and there is a lot of trouble out there these days.
I could ask if you had tried to put in an alarms system but I guess that is a really dumb question.
Sorry to hear that you were hit by these morons of todays world, I hate to see anyone lose anything to these scum.
This is one reason why I won't buy from people off the street or at not to believe prices. I Will NOT Support these theives if I can help it.
It kinda sounds like kids but you never know. The lack of respect of anothers property is a problem these days, and I am afraid, is learned from the adults as an easy way to get something.
Perhaps when he offered free parking and amenities a red light should have lit and you needed to ask why his offer was so good? Might have warned you of a problem He was already all too aware of.
Again, sorry to hear of this "irritation" of the times. Hope it fixes easily.
"Imagine Your Dreams"
cd cd cd |
TWO DOGS (67.209.132.235)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 6:18 am: | |
yep...would be willing to bet you,it was a boy ,between 13 and 17... |
degojo (68.35.160.48)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 9:35 am: | |
Must be something about a 4104 that says "target" to those neanderthals that roam the streets of this country. My unit has been hit with eggs, a beer bottle smashed the emergency door window, and a hole "about 45 calibre" amidship behind the fridge. All at different times when I parked the unit near my office overnight. Perhaps these unhappy vandals will cheer up and change their ways now that same sex marriages will allow their parents to legitimize their birth |
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