{"id":1164,"date":"2017-01-16T13:33:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2017-01-16T13:33:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T21:33:10","slug":"random-acts-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/?p=1164","title":{"rendered":"Random Acts of Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, I carpooled with friends to hike El Cajon Mountain, and when I got back, I saw that someone had bashed the windshield of my car.<\/p>\n

At first I thought it was a freak accident and looked around for whatever had hit my car \u2014 rocks, road debris, whatever \u2014 but I couldn’t find anything amiss. The windshield had been hit dead center, and in the middle of the rings of shattered glass was a long rectangular depression, so possibly a beam of wood or a baseball bat was the culprit, neither of which were to be found.<\/p>\n

An intentional hit, then.<\/p>\n

No one except my hiking friends know where I keep my car while hiking, and they were with me the entire time, so it couldn’t have been someone I knew, and in any case, I don’t know many people who would do such a thing, let alone to me. The few people I know who are possibly capable of such a thing all live far from me, by at least an hour’s drive, and are completely out of my life for that very reason.<\/p>\n

That said, mine was the only car hit in a rather packed place, so the only conclusion I could make was that I was the victim of a random act of violence. Lucky me!<\/p>\n

My first reaction was disbelief. It seemed surreal somehow, like I was imagining things. When there’s no reasonable explanation for something, the reality can be very difficult to accept.<\/p>\n

One of my hiking friends helped me clear the driver’s seat of glass, and after some discussion about what I would do next, I drove home as usual, except with my head bobbing to and fro as I looked around the web of cracked glass to see my way.<\/p>\n

I called my insurance. I called the windshield replacement company they recommended to me. I made all the proper arrangements.<\/p>\n

And I told some friends that I wouldn’t be able to watch Rent with them the next day after all \u2014 because I needed my money to buy a new windshield. This is not an expense I can afford right now, but what else can one do?<\/p>\n

Through it all, surprisingly, I maintained a pretty good mood and made a few jokes about it. Why get angry? I felt whoever broke my windshield was probably angry enough for the both of us, so I figure, why not let them deal with that toxic emotion all by themselves? I hoped, at least, that by taking their anger out on my windshield they were able to find some peace.<\/p>\n

Besides, I’d had a small crack in that windshield for some time anyway. I had put off getting a replacement because of the cost, but now I actually had a great reason to finally get that done.<\/p>\n

Still … being on the receiving end of a random act of violence is no fun, especially knowing that the person probably got away with it; they will probably never get caught for it.<\/p>\n

So I did the only thing I could do.<\/p>\n

I hoped they would get painfully explosive diarrhea and a horrible all-over body rash.<\/p>\n

Seems only fair, right?<\/p>\nShare this post:

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Last Friday, I carpooled with friends to hike El Cajon Mountain, and when I got back, I saw that someone had bashed the windshield of my car. At first I thought it was a freak accident and looked around for whatever had hit my car \u2014 rocks, road debris, whatever \u2014 but I couldn’t find anything amiss. The windshield had been hit dead center, and in the middle of the rings of shattered glass was a long rectangular depression, so…<\/p>\n

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