About three weeks ago I had a horrible half-hour. It all started when I didn’t have enough deck boards to finish the top-rail on my deck. I loaded up my three sons and headed to Westerville to pick up a few boards at The Home Depot. I exchanged a few items I didn’t need, grabbed the boards I did need and headed to the parking lot to load up.

One twelve foot deck board would fit in the van perfectly, from the dash up front, across the back bench seat to the back hatch. The second twelve-footer was just a bit too long because of the angle of the windshield. Looking back, I realize I could have placed the boards side by side and been on my way with no problems. Instead, I acted quickly. If the boards were too long, I’d have to change the angle of the boards to get them to fit.  I immediately grabbed the latch to fold the seat down, but I forgot to pull the boards back first. As the back of the boards dropped down, the front of the boards levered up, pushing into my windshield and producing a loud, “Crack!” I looked to the front of the van and saw spider crack going at least twelve inches in all  directions.

#Fail.

#DoubleFail.

A phone call on the way home confirmed that the window was not reparable. I felt sick to my stomach as I drove the 30 minutes home. As I pulled into the driveway, my first thought was to get the stupid boards out of the van as soon as possible and then to pull out my insurance policy to check my liability. I threw the van in park, grabbed my phone and jumped out of the van. As I bailed out of the van, I hit my phone on the steering wheel and it was knocked from my hand. My two-week old Galaxy SIII flipped through the air in slow-motion before it landed face down in the gravel drive-way. Two cracked pieces of glass in one half-hour.

I felt like a complete idiot, who had just wasted a bunch of money that we really didn’t have. It took me a while, but I remembered that I am not my mistakes. I’m not worth any less because a couple things went really, really wrong. I’m still a dad and a husband and a teacher. I’m still me, and I like that most of the time.

Fortunately, the bill for the windshield was less than I expected and I was able to replace the glass on my phone for less than $15. Like usual, things weren’t as bad as they first seemed.

What about you? Have you ever had a string of misfortune? How did you react? How long did it affect you?

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