Irony or bad luck? (1 Viewer)

After not getting any preventive maintenance for, maybe 75 years or so, I recently started a restoration job on one of my old barns. This building was not one of your glorious mid-west or northeast barns, just a plain 25’ x 50’ pole building that at one time had board & batten siding and a corrugated tin roof. The battens are pretty much gone now, as are most of the supporting devices, cedar stumps.
So, after coming up with a plan of one man action, I went to work on it a couple of weeks ago.
Had my generator out there along with a nail gun and compressor, circular saw and 5’ stepladder. There were a few other hand tools, 4 newly purchased 4”x6” 10’ treated timbers and 2 new sawhorses.
I came home after a bad windstorm last week and the barn had collapsed, burying all those tools.
It was frustrating to lose the old thing just when I was trying to save it.
The next day I was able to retrieve my power saw and one glove, but I had other things that needed tending to. Many trees were down including several leaning on the house.
Today I finally revisited the barn wreckage and as I pulled some siding away I had to laugh.
The only thing I had really gotten done out there two weeks ago was to add some blocking between joists.
I was pretty proud of this beginning because I was doing it with old barn wood and you could not tell it wasn’t original work.
Today, when I uncovered my most expensive tools, the Honda generator and the air compressor, I found that they were both slightly crushed, under the bracing I had added.
Irony on irony.
In the context of what has happened to many people in tornados, this is all so insignificant.

Irony or bad luck? Why can't it be both? I consider it irony because you did yourself in by adding the bracing to a barn that fell anyway and, because of your bracing, crushed the very tools you were using to save the barn. But I also consider it bad luck because you did yourself in by adding the bracing to a barn that fell anyway and, because of your bracing, crushed the very tools you were using to save the barn.

Sort of like locking up the horse after the barn is gone?

I just bought a new car -- took delivery on my birthday, March 14 -- and I absolutely love it. (Miss my beloved Thunderbird which it replaced, but my aunt bought that one, so at least it's still in the family and I get to 'visit' it as often as I want.)

This past Thursday, I was at work (on dinner break) when a co-worker rushed in to let me know that it was hailing outside. Nickel-size and bigger. Yeah.

When all was said and done and I had inspected the damage, sure enough, pings and dings all over the hood, trunk, and roof. Haven't found any on the sides yet. And, fortunately, no chips and no glass or antenna (XM and OnStar satellite/cellular) damage.

A bit upsetting, of course. But, in light of everything going on in the world today (including the disasters to which you alluded), I'm just extremely thankful that this incident is the most serious thing I've had to deal with regarding my material possessions in quite some time.

And, even some of my co-workers' vehicles (many of which are well less than a year old) got pummelled even worse than mine.

Coincidentally, the one and only insurance claim I ever submitted on the Thunderbird was for...yep, you guessed it...hail damage. (But not when it was less than 2-months old. Oh, well...that's just the way the hail bounces, I guess. )

Took a different tact tonight, a neighbor and I went into town and inhaled a couple of margaritas.
After 21 years of watching my hill push away storms, and most rain...I lost trees to wind on April 25 & 30th....and this afternoon.
Am re-evaluating my theology at the moment. This is too weird.

Henry,

It's mainly bad luck, only enhanced by the fact that your piece of land had so much good luck, apparently, for the last (what was it?) 70 years.

There's some irony, I guess. But only mildly: it's in your last name.


Cees

Linda -
I can sympathize. I was driving my truck back from WV when a stone got kicked up and dinged my windshield. Didn't crack it. Just that "dent" in the glass. This happened like 5 months after I got it. Not enough to replace the windshield. Just an annoyance since it's just driver's side of center at eye level. I'd watch to see if it got worse and it never has. It's gotten joined by two others over the eleven years that I've owned the truck. But it was the first...grrr.

Whenever I get bothered by car problems - dents, dings, etc happening so soon after purchase, I recall one story. One of our customers (this was about 20 years and three employers ago) was a salesman for this company. It was a niche business that had managed to take on a big name-brand corporation and managed to survive. It was no Microsoft nor was it Bob's Software. The president had just turned 50 and the company had just received - I don't recall, it's millionth order or something like that - so he was going to celebrate. He had travelled to Germany several times for business and drove the Autobaun. Fell in love with a Mercedes. So to celebrate, he bought one. Leather interiors. Custom everything. He had to wait for 3 months for the car to be built and shipped over from Germany. So when he was notified that the ship was due into NYC on a specific day, he and a couple of friends (including the salesman who was to be in NYC for the next week) flew down so that he could drive it back. All the paperwork had been taken care of, it was registered and insured, customs had already opened the crate to inspect it so he could literally, drive it off the remains of the crate once it was offloaded. There they were, on the pier, waiting for that car to be offloading. When the crane lifted it, it was pointed out so that he could watch. The sides of the shipping crate were gone so it was pretty identifiable and everyone watched as this gleaming piece of German machinery was lifted over the side of the ship... and dropped in NY Harbor.
The insurance company totalled it even before it was out of the water. He had to wait an additional 6 months for another one to be delivered. He was there but he didn't watch. The investigation into what happened said that the crane "glitched" and accidentally opened, releasing the cargo.
That's been my barometer. He didn't even get to sit in his new car before it was trashed. Even having an accident driving out of the dealers lot isn't that bad.

Edit: By the way, my stories are in no way intended to belittle or make someone else's experiences seem inconsequential. As I was re-reading my post, I realized that there was an undertone there.

It's obvious to me the barn wanted to die.

It reminds me of my wife's "college car". Some form of Chevy she bought for the sole purpose of getting to and from school. It only cost her a few hundred bucks and ran like sh*t. Shortly after purchase, it developed a transmission problem where, while sitting at a stoplight, the car would suddenly lurch forward. I explained to her it was probably just trying to take its own life by throwing itself out into traffic and it was best to put it out of its misery. The car wanted to die.

Henry, that sounds like my kinda bad luck. :frowning:

I have only owned 4 automobiles in my entire life: I tend to drive them until after the wheels fall off, at least 10 years each. The first 3 I bought used. Back in 2001 I needed a new vehicle, so I thought to celebrate my 50th birthday I would treat myself to a brand new car, just the way I wanted it.

$33,000 later it was mine.

Six months later, I'm stopped at a traffic light when an idiot plows into the back of it with me in it. Hit me so hard that the seat back broke and knocked this 4000lb beast 50 feet out into the middle of the intersection.

I'm just glad I suffered no injuries.

So how's the NEW barn coming along?

Julian,
Sorry to hear about your car incident, what did you buy with your $33,000?

I'm not really seeing a new barn anytime soon, saving it was one thing, reassembling wood that old is not too practical.
After excavating the air compressor the other day I wheeled it across the yard in my Radio Flyer and put it in the garage just to shelter it.
About an hour later the third storm arrived. I was standing in front of one of my old windows, getting wet because the rain was pushing around the edges of it. When I went outside I saw that several sections of tin on the garage roof had been peeled back.
You know, so the compressor could get wet.

Hee-hee.

Actually I had to settle for having the car repaired to the tune of about $7000. Of course the guy that hit me had a fake insurance card and somehow tha cop didn't catch it, so I was out a $500 deductible.

It could have been worse.

All is revealed : your compressor is under a curse! Don't bring it in the house.