Feb 15, 2013

An escaped fugitive, garage door malfunction and deadline extension


Yes, you read it right. This is what our week has been like so far. On Tuesday, a prisoner transfer went horribly wrong when the convict escaped from the parking lot of a Walmart about 30 miles from where we live. The police advised caution; the husband advised locked car doors and my yoga studio started locking the lobby door while we sweated in 105 degree heat and humidity inside. All the school campuses in the surrounding areas, including my kid’s, went into lockdown mode. Four days later the fugitive is still on the loose and the schools are still in lockdown.

With a fugitive running around who knows where the last thing I needed was a broken garage door but that is what happened the very next day. As I slowly backed out of my garage I heard a loud banging/ grating noise, a metal on metal crash of some kind. I had the presence of mind to brake and pull forward. I stopped the car and got out to see that top of my van had crashed into the bottom panel of the garage door which apparently had not rolled all the way back up as it is supposed to.
Being the calm and collected person that I am, I checked the rear of the car for damage. It seemed to be unharmed. Then I noticed that the garage door was off one of its rollers and bent into a V from the middle. Yeah, it was not good. At this point I called up a friend and asked her to pick me up since I was due for a seminar at the kid’s school. Then it dawned on me that I couldn’t leave the garage door open, all banged up and broken, especially with a fugitive who may or may not be looking for just such an opportunity to break into a house for food and shelter. So I told the friend to cancel the pick-up plan and instead ran over to my neighbor’s and banged on her door. At this point, I was panicking slightly. She greeted me in her bathrobe and I told her to come quick, I had an emergency.

The good neighbor that she is, she came, tightening her blue bathrobe around her, took a look at the garage door, climbed a chair to check for damage to my car roof (a couple of scratches) and declared I needed to call a repair man to get the door fixed. Which I did (thanks to Angie’slist) and two hours later a very efficient repair man parked his van in front of my house, assessed the situation and gave me a very reasonable estimate to fix the door. I agreed on the spot and he proceeded to mend the garage door. An hour later the door was fixed and I breathed easy.  
In the entire garage hullabaloo (yeah, I am using that word and sticking to it) I totally forgot to do my weekly blog post. Now that the drama around our house has cooled down, here I am with my sixth blog post of the year (I am running one blog post behind) announcing a two week extension of the “I cooked in my Indian pressure cooker and it didn’t blow up in my face”.


The reasons for the extension: One, I haven’t had a chance to write another pressure cooker post. Two, a few friends requested an extension. Three, I have received only a couple of entrees so far, mainly because I haven’t talked about the event much or maybe because the PC is blowing people’s faces more than I thought it did.

So for now, the deadline has been extended to Feb 28. Send in your entrees to jayawagle (at) gmail.com and don’t forget to end the post with “I cooked (insert the name of the dish you cooked) in my Indian pressure cooker and it didn’t blow up in my face!” Also, tell me what PC you use and why. Meanwhile, check these heart warming posts by Anita and Soma 

Fugitive Update: Four days ago, the escaped fugitive was found and killed in a confrontation. I can keep my garage door open now, not that I would ever do it on purpose.
 

12 comments:

  1. Just read your post; hope things get back to 'normal' soon.
    I would like to send in an entry for the 'pressure-cooker blow out...ooops cook out! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shri, things are pretty much back to normal except now I check the garage door everytime I back out the car. :-) Looking forward to the cook out entry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hope they get the fugitive and you can breathe easy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Radha,

      They did get the fugitive and he was killed in the shootout.

      Delete
  4. Stay safe!
    Look forward to the final round-up when all the late-latifs straggle in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope I am not a late-latif when it comes to posting the round-up. It has been known to happen, you know.

      Delete
    2. I object. I refuse to be called names just because someone got in an entry in time for a change.

      Delete
  5. Jaya, I use my Indian pressure cookers every-single-evening and trust me, I've had this event in my mind ever since you posted about it. Somehow, as soon as the pressure drops and the meal is ready to serve I completely forget about it and it suddenly hits me only when I am at the sink cleaning my pressure cookers. It has made me realise all the hard work food bloggers go through, to take pictures and make special meals. I have a hard time remembering to click a pic before the meal is savoured and all gone! Now that the deadline is extended I hope to participate, rather I must! Thanks so much.

    - Priti

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Priti,

      Take your time and don't worry about photos. I have been known to take photos of leftovers and post them. You are in good hands. :-)

      Delete
  6. Babo! That is scary as heck. Stay safe.

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  7. What a day. Phewww....Thank god that to top this the PC did not blow up on your face ;-)

    I am not late-latif. I have my post up wayy before deadline

    ReplyDelete

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