“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
Collateral curtain costs
How long do a good set of cloth curtains last? Our primary home curtains overseas are going on 20 years of age, surely faded a bit, but have had a backcloth on them to protect from much of the sun.
When back in small-town America, my wife and I would love running the streets of town in the dark, cold early mornings. I do confess I liked watching snippets of the morning news when running by someone’s home that had their front window curtains pulled back and their big screen tv turned on. However, we are all a bit inconsistent, not minding if the neighbors leave their curtains open, but want ours closed at times for our own privacy from them.
Curtains overseas for us have been even more important as they provide sun protection from the intense year-round sunrays and also privacy as an urban-apartment has people moving around just feet from our windows. After finding our apartment home, we began measuring our windows and headed to a large fabric store. My wife decided to take on the curtain sewing job and calculated and bought the material she would need.
At some point in the project, her Singer sewing machine had a glitch and she needed a new part for it. Singer is a world brand, and I found a Singer repair shop that sold parts in the capital city. I drove our car down to the shop, and as is common, there was no parking. However, as is also common, I saw that cars had parallel parked along one side of the street with half the car resting on the sidewalk. I parked the same and ran into the sewing machine shop. When I came back 10 minutes later, I was shocked to find my car gone. I asked another shop owner what had happened, and he said, “A large city bus passes by here a few times a day and can’t fit with cars partially blocking the street.” All the locals knew to be ready to move their vehicles for the bus and then repark them partially on the sidewalk. I, however, didn’t know to do this, and my car was towed away. I found a taxi and asked him to drive me to the police lot where towed vehicles are deposited. I unhappily paid my fine to get the car out of the lot. My wife fixed the sewing machine and finished the curtain project.
I still love those curtains twenty years later and cannot imagine replacing them, but maybe that is because they were a bit pricey with the collateral costs that went into making the curtains.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
