Triplicate

It seems that every time we go on a family vacation we have bad things happen…and always in 3s.  The summer of 2006 we went down to Montana with Tyler’s Aunt and Uncle to go boating.  On the way down the truck stalled while Tyler and Sarah were driving.  It had overheated and Tyler opened the radiator cap and all the radiator fluid spilled all over and burnt Tyler’s forearm.  Then later on he stubbed his toe while cliffjumping and broke it.  And to make it 3 – he tore his ACL while wakeboarding.  Each year has been pretty much the same.  And each year we wait for the three.  This year we were making it through the first few days of our vacation accident free.  However, after driving all the way west pulling a trailer, Scott and Janie's van needed a brake job, so their vehicle was out of commission for a day.  Soon afterwards, the ABS light came on in our van, so we decided to take it into Budget Brake and Muffler to get it checked out and see if it was a problem we needed to fix before we got home and could see our own Mechanic.  It ended up being in the shop for the entire day (our last full day in Nanaimo) which is why we ended up at the mini-golf place late that night.  So that was 2...now it was just waiting for number 3, but we seemed to be doing ok.  No injuries (besides sore backs)...we woke up on our last day ready to go home and put an end to the triplicate curse.  As we were packing up the vehicles, Tyler decided to pull our van out of the carport so we could have easier access to the trunk.  The hatch was already open, but the roof of the garage was pretty high so he decided to go ahead and pull out without closing the door.  He had only moved a few feet when he heard a horrible SMASH!  Yes, the glass on our hatch hit a support beam in the roof of the carport and completely crumbled.  We were just about to pull out to head to the ferry, and we had spent quite a bit of money reserving our spot on the 10:40 boat, so we couldn't waste much time.  Tyler was frustrated, and Lucy was in tears (she wanted to get a new car, even though we explained that it could be fixed).  We quickly swept up the glass and headed to the ferry in the hopes that we could find an autobody shop in Vancouver that could fix it before we left.  The 5 minute trip to the ferry was very noisy and windy and exhaust filled, and it was a cool day on the island.  

When we got to Vancouver we found the science center and an Autobody shop close by.  They told us that they wouldn't be able to do the work that day, as they didn't have the piece of glass in store.  We called around to Apple Autoglass and other such shops to see if anyone could help us out.  We didn't have much luck and so the first autobody shop felt bad for us and agreed to get the work done (and order the piece of glass rushed from the warehouse).  We headed to McD's for a quick lunch and then over to the science center for some fun.  They called us within 2 hours and the glass was done.  Although it was a repeat of the triplicate curse, it was easily fixed thanks to some very nice men in Vancouver.