What is it up in the air for?

You might recall from an earlier entry that the roof of my truck had developed a leak. Up until about a week ago I didn't know why. Now I do.

There's a problem, feathers iron

Let's suppose for a minute that you were the owner of a fairly new pickup truck. Just for the sake of argument let's say that it's a 2002 Chevy Silverado 1500 LT Extended Cab that you've had for, oh, 8 months. Leather interior, CD player, etc.

Now let's say that it suddenly develops a leak. You're just driving one day and water begins to drip from the ceiling. What would you do? If you're like me you'd get out and take a look at the roof. And then you'd discover a hole. A nice round one. Not too big around. A little rust. And very obviously the source of the leak.

So then you'd take it to the body shop to find out what it was going to cost, right? So what do you think would be the first question the estimator at the body shop asked you after looking at the hole? How about this: "Where do you live???"

Bargain buildings, weights and pullies

Mike (he of the interest in where I live) poked and prodded at the hole for a while and took some pictures with a pretty cool digital camera. He measured the angle and scanned the rest of the truck for additional damage. Then he dropped a bombshell on me: "Looks like a bullet. .45 ACP from the size of it."

Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air

So how does one get a .45 ACP dent in their roof without knowing it? Good question. Mike assured me that nobody had tried to pop a cap in my truck. It didn't really make me feel that much better as he also assured me that if they had it would have gone right through.

Most likely it was a shot fired in the air. It would have lost a great deal of velocity to friction by the time it came crashing back down to earth. (Well, crashing down onto my roof.) It still managed to have enough force to put a hole in my roof. And probably enough to kill anyone unlucky enough to have it fall on their head.

Buy the sky and sell the sky

So what the hell happened here? Not sure. I live in a pretty good neighborhood. My next door neighbor is a cop. We had some car breakins a couple of years ago (4 years? 5?) but nothing since then. Very peaceful neighborhood. Lots of grade school and high school children. Good kids.

I do remember one night about a month or so ago, sitting in the living room. Heard something that sounded like a gunshot. No police came, no ambulance, so I had to conclude that my other neighbor (not the cop) hadn't snapped and finally offed his wife. Though I could have sworn I heard a wood chipper running this past weekend. Odd...

And tell the sky and tell the sky

There's a problem, feathers iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pullies
Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air
Buy the sky and sell the sky and tell the sky and tell the sky
Don't Fall On Me
-- REM, "Fall on Me"

Posted by John at April 23, 2003 6:23 PM