Relative Something

Of all the possible times for this problem to occur, the week before Christmas while we are hosting a family of guests from out-of-town, seems a bit like unnecessary roughness to me. We awoke on the second day of the visit by our friends from Guatemala to discover that one of our windows had spontaneously fractured. Unfortunately, it is the window above the Christmas tree, one of two that adorn each side of the fireplace up at the second level facing the back hill.

It is the inside panel of the double pane window. It created a beautiful pattern that has a certain similarity to a pair of wings, but otherwise it’s a total nuisance, sprinkling glass dust, flakes, and shards of lethal sharpness on everything below.

I called the service number for Andersen Windows and was told I needed to look in the corner of the window to find their manufacturing information etched into the glass. Up the ladder I went, camera in hand. Back and forth our communication commenced as I followed their instructions, sending them pictures of what I found. No surprise to me, they said it is out of warranty.

The most exciting part was, trying to pull the trim off without bringing the whole pane crashing down. As I timidly hammered a chisel to get under the wood, pieces of glass continued to fall. Very unnerving. Luckily, our friend, Marco, suggested I put some tape on the window. I would have thought of that at the moment all the pieces let loose and came crashing down.

Instead of thinking of the tape, my mind was busy hanging a tarp under the window to protect the Christmas tree from falling glass.

At least I now have something special to put on my Christmas wish list: we need a new window!

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