I Should Have Paid More

I'm getting a new roof this week.  I knew it was time when I started finding shingles in my front yard.  Then my neighbors began stopping by to give me recommendations for roofers, since they were finding my shingles in their front yards every time there was the slightest breeze.  (Yes, I'm the poor white trash of the neighborhood.)

Hopefully, other than a couple of days of annoying noise and dust, it will be an uneventful event... unlike the last time I got a new roof.  Back then I got several estimates and chose the least expensive option from the least sleazy looking guy.  No problem.  Roof fixed.

But then a couple of weeks later, I was sitting in the living room reading whilst an infant Vlad was sleeping in his crib upstairs.  Suddenly, there was what sounded like a huge explosion and my heating ducts instantly released black dust into the air.

My first thought was, "Holy Mother of God, the roof fell in on Vlad!"  Choking from the dust as I raced up the stairs, my second thought was, "I should have paid more for the roof!"

I grabbed Vlad and ran outside where debris was floating down from the sky.  I looked up... and the roof was still intact.  "What the hell?"

Here's what had happened:

(skip to about 1:35 to see video footage)

Yes, some asshole blew himself up just 6 houses away on the street next to mine... a suicide because he was mad at his girlfriend.  WTF?!  Seriously?  Blowing yourself up?  Seems to me like there are a lot of ways that would be much easier and not take out half the neighborhood.

It's the first time I've ever seen something that was literally blown to smithereens.  In the end, they also had to demolish the houses on either side of the explosion site.

As for infant Vlad... he slept through the entire thing!

So this time I did NOT go for the cheapest estimate.  I don't want to tempt fate and endanger the neighborhood.