A Perfect Storm

I have told a saxophone story before.  This is a different story, but it involves the same saxophone.Some nights around my house are crazy.  The kids are all around town doing various activities, with different drop offs and pick ups.  Brian can sometimes pick one of the kids up on his way home from work.  This was not one of those nights.Two of my girls were at dance.  They finished 45 minutes apart.  I probably should have made the younger girl wait...but I didn't.  She is still little, and I wanted her to get home so she could eat dinner and get to bed.  Her class was late getting out.  I rushed her home,  got her dinner, and glanced at the clock.  It was almost time to go back for the second pick up.On this particular night, the Texas weather was FREEZING.  It wasn't 30 below or anything, but the wind here was blowing around like a Banshee, so it definitely FELT that cold.I walked into the garage and got into the car.  The garage door was down.  And it was dark.Really dark.I could have turned on the garage light, but Brian had been complaining lately of that light ALWAYS being left on.  I will concede that it often gets left on for hours at a time.  With these thoughts running through my mind, I bypassed the light and sat in the blackness of the garage.I reached up blindly and pushed the garage door button.  I heard the unmistakeable beeping of my trunk lifting...then the crunching against my closed garage door.  I hurriedly pushed the button again and the trunk started back down.I decided (finally!) to turn on the dome light inside the car, and actually opened the garage door.  I started to back up.  CRACK!  What?  What was that?I stopped and pulled the car forward.  I got out and looked around.  Everything looked fine.  I put the car in reverse and backed up again.  CRUNCH...Again?  What was happening?  I stopped, pulled forward AGAIN and looked around AGAIN.(At this point, I'd like to explain my thinking.  Several months ago, one of my kids was putting something in the trunk of our car.  They left it open.  I backed up with the trunk door wide open, and it severely bent the garage door.  It still works, it just has a big daily reminder of my distracted driving.  So as I heard the crunching and cracking, I kept thinking it was the roof of my car colliding with the bent garage door.)I made sure the garage door was all the way up.  It was.  I tried a third time.  Backing up ever so slowly, I had gotten about halfway out when a horrific sound of ripping metal filled my ears.  I threw the car into park and stepped into the frigid air.  I got on my hands and knees and looked under the car.Julie's saxophone was under the car.  Parts were strewn everywhere, and her case was absolutely decimated.  Sigh.  I'm very late for pick up now, so I holler for Landon and the two of us pry the mangled case and instrument from under the car.I confess what happened to Julie as I pick her up.  There were tears...and they didn't belong to me.On closer inspection, the saxophone wasn't too bad.  The case was destroyed, of course.  Her mouthpiece was broken, the bell had a nice big dent, and a key or two may have been bent a bit.  I hope it is fixable.Stupid saxophone.  And stupid me.The entire event was ridiculous, resulting from a perfect storm.  The freezing temperatures, my stubbornness in NOT turning on the garage light (to save a few pennies?!), my hearing loss (how did I miss a saxophone falling out of the trunk?), and most importantly, my distraction led to an unnecessary debacle.I want to be more present.  I really do.  But some days my life is full of drop offs, pick ups, making lunches, making dinner, kisses goodnight, three minute meaningful conversations with my teenagers, taking out the garbage, picking up the house, walking the dog, and endless to-do lists.And on those days, I run over saxophones, apparently.