{"id":737,"date":"2025-12-29T18:29:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T18:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737"},"modified":"2025-12-29T18:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T18:29:30","slug":"unexpected-setbacks-in-life-500-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected Setbacks in Life: The $500 Stick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Unexpected setbacks in life<\/strong> have a way of showing up when you least expect them, even when you do everything right. This happened to me just last week, and it came from something so small it was almost laughable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I drive a Kia Soul. \u201cDrive\u201d might be a stretch, since I only use it once or twice a week, usually just to run to the food store a short distance down the road. I baby that car because our family depends on it, especially with the harsh winters we deal with here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With massive icicles hanging from the house and a high-wind alert coming in, I went outside and moved the car away from anything that could fall. The winds came and went, and everything seemed fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few days later, I walked out and found the windshield spider-webbed. Something had hit it hard enough to crack the glass. With fresh snow on the ground, I could not see what caused it. I made the calls, scheduled the replacement, and paid <strong>$500 out of pocket<\/strong>. Insurance was not worth it since the cost matched my deductible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being out of work right now, that $500 hurt. A lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Unexpected Setbacks in Life Are Often Small but Costly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the snow finally melted, I found the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One small stick, sitting right where the car had been parked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That tiny stick became a perfect example of how <strong>unexpected setbacks in life<\/strong> work. You can plan ahead, be careful, and still take a hit from something you never saw coming. Big problems do not always come from big mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What matters is not what happened.<br>It is how you deal with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The windshield was replaced the day before Christmas Eve. The car is back on the road. And that stick? I am going to mount it on a plaque as a reminder that small things can cause big issues, but they are not the end of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes you fix the glass, take a breath, and keep moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unexpected setbacks in life have a way of showing up when you least expect them, even when you do everything right. This happened to me just last week, and it came from something so small it was almost laughable. I drive a Kia Soul. \u201cDrive\u201d might be a stretch, since I only use it once&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Unexpected Setbacks in Life: The $500 Stick<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unexpected Setbacks in Life: The $500 Stick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unexpected setbacks in life can come from the smallest things. A $500 windshield repair became a reminder that resilience matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unexpected Setbacks in Life: The $500 Stick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unexpected setbacks in life can come from the smallest things. A $500 windshield repair became a reminder that resilience matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"30 Elm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TectumaCommunity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-29T18:29:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-29T18:29:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_1357.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2016\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kenny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tectuma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tectuma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kenny\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kenny\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c4f0b06aea2ca35257c4adae4121bcad\"},\"headline\":\"Unexpected Setbacks in Life: The $500 Stick\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-29T18:29:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-29T18:29:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_1357.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737\",\"name\":\"Unexpected Setbacks in Life: The $500 Stick\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/?p=737#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/tectuma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_1357.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-29T18:29:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-29T18:29:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"Unexpected setbacks in life can come from the smallest things. 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