bgt285

Dear Mr. Gates:

Date: Wed, 9 July 2008 11:37 WesternIndonesiaTime

Subject: Wind That Breaks Window Glass By AC Unit


A view from inside the bedroom of my niece, with the windows behind green curtain (left). From outside the window, the steel that holds Air Conditining unit was close to the left window leave (right).

From downstair, the windows on the right of this photo looked like safely closed, though later on it appeared that it was actually not closed tight enough, causing the left window to get smashed by the strong wind.

Excavation work by government electric company causing traffic jam in front of a glass shop.

Excavation work by government electric company causing traffic jam, viewed from the opposite direction.

A glass shop in the not so crowded road finally found. It appeared to have an electronic-service shop on its left with the name "Noval", a name that sounds like the man's name who was announced as geting married with Rahma Sarita in 2001.

Behind the houe is a huge open space of paddy field. So whenever there is a strong wind from behind, no much barricade to hold the wind flow. On the right is a pair of the windows that was broken by the wind.

It was when I stepped nearby the round table on the left of this photo, that I heard a smashing sound upstairs. Which appeared to be the strong wind swung the window causing the glass to break after hitting the steel that hold air-conditioning outdoor unit.

Actually the window was equipped with a hook at the bottom to hold it from hitting the steel of the AC. But the hook only work when the window was opened widely, while that day it was closed, not so tight, with a small gap left.

Thursday 5 June 2008, when I was alone in the house, in the afternoon at around a quarter to five heavy rains fell down from the sky. It was along with strong wind, stronger than usual. I could see the rain water that smashed the windows of my sister’s bedroom was almost horizontal, some of them turned like fog, because of the strong wind.

As usual when heavy rain came I immediately checked the windows upstairs, otherwise the rainwater would soak the inside part of the bedrooms. That day I checked it from downstairs, from the back part of the house near the sink at the wall of the back yard. I could see the windows in my sister’s room that faced to the back of the house had been closed. Also the windows in my niece bedroom, that faced to the right part of the house.

I went back to the inside part of the house, strode through the kitchen, through the dining room, and when I just walked five steps in the living room, all of a sudden there was the sound of something smashing upstairs, followed by a prank. I thought it was the aluminum rack that used to dry clothes, or maybe the small parabolic antenna, flown by the strong wind. But such guess might not sufficient, so I went upstairs, opened the door of my niece bedroom, and found an interesting thing. The left window that I just saw minutes earlier as closed, seemed to be opened. I could see the frame looked bigger on the left, behind the green curtain of the windows.

When I dragged the curtain with my hand, it appeared that the glass on the left window was broken. The glass window had hit the steel that hold the split-system air-conditioning outdoor unit.

Then I realized the problem. The left window, although looked like closed when I viewed it from downstairs, must had been not closed tightly. Some one or two centimeters gap was left between the window leave and the frame, causing the strong wind to enable to open it, and it hit the air-conditioning steel holder.

Air condition’s initial is AC, that reminded me with Aceh where the worst Tsunami ever had taken place in 2004 causing more than two hundred thousand people died. And it inevitably also reminded me with Rahma Sarita, who at that Tsunami moment worked in Metro-TV owned by an Aceh man. But at first I thought it was just a coincident, no connection at all.

I went downstairs to clean the floor in the living room using a mop, because the strong wind had caused some water to get in through the ventilation.

Around a quarter to six the rain began to abate, I entered my bedroom to start watching TV. It was then I pulled off my cell-phone from my pocket and found an SMS message had came in at 17.34 from my old friend Dyana. The message was about asking me to come to a 40 days commemoration of the death of my friend Kiki’s mother.

Kiki is an Aceh origin, her parent came from Aceh. As if it was concomitant with my thinking about air-condition, with the initial AC that sounds like Aceh that caused the broken glass window along with the wind a few minutes earlier.

Also mentioned in the SMS that the commemoration would take place at Pondok Hijau Street, which means "Green Cottage", and it was concomitant with the green curtain in front of that broken glass window.

The next day I decided to fix the window myself, because I felt unsafe to keep that broken glass window while I was alone at most of the nights. First of all I should buy a window glass, and actually I often went through a glass shop nearby a former cinema Dynasty in front of Cinere market. But around those days, the street there was so crowded because of an excavation work done by the government electric company to plant some big cables.

So I decided to search for other glass shops in the opposite direction where the road was not so crowded. Driving a Chevrolet Blazer, I turned to a building material shop around there, and the woman behind the counter told me that there were two glass shops nearby the branch of Veteran University UPN. I went there and found only one, so I kept moving to search for other, but failed.

I went back to that one glass shop, parked the car, and when I stepped to enter the shop I was surprised to see that on the left of that glass shop there was a shop named "Noval Electric". Noval is the name of a policeman who was announced as marrying Rahma Sarita in 2001 after I “proposed” her with a painting two months earlier.

So, the smashing of the window on that 5 June 2008 by the wind, that caused the glass window to break after it hit the steel that hold the air-conditioning unit, became like a reminder for me that if I did the same mistake again like what happened to Rahma Sarita in 2001, there could be another huge disaster again in this world.


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Thank's,

A.M. Firmansyah

amfirslog@yahoo.com

Tel. +62812 183 1538