The tenth time's the charm

Throughout history, people have made errors in judgement. Some mistakes, like attempting to fight a land war in Asia, are not caught until it's too late to do much to halt the flow of history. Other mistakes, like the Edsel, can be discovered before too many people have been hurt.

And then there are mistakes that seem fairly innocent, and, often, aren't caught as mistakes until long after the fact. Sometimes these errors slide through life without notice, although YouTube is working hard to fix that. Other times, forces will gather to let people know about their mistake, and make an attempt to fix them. Sometimes the message is gathered when key friends and advisers decide to leave their current employment. Sometimes, a hint comes from seeing people start a revolution. And sometimes, the message is delivered by way of motor vehicle crashing into the side of your house, causing large amounts of damage.

And even after all that, some people don't get the hint. In fact, for Manfred Sedlazek of Karlshoefen, Germany, it took ten different cars over time before he finally realized that maybe his house isn't in the best location. The Sedlazek house is built near a curve in a busy road, and the final straw may have finally come when a 40-ton truck barrelled through the living room. Luckily, the house was empty at the time, but that clear of a message is hard to miss.

We'd imagine that the previous 9 messages were probably met with comments such as, "Oh look, someone drove through the house again," "Hey, they're taking that turn a little too fast," and "You kids get your Audi off of my lawn!" And while it may have taken ten accidents before Sedlazek realized anything, he's finally starting to come to the conclusion that, perhaps, he built his own crypt. He's even acknowledging that he should probably leave the house, for his own safety.

We admire Sedlazek's persistence in not moving, but we have to wonder why a location that had been struck previously by any vehicles, let alone 9, still seemed like a viable place to live. Were his other options in direct flight paths? Perhaps he owns a plot of land on the side of a volcano, but figures that an eruption may just be a little too risky for him. Maybe he owns a houseboat, but can't find a pier to dock it at. Or maybe he was offered a home in Washington, D.C., and he turned it down because the people there "just don't learn very quickly".