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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/MrDreamThief on 2024-09-28 21:25:00+00:00.

TIFU by thinking I’m more of a handyman than I really am.

I’ve been seeing this woman for a few months now. At our age, middle years, it’s more about learning about each other, understanding each other’s past and predilections, rather than the bounce and tickle.

It’s been a learning process for both of us, because we both own our own homes. My kids are all gone and her eldest moved out a few weeks ago. She has a daughter at home who needs special care. We’ve both enjoyed the journey so far.

To help out, I do handyman chores that she can’t do. She’s a wisp of a woman, barely 90 pounds soaking wet, but she has a big home with a lot of little chores that keep me busy on Saturday morning and early afternoon. When she comes to my place, we play cards, cook, watch movies and enjoy my gardens.

Today, however, may be the last time she ever has me over to her place. With her son gone, she asked me to remove the air conditioner unit from the window in his room. I told her it wouldn’t be a problem.

The room was on the second floor of her house, and she stayed on the porch drinking coffee while her daughter and I checked out the a/c unit. It was small, about 30 pounds and would be easy to take out of the window. I pulled off the insulation surrounding it and tried to pull it out but there was a screw holding an L-bracket that the son had installed.

Thinking it was just a safety precaution, I got my screw gun, and the screw came out easily. As it fell to the floor the a/c until fell out of the window, trailing its power cord. It fell through the roof of the porch below with a rather unsatisfying amount of noise and screaming by the little girl.

My friend screamed as well and said curses I hadn’t heard since breaking up a fight between a couple drunk teamsters.

Of course, I’ll pay to have the damage repaired and buy her a new air conditioner, but she is pretty mad at me.

tl;dr I was helping out and destroying the roof of a friend