A million little pieces

Three days later, with the skies FINALLY cleared, I was at last able to take a picture of what happened to me. Hard to believe a chunk of ice did that, but there you have it.

The rest of the week made for some major car pampering - on Friday, I took it in to my regular mechanic to have him fix a corner headlight lens that had cracked due to another mishap in the company parking lot - they have two random hydrants in the middle of one of the parking rows, which are surrounded by wooden posts to prevent you from running into them. I cut my steering wheel too hard one night and swiped one of the posts while I was backing out of the spot next to one. It gave me a nice little scrape on the front passenger side fender, and cracked the glass, causing me to fail inspection in December. They give you 60 days to fix it (and a free retest!) but I'd been putting it off due to the holidays and my state of busyness at work - it's hard to do without my car with the schedules Mrs. Dave and I keep. But with the car in an undrivable state, it was the perfect opportunity.

Of course, Mike (yes, Mike the Mechanic) looked at me like I had three heads when I first mentioned the headlight, and THEN mentioned the destroyed back windshield - kind of the reverse order of seriousness - but when I explained that I already had an appointment to have it replaced, he figured it out. At first I was expecting to pay $200+ for the lens (I'd had one replaced on my old Celica, one of those that flips up and flips down, and it cost a fortune) but it turns out the part was only $85 AND came with a new bulb. Bitchin'.

The windshield appointment was at 8am on Saturday (why I chose that time, you'll have to ask someone else, because I have no fucking clue) so at 7:30 I clambered in the car and high-tailed it down to Billerica, 20 miles away, with a steady breeze on the back of my neck. Fortunately I managed to escape precipitation (and law enforcement) the whole way down, and two hours later I had me some nice new glass in the back of the car. Finished my latest book in the process - David Halberstam's The Education of a Coach (about Bill Belichick, who unfortunately was at home watching the game tonight) - and then brought the car back in for its inspection, which it passed with flying colors.

Then today, it was time for an oil change. Love how places are open on Sundays. In and out in ten minutes. So once again, the car is in tip-top running shape, and now I hope to never have to see this view again.