My family has teased me because I say that things always happen in threes. In general, I mean bad things, e.g., deaths, appliance and other household problems, etc. Well, today I strongly hope that I am right because I’ve had three mishaps with my new car.
For as long as I can remember I wanted a particular brand of car. It has been more a pipe dream than a bucket list item since I’ve really never had a bucket list and never truly believed I would own that car. When my Toyota became unreliable and it was obvious that I needed to trade cars, I started to seriously think of the possibility of my dream car. My family and friends were encouraging and after some careful shopping around and negotiating I drove home that car I had wanted for so long. It is a SUV model, so that seemed practical and not too extravagant.
I was so excited about the back-up camera, which I had never had before. I loved the automatic wipers that came on at the first few sprinkles of rain. It was billed as a “self-driving” car and it almost was. All that technology was a bit overwhelming, but I was learning one feature at a time. Then the threes’ curse began.
- Before the first week had passed while backing up, I thought carefully watching the camera, I backed into another car’s bumper and while doing no damage to it, cracked my own back bumper.
- A week later I was driving when the “check engine” light came on. I went to the dealership, indignant that such a problem has occurred only to find it was because I had not replaced the gas cap tightly.
- A week after that I go to the car wash not thinking of those magical wipers. Well, of course, they came on and by the time I got them turned to the off position, I was missing one wiper blade. Simple to have fixed the next day for $53!
I’m trying to look at these mishaps with humor, but it’s a little hard. I keep wondering if destiny is trying to tell me something, but I’m going to chalk it up to the threes, breathe a sigh of relief that they are over and enjoy my new ride.
Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly 