I have a dear friend coming in a few days for a visit. Stocking up on white wine, diet Coke, and museum tickets.

Don't Buy the Hype

My boyfriend pointed out the other day that one of the brake lights on my car had gone out.

"Great!" I said. "That means I get to learn how to fix it." 

Now, I should have learned this long ago. I was raised by a father who spent much of his time in the garage, tinkering with whichever hand-me-down car we'd most recently inherited. But I was sort of a princessy child, and I didn't spend as much time learning from him as I should have. I know enough about cars to know that most of the time I should leave the tinkering to the professionals. 

While I may not have learned much about mechanics, I did learn from my father that one ought to be able to do most things for oneself. I also learned this from growing up in New England. It's a land full of brazen independents, where reliance on others is seen as weakness. The only things it's really acceptable to call in outside help for are major home renovations and complex surgery. 

So, with this tail light, I saw an opportunity to learn to do something new. I could have taken it to the mechanic and spent $25 to get the bulb replaced, or I could do it my damn self. I broke out the owner's manual to see what it had to say. 

"Light bulbs: head and tail light assemblies are becoming increasingly complex, and it is strongly recommended that you take you vehicle to a registered dealer for service. Your dealer will have the appropriate parts and expertise." 

That's paraphrasing, but the point was clear: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. I had a moment of doubt. If the manual said this was a huge mistake, maybe I was being foolish. One of my worst fears is earning a place in the Darwin Awards, and self-electrocution by brake light seemed a decent bid. But still, the bigger part of me said, "Really? How hard could this possibly be?" 

And you know what? It was the simplest thing I've done in months. I watched a two-minute video on YouTube filmed by some guy with a wicked Boston accent, then went down to the driveway, opened the panel in the trunk, popped out the assembly, changed the lightbulb, and snapped the assembly back in. The most difficult part was getting the old bulb to turn counter-clockwise a quarter of an inch so I could remove it. My car is a Volkswagen old enough to be starting high school, and every single part of it is at least eight times more costly and complicated to fix than on basically anything except a vintage Maybach. This project was five minutes and five dollars, and since the bulbs come in pairs I have an extra for the next time one goes out. 

Screw you, owner's manual. I will absolutely try this at home. 

Things I Need in My Life

Really just the one, but I need it RIGHT NOW: