I recounted the following story to my beach crew. A friend exclaimed,

“What a good blog post this is!”

I hung my head. I could barely tell the story due to a bad case of woe-is-me and feeling like an idiot. My friend asked,

“Too soon?”

Too something. But here ya go.

My Toyota Highlander and I have been together for 8.5 years. She’s a trustworthy one and despite my initial regret about not getting a minivan, I’m at peace with my mom SUV.

Within our first year together, I tested her. There was a FedEx truck in our driveway, I backed into it. There was a basketball pole in our driveway, I backed into that. There was our garage, it jumped out at me and broke my sideview mirror.

Captain removed the basketball pole. He did not remove the garage. All he could do was sigh and shake his head. I felt bad, but I didn’t lose any sleep. Not my fault our driveway is so dangerous.

At some point during the first year of owning the Highlander, the front right running light was shattered. I know you think it was my fault, but I swear it had nothing to do with me. Captain and I think it must’ve been a rock that flew up from the road.

The Toyota dealership quoted us $900 to get it fixed. Captain said,

“No way. I can fix it easily, I just need to find the part.”

For the next 8 years, every time I brought the Highlander in for a routine service, they quoted me $900 to fix the running light. I stopped even mentioning it to Captain.

Captain couldn’t find the part and neither one of us wanted to pay $900 for it. A running light is not required to pass the yearly inspection.

This past spring I brought the Highlander in for routine service. I left with a quote for $300 to fix the running light. Captain asked,

“Don’t they usually quote us $900?”

“Yeah.”

“For $300 we should get it fixed.”

As I pulled into our garage, CAREFULLY, a strong burning smell consumed me. That smell was NOT there before the service.

Captain inspected the car. The lids were left loose after changing the transfer case fluid or something like that. I have no idea what I’m talking about.

Either way, Captain was MAD and marched himself into the dealership. They gave us a $300 credit on our account. The stars aligned and were telling me that now was the time to get my running light fixed.

It took a long time. The guy called me up for my car. It looked perfect with a brand-new light. He said,

“We misquoted you. This repair really costs $900.”

Right. I stare at him. He adds,

“We’ll stand by our $300 quote and since you have a $300 credit on your account you’re all set!”

I rolled out of there on cloud nine. Eight years of a broken running light and now it’s sparkling new for free. After all the pain I’d put Captain through with the nicks and the dings, this was a MAJOR WIN.

The next day, less than 24 hours later, I headed to the YMCA. As I was backing in and out of a parking spot, there was a rock in my blind spot, the front right corner: CRUNCH. I smashed the just-fixed running light into the rock.

I slunk out of my car. A guy across the way juggling two toddlers offered,

“That didn’t sound good.”

Of all the things I’ve done to the Highlander, this is the only one that made me cry.

Eight years without that running light. Twenty-two hours of it fixed. I was never meant to have two running lights.