So, here's something I did yesterday on my day off. I replaced my broken driver's side mirror. First, let me share the awesome story of how it broke in the first place. Well, I say awesome, but I really just said that so I could grab your attention.

Back in October 2007 (October 14, 2007, at 2pm to be exact), I was driving through the church parking lot, dropping my friend Tyler off at his car. Jared, a high school student, came running up to my car and pretended (as I was moving roughly 1.89 miles an hour at this point) that I was hitting him. He rolled on the hood of my Trailblazer SUV and then slowly rolled off the side. I was laughing. Then, as he rolled off, his arm hooked my mirror and broke it straight off.

Calmly, I lowered the my window and all I said was, "You're paying for that." I said it in a tone that was mostly sarcastic, because, it was a pretty funny moment of how it broke, yet, at the same time, I had no idea how much it was going to cost to repair.

So, right then and there, I pulled out a roll of duct tape and taped the mirror on. And it stayed that way for a long time. A really long time.


If you recall, someone offered to find me a mirror at a junkyard. And finally, he got found me one, and I picked it up last August for like $75. Not a bad deal. By the way, it should still be considered awesome that I can link back to previous days of my life. It's like a text-based soap opera.

Anyway. So, that mirror sat in the back of my Trailblazer since August. I left the old mirror duct-taped on (it still worked and moved... but kind of sagged as the tape decayed from the weather). I was secretly hoping that a friend or someone in the church who does car body work would see it, and say "Joe, let me fix that for you". I was content to have it stay broken until I got that offer.

I never got that offer. A couple of weeks ago, my dad had to replace a mirror on one of his SUV's that he got at a car auction. He did it himself and told me it was pretty easy, so we decided to try it on my Trailblazer. I knew all along that I could do it myself, but the lazy part of me (it takes over a lot on a lot of things) just never cared enough to do anything about it. Look, I'm just being honest. Don't judge me.

So, yesterday, around noon, I headed down (over?) to good ol' Piedmont, South Carolina, where my parents live. I backed my car underneath my dad's old truck shed so we could work on the mirror without getting rained on. After eating some lunch, we went to work.


Taking the door apart was easy, and we really didn't have to do that much work. All in all, it took about 20 minutes. I had to put my arm all the way down inside the door and disconnect the old mirror power connection and hook up the new one without being able to see the port. I thought that was pretty awesome--not only do I have photographic memory, but a pretty good "mind's eye" as well, whatever that means.


The new mirror looks great, although it's not exactly the same as the old one. Most people don't notice.

Look, my dad does not pride himself on his photo skills. I think I left it in manual focus when I handed him the camera. It was mostly my fault, but it blurs out my imperfections, so I suppose it's all good.


So, I guess I should have done this a lot sooner. That drive up to the men's retreat back in January wouldn't have been such a pain to see behind me if my mirror had not been hanging sideways the whole time. I just wish a friend had offered to do it sooner, so the lazy part of me wouldn't have remained in control the whole time. I guess I'm kind of like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Lazy-boy.

That joke was lame. I realize this.

Later,

Joe