The Pressure Is Off

Every time we have purchased a new car, it seems that we're ultra careful about getting a ding in the door or a crease in the bumper. At first we even go so far as to park away from the crowd although I've never stooped so low as to park on the line between two parking spaces insuring that no one parks too close to me. As time goes on, you get brave enough to park in the mainstream parking areas but you're still pretty careful.

Then comes that first scratch, the first bump. I can remember a couple of "firsts" for our cars. They were traumatic, especially if I was at fault. Less traumatic if Carolyn was responsible. And just downright frustrating if some unknown person was at fault.

Today, as you can see from the above picture, my Toyota Highlander got it's first bump. My daughter-in-law Tiffany was hurrying to take her two oldest boys to swimming lessons leaving me to put together an Ikea set of drawers. Shortly after she left, she came back in sobbing and crying that she had run into my car. It sounded as if she had wrecked my car when, in fact, all she had done was bent the plastic bumper enough to make it obvious something had hit it. It was serious in that the same bump on a side door would have been an expensive thing to repair. But I don't think this will even look odd once it's cleaned up.