Valuable Lessons Learned

1. It is important to be careful when removing the oil cap on your car, as you may drop it into the engine.
2. Wadded-up paper towels are not a safe or suitable replacement for a missing oil cap.
3. Wal-Mart does not carry replacement oil caps.
4. It is ill-advised to go within a mile of Wal-Mart on Tax-Free Weekend in 90+ degree weather.
5. Artichoke hearts are never where you expect to find them in a grocery store.
6. A rolled-up sock serves reasonably well as an oil cap in a pinch.
7. The Toyota dealership Service Department on Hwy. 96 closes at 5 pm on Saturdays.
8. There is a well-stocked AutoZone located on Columbia Avenue in Franklin.
9. A replacement oil cap can run around $5.

I have come to deeply appreciate AutoZone. They always end up giving good advice, and helping me make cheap repairs on my own. I literally drive away feeling a palpable sense of Joy: I always learn a new skill or useful piece of information (i.e., one can actually replace their own headlight lamps!), I'm relieved that a pressing repair/replacement has been made, and I feel strong and capable for having managed a car issue on my girly own.

Cars can make me more anxious than almost anything else (except my tendency towards hypochondria); I have actually had a panic attack and passed out at one point when my car was in the shop after a long, incomprehensible period of overheating (and ended up being a massively expensive repair). So to go and take the steps to successfully fix something on my car myself always is a combination of relief and pride.