Saturday, April 11, 2009

Mirror mirror

I finally got my front ball joints replaced... expensive but it needed to happen. And the mechanics also fixed my window-- something I'd been meaning to do but never got around to-- and also my driver's side lock. I had to go back and re-do some of their work on the lock since they didn't put it back in properly, but it was nice of them to start it for me.

But the mechanics did something else for me that was amazing and tremendously useful: they adjusted my mirrors properly!

For a year now, I've been driving around with my passenger side mirror adjusted totally wrong! No wonder I couldn't see where I was going, having nail-biting lane-changes, was scraping the curb all the time when parking, and crunching people's vehicles when maneuvering around tight spots.

The secret is: I have to be able to actually SEE the passenger side panel of the big box in the mirror. Even if it takes up some of the viewable area of the mirror, too bad, I have to be able to see it.

Why? Because then I can actually see how close I am to things. I can also almost see behind me too, or at least some distance behind me. And, I can see the wheels, so when I park I can tell exactly how close I am to the curb! Finally, parking is now a joy not a nightmare: I can see exactly how much space I have, and who and what (if anything) is behind me.

Simple things that make life easy: having my mirrors adjusted properly.