On the last Monday of January, I had an important client meeting up in North County. I had missed breakfast and the meeting went on till late into lunch time. I was famished, so I decided to go through the local McDonald's and get a quick meal. As I was pulling through the drive-thru lane, a GMC Sierra decided to back into my Prius. I could see the truck backing, it was too late to stop, so I accelerated and honked. It hit my rear bumper and it came loose. The driver was shocked, slightly irritated, but mostly sad. He started out with, "Lady, you were driving too fast....", and I said, "I wish I was, then I would have cleared the truck. It was my right of way though..." This could have been an altercation, but I was not up for a fight, I was not upset or anxious or feeling any trepidation. I was in fact quite cool and easy. So we exchanged insurance info and license info. He helped me somehow secure the rear bumper so that I could drive the 40 miles back home. I gave him a hug before I left. I avoided the freeway speeds and drove the scenic way home along Route 1, which was a treat.
I came home, secured the bumper with tape. Then started the phone calls with State Farm (my insurance), getting couple estimates, then picking a body shop, waiting for the part to arrive, renting a car, dropping off my Prius, driving the rental for few days, and then finally getting the Prius back today. During this process, in stark contrast to the coolness I had experienced during the accident, I felt quite flustered and slightly irritated. It was interesting to watch my mind being inflexible.
My garage door was connected to my Prius rear-view mirror (there is a garage opener button) and I have lost or misplaced the only clicker I had. So I needed to go buy a new garage door opener, which cost me some money and something I would not have usually bought. Yes, I could have parked the rental on the street, but that would have opened the rental to a chance of damage that I didn't want to subscribe to when having a perfectly good garage. After researching on Amazon, I bought the clicker from Home Depot at a higher cost. Then programmed it to the garage door and was surprised how easy that was. Made me wonder about what weak our protection systems are for our homes!
Next, Hertz gave me a Kia Soul. I did not like the car at all. Mileage was around 17 miles/gallon, which is dismal compared to my Prius. I don't care much for the looks, so that didn't bother me much. But honestly, it is quite an ugly looking car, cube is not something we associate well with aerodynamics (which might explain its low mileage). Little things bothered me, such as lack of key less entry, especially when I needed to carry four bags around. Then figuring out the radio and blue tooth connection was not very intuitive (software interface of my 2012 Prius' is worse, but it is okay because I do not have to program it often). There was no GPS or a map program, shows how dependent I have become on that feature. But most importantly, when they did the inspection before giving me the car, the kid at Hertz may or may not have noted the ding on the windshield. They never sent me the report! So the next day I drove to the rental place again and asked them to do a re-inspection. Meantime I was worried that I might get charged for a windshield. So much hassle.
Well, I returned the car today, and am back in my Prius. Order has been restored in my world!!
What I found so interesting was that during the three days I had this rental, I felt displaced. It was a very odd feeling. There was a time when, mostly in resonance with my ex-husband's excitement, I used to get excited about the opportunity to drive a new car. Why not check out this new manufacturer and the cool new buttons and conveniences of the rental. Read up on the stats, discuss the differences, etc. But this time, I was feeling more aversion than excitement. I looked at driving that car as a chore and even postponed some errands because I did not want to drive that car. It was an okay car, but my mind did not want to get into it. I watched that sense of aversion, it was light but palpable, and very interesting. The best analogy I can give is that repulsion you feel when bringing two similar poles of two weak magnets together, say two fridge magnets. When we bring the N-N or S-S together, there is a slight repulsion that is felt in the fingers. We can still force the contact to happen as our arm strength is more than the repulsive force of the pithy magnets, but we can feel that repulsion. My mind's state was kind of like that, repulsed by the notion of having to drive another car but mine. I still did it, and all the while my rational/ logical side knew that this was temporary, but I still felt that repulsion.
I find this very interesting, don't you? Yes, we can chalk this sensation as "Oh! I am getting older. I don't like things changing." But is it that? I change so many things every day, why will a car be any different? I am not very attached to my Prius, it is just a workhorse for me. Given the money I would get myself a Subaru Impreza as my dream car. As I observed this inflexibility of my mind, it sure made me very curious as to what was going on, deep inside, what is this tendency of the mind and why it moves the way it moves. It is not logic, it is not pure emotions either, or at least it did not seem so. What ever it is, it is very interesting!
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| Just another minor car accident |
I came home, secured the bumper with tape. Then started the phone calls with State Farm (my insurance), getting couple estimates, then picking a body shop, waiting for the part to arrive, renting a car, dropping off my Prius, driving the rental for few days, and then finally getting the Prius back today. During this process, in stark contrast to the coolness I had experienced during the accident, I felt quite flustered and slightly irritated. It was interesting to watch my mind being inflexible.
My garage door was connected to my Prius rear-view mirror (there is a garage opener button) and I have lost or misplaced the only clicker I had. So I needed to go buy a new garage door opener, which cost me some money and something I would not have usually bought. Yes, I could have parked the rental on the street, but that would have opened the rental to a chance of damage that I didn't want to subscribe to when having a perfectly good garage. After researching on Amazon, I bought the clicker from Home Depot at a higher cost. Then programmed it to the garage door and was surprised how easy that was. Made me wonder about what weak our protection systems are for our homes!
Next, Hertz gave me a Kia Soul. I did not like the car at all. Mileage was around 17 miles/gallon, which is dismal compared to my Prius. I don't care much for the looks, so that didn't bother me much. But honestly, it is quite an ugly looking car, cube is not something we associate well with aerodynamics (which might explain its low mileage). Little things bothered me, such as lack of key less entry, especially when I needed to carry four bags around. Then figuring out the radio and blue tooth connection was not very intuitive (software interface of my 2012 Prius' is worse, but it is okay because I do not have to program it often). There was no GPS or a map program, shows how dependent I have become on that feature. But most importantly, when they did the inspection before giving me the car, the kid at Hertz may or may not have noted the ding on the windshield. They never sent me the report! So the next day I drove to the rental place again and asked them to do a re-inspection. Meantime I was worried that I might get charged for a windshield. So much hassle.
Well, I returned the car today, and am back in my Prius. Order has been restored in my world!!
What I found so interesting was that during the three days I had this rental, I felt displaced. It was a very odd feeling. There was a time when, mostly in resonance with my ex-husband's excitement, I used to get excited about the opportunity to drive a new car. Why not check out this new manufacturer and the cool new buttons and conveniences of the rental. Read up on the stats, discuss the differences, etc. But this time, I was feeling more aversion than excitement. I looked at driving that car as a chore and even postponed some errands because I did not want to drive that car. It was an okay car, but my mind did not want to get into it. I watched that sense of aversion, it was light but palpable, and very interesting. The best analogy I can give is that repulsion you feel when bringing two similar poles of two weak magnets together, say two fridge magnets. When we bring the N-N or S-S together, there is a slight repulsion that is felt in the fingers. We can still force the contact to happen as our arm strength is more than the repulsive force of the pithy magnets, but we can feel that repulsion. My mind's state was kind of like that, repulsed by the notion of having to drive another car but mine. I still did it, and all the while my rational/ logical side knew that this was temporary, but I still felt that repulsion.
I find this very interesting, don't you? Yes, we can chalk this sensation as "Oh! I am getting older. I don't like things changing." But is it that? I change so many things every day, why will a car be any different? I am not very attached to my Prius, it is just a workhorse for me. Given the money I would get myself a Subaru Impreza as my dream car. As I observed this inflexibility of my mind, it sure made me very curious as to what was going on, deep inside, what is this tendency of the mind and why it moves the way it moves. It is not logic, it is not pure emotions either, or at least it did not seem so. What ever it is, it is very interesting!
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