A new workday morning had dawned, and I was on the road headed for the office. Suddenly, a bright yellow light on the dashboard caught my attention. My heart sank. It was the check engine light. The hassle of dropping the car off at the dealership, getting a ride to work, waiting for the obviously bad news, and then returning after work to pay for and pick up the car loomed before me. I wanted to ignore that nasty light and keep driving, hoping it was a mistake.
I saw a stop sign ahead. “I’ll stop, turn off the engine and restart the car,” I thought to myself. “Maybe the light won’t reappear.” Unfortunately, when the engine hummed to life, the light blinked on and glared at me more brightly than before. I gulped, changed direction and took the car to the garage for repairs.
The knowledge that my wallet would likely be considerably lighter by late afternoon clouded my day at the office. However, I was pleasantly surprised. When I picked the car up, the mechanic smiled. “It was only a small split in a secondary air pump hose,” he explained. “We were able to re-cut and re-clamp it in place with no trouble. In fact, it won’t cost you a thing!”
“Thanks a lot!” I replied and heaved a quiet sigh of relief—though I had no clue what a “secondary air pump hose” was.
As I drove myself home, I thought, “I wasted a lot of energy today worrying about a lot of nothing. I’m glad that this episode is finished.”
Doing the difficult sooner rather than later has always been fruitful.
CHAMPS do the hard thing first.
