Ah those lovely inspections..

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I was due to have my 1980 Pontiac Grand Prix inspected again. I was not worried and so I bravely sallied forth to meet the inspector.

I had to wait behind two other cars for my turn but that was no problem. I sat at the picnic table and was listening to my walkman to keep myself occupied.

When my turn came he first inspected the outside of the car and wanted to look into the trunk to check for a spare tire. No problem there so I opened the trunk. Well, sheesh big problem!! Someone had taken my spare tire!! I have no idea when it had happened but they must have been able to get into my trunk to do so. I was working graveyard at the time and was zoned during the day so it could have happened anytime.

So I was told he could not finish the inspection unless I had a spare tire in there. So okay...Off I went to a place I knew of(they have since closed, nasty divorce dispute) that sold used tires cheaply. I figured this would do fine for the inspection.

Everything went great and in no time I had my spare and was ready to go back to the inspection office. I decided to stop at the grocery store across the street and get a soda.

I came back out of the store, went across the parking lot to my car, got in and fired her up. I sat listening to how smooth and powerful she sounded.

I always use my turn signals in parking lots. Maybe because parking lot accidents seem to be so bad here. I like people to just know where I am going. So I started to press the signal for a left turn and you would never guess..the damn signal handle broke!!

This day had gone from bad to worse. I was a bit panicked but I calmed down and thought to myself, 'I can handle this.'

I put the handle down on the seat and proceeded to look at the steering column in the area where the handle used to be. I could see that there was a plastic circle like a screw would fit into attached to the steering column. I also noticed that the end of the handle that attached to the steering column also had a circle.

I figured that it did not break but that the screw had come loose and fallen out. So I had to stop and think for a moment of how to fix this just well enough so that it could pass inspection. Then it hit me..

I went back into the store to make one final purchase that day - Paper Clips. I took one paper clip and straightened it out. Then I took the handle and put it back next to the steering column so it was perfectly aligned.

I bent the paper clip around the two cirlces after putting it through the middle. I tried to make sure it was good and tight on there. When I was done I sat in the parking lot another minute testing the turn signal. It worked like a charm with it not being evident at all that there was anything amiss.

Brimming with confidence and beaming with pride I went back to have her inspected. This time it went off without a hitch although I was a bit nervous that my quick fix job would be detected. It wasn't. She got her new inspection sticker.

I decided that since it was working so well I would leave it on there as it was and see how long it would last. Well I am here to tell you it stayed that way until I sold the car over a year later(which I hated to do). As to if that one little paper clip is still there? Well I would have to find the guy I sold her to.