Recently I have been hearing the phrase ‘don’t fix what’s not broken’ a lot. It calls to mind an incident that happened a few years ago.
I love to drive but I have terrible eyesight, especially night vision, plus I think I am a very good driver. I am sure I have only a few hundred thousand of the one hundred and twenty million rod cells we are supposed to have. Hence, I hate to drive in unfamiliar territory in the night which includes driving from the country and in the rain.
Anyway, there were times I would go with relatives to the country on long weekends reaching back to the city very late at nights.
At the time I drove a Cuore which carried headlamps that were not as bright as others but I could see just fine.
An in-law at the time decided to improve my vision by buying some 100w bulbs which it did initially. By the time we arrived in Spanish Town both headlamps were gone and I still had to drive into Kingston. Of course, I was made aware of this when a policeman stopped me.
He didn’t give me a ticket, thankfully, but I got a strong warning to park in Spanish Town and to be guided by the driver in front.
Over the next few months I continued to buy replacement bulbs because they kept blowing and burning up the wires.
Another long week-end rolled around and I was off to the country again, only returning late the Sunday evening, again driving in the night with greatly reduced vision.
Then it started to rain, and my vision became even more compromised by it, or so I thought, and I had to drive annoyingly slower than usual.
I knew I would make better timing if I was not the lead but the other members of the party felt they knew best and insisted that I took the lead which turned out to be a very slow procession which someone kept yelling at every opportunity for me to drive up.
Of course I was not going to drive faster than I could see so I kept that up until finally we reached in the more built up areas with lots of street lights and I was able to drive a little faster.
This bulb phenomenon continued until I eventually found a new mechanic who specialized in fixing my make and model car.
It turned out that the car should never use any other bulb than what was in it originally, (I did not even know what that wattage was until he told me), and just like that my troubles were over.
Once he put in the correct wattage bulb (I think 35 watts) and of course changed out the burnt-up wires, my night vision was restored to what it was originally.
The moral of the story:
Don’t change the bulbs by which you don’t need to see the road ahead, (or something like that).