It was a 1979 Red Corvette.

It was used when I bought it but it held up well. Corvettes weren't the best-built cars in the world but before I married, I liked fast, sleek cars.

The Corvette taught me a lasting lesson when the driver's outside door handle broke.

The Vette didn't have a regular door handle. It was actually a plate that was flush with the top of the door that you pushed in. One day the mechanism on the inside of the door broke and when you pushed down to open the door, nothing happened.

The Vette was also expensive to work on. Parts were high and you usually had to take it to a Vette specialist to get it fixed. I was on a budget and I was pretty good at fixing things, so I decided I would do it myself. I already had a mechanics repair manual for the Vette.

As I read the steps to fix the door mechanism, I saw that it was an all-day job so I decided to wait until I had all day.

It was two months before I had a free day to work on the Vette.

During those two months, each time I got into the Vette, I had to open the passenger door, crawl over the console, and open the driver's door.

"So what?" you ask.

I never took a door handle for granted again.

It became another of life's little things that I was thankful for.

We have so many things that we take for granted. We are never thankful for them. They are just there. We use them daily, some hourly, some every minute, some every second.

We don't miss it unless it breaks and it's no longer there or it is threatened. Then it becomes important.

It has been over ten years since the broken handle on the Vette, but each time I get in my car and the handle works, I'm thankful.

It's just one more handle on life that I am thankful for.

Courtesy of MountainWings.com