Can't you see my good intentions? *

* "Good Intentions" from "Westbank Mike and the Fisher Project".

"I did my best!" (Dane Cook quote there). Well, anyways, I did. As many of you know W1 (DIL1 to you all) got LED Tail Lights and Halo Head Lights for Christmas. I put the tail lights on before her last trip to NOLA 2 weekends ago. They look great, and were fairly easy to install (once I realized the bulbs weren't in them, and you had to use the ones from the original lights). 2 screws and then plug up the main wire.

So, yesterday I decided to do the head lights. My friend R came by to help. (And in case you don't know that means he did all the work and I handed him tools. I'm not the most mechanically inclined but I do have patience.) We got the bumper off, and the front grill, which is required to get to the screws holding the light housing. This was actually pretty simple. I even went all out and bought the Sylvania Silver Star bulbs and the cool blue High Beams. I did a LOT of reading on different forums and these were suggested by many people who said the bulbs that come with the lights are not very bright. Her stock headlights are extremely bright and even if she didn't notice, the first trip at night to NOLA would have drove me crazy. I bought wire taps to hook the halo's to the parking lights, I bought rocker switches that match the interior perfectly to replace the one for her fog lights and add one for her amp (once we get it). I even bought sharpie's for another modification I read about, and ordered blue bulbs to replace the amber ones that light up the a/c controls. I was totally getting into "pimpin her ride".

But remember people, I am a Herrick, so there's always a snag. A monkey wrench thrown into my plans. I have learned to live with this. After removing the whole assembly we discovered the blinker/running lights were too big. The bulb wouldn't fit in the hole. I tried repeatedly until I started feeling like the kid trying to force the square block through the round hole. But I can promise you I was just as frustrated as that kid was. So, off to Auto Zone again. (This is the 3rd trip in 2 days. The first was looking for the blue bulbs for the a/c, which they didn't carry and the second was to pick up the Silver Stars.) So I look at the new headlight and right below the blinker hole etched in the plastic is the number 1157NA. I grab the current (too big) bulb and head to Auto Zone for trip #3. The Auto Zone is about 15 minutes away from home, not bad but with everything else being 2 blocks away, still a little bit of a disappointment. We arrive at Auto Zone and I track down the 1157NA bulb. Which looks oddly familiar. So I pull out the bulb that was from the original light that didn't fit. Can we guess what the model # on that bulb was kids? I bet we can... It was the 1157NA!!! WTF?

So here is where I decide to head back home and bring the headlight assembly back with me. (How hard would it have been to bring it with me that last time? Well, like the square block round hole kid, I was frustrated and not thinking.)

Another discovery I had was seeing that even without the bulb the socket assembly that the bulb plugs into was also too big. And it has 4 tabs that make a perfect +. The headlight assembly has slots for 4 tabs but they are offset and different sizes. So I head back for trip #4. The ladies working there were no help at all. So that's where I'm stuck. My friend R said they may have changed the blinker and socket on the '06. I think that is where I'll start my research. It seems strange that nobody on the Forums had this problem, but I guarantee the only way that bulb is fitting is with a hammer. This is where the patience comes in, I WILL solve this issue. They do say "It's the thought that counts", and I'm doing a LOT of thinking...

I slept terribly last night so I was going to go to work late, but ended up skipping. I called around one o'clock and found out only 1 guy showed up today so I don't feel as bad. It's raining and it dropped to the 30's so I decided not to deal with it. Instead, you all get a blog post and I get to spend a few hours researching blinkers. Ha Ha. All in a days work.

Oh well, gotta run, I hear something in the living room. It's something calling me. Could it be? Yes, it's Lego Star Wars 2 on PS2. Okay, it's a silly kids game, but it's addictive!