We left our hero with a shattered side-view mirror holding on by a single thread. Well, it was suspended by a wiring harness, but you get the idea.

So, bright and early, Monday morning, I returned to the scene of the crime. As we all know from detective novels, the villain always does this.

I managed to find about half the cowling that protects the mirrors innards from the great outdoors.

I looked online, and replacing the entire assembly is about $600 and an hour of labor. Most importantly, the parts aren't available for weeks, and I'm heading to Florida for Carol's liftoff on Sunday.

So I returned to the victim and examined the rear view mirror. A little staring, and I found a place where I could drill a hole and screw the mirror back to the car (only damaging parts that will need replacing when I properly repair the mirror).

That took a few minutes, and I managed to use one of the leftover screws from repairing the dishwasher.

Gorilla tape is even better duck tape when it comes to fast and dirty repairs. And quick and dirty was the name of today's game. Taping the half-a-cowling to the mirror base only took a couple minutes, but that was only half the problem.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cowling was missing in action. I needed something to cover the works and keep at least some of the rain and snow out of the works. I sacrificed a plastic take-out container and a bunch more Gorilla tape, and presto theres a new cover that's ugly as sin, but only a venal sin. I think it will hold together for a few weeks.

Unfortunately, the mirror glass was also a casualty. Amazon can get me a new OEM mirror - it will arrive just a few days after I get back home from the launch. So, I ordered some flat acrylic mirror from Amazon By dumb luck, the new mirror arrived during the warm spell (convenient!). I cut a piece of cardboard to match the shattered mirror, then traced around it onto the mirror with a sharpie. (If a Sharpie is good enough for the president, it's good enough for me.) By the time I was done, I had a chunk of mirror that was almost shaped like the original, if you squinted hard enough.

The acrylic mirror came with double-sided sticky tape. This sort of worked. Thanks to more gorilla tape, some transparent packing tape, and a couple words I'm not supposed to use in public, the mirror was attached, and almost points in the right direction.

There's a fine line between good and good enough. This repair might push its way into good enough, but it's never going to reach good.

I got an email from Mystery Magazine that my story "Rules" will go into the January issue - which comes out on January 1.