Bad things don't just happen to other people - to make their way in through the cracks in your life, you won't know until it's far too late...
I did not yet understand about time, or how there could come a point where something bright and sparkling new - a car, job or wife - becomes just another thing you have; then something on the periphery of your vision that you don't think about much any more; and finally the thing that's breaking down the whole time and making your life a living hell. You learn, though. You learn about all that...