Workin' At The Car Wash...

We made it to March. Yeehaw! Now we have just one more month of winter to get through.

Yeah…I know, I know…spring officially arrives on March 20th. On the other hand, I can easily recall some nasty snowstorms we have endured in late March, so I’m just gonna stick with the one more month of winter theory. That way, if we don’t see another snowflake until next winter I can be happy. And if we do get dumped on again, I can just roll my eyes, shrug my shoulders and say, “Well, it’s still winter and this is still the Midwest – whatryagonna do?!”

Sheesh. The mental hoops I make myself jump through…

Today, however, is a spectacular day. While it may not be t-shirts and flip flop weather, it’s an almost-balmy 42 degrees and with the sun shining down, I didn’t even wear my winter coat this afternoon.

I was almost tempted to wash my car, but you know as soon as I do that we’d get hit with a rogue blizzard or something. So I think I’ll leave the ol’ Mazda dirty and salt-encrusted for a couple more days.

Besides, I can’t match the car wash deal Vince got the other day.

See, we went to Newark and had dinner with his dad who told Vince that he found a cheap, er, inexpensive do-it-yourself car wash and cleaned his car for a mere quarter. Not that we didn’t believe him, but here in Columbus, the do-it-yourself car washes won’t even dribble a little water from the hose until you plug in at least a buck and a quarter in change. And you’d better be prepared to give up several more dollars worth of quarters before you’re finished.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of the do-it-yourself car washes. I used to be when I was fanatical about keeping my new car sparkling clean. But since my vehicle is older (and so am I), I’ve become, well, lazy. And I no longer carry around a bagful of quarters. Instead, I bring my car to the automatic car wash place that costs at least $8 a pop.

But I get to sit inside my car in comfort and watch other people scrub the wheels and windows and then my car is magically transported into the dark interior (“put your vehicle in Neutral”) and then foamy soap sprays out and envelopes me in a big pink cloud and then the red felt monster does its shimmy-shake thing over my car and then I arrive at the air dryer that is so powerful it practically sucks the whole vehicle up into its gaping maw before it spits it out and stops and then two towel boys frenetically start toweling off the excess water droplets.

I then get to drive away happy with a clean car (once I put my vehicle in Drive, of course) and the towel boys get to deal with soggy towels.

Now I don’t indulge in car washes very often and by the time I do take my car in, it’s so crusty that it’s hard to tell what color it’s supposed to be, so I figure it’s well worth the eight bucks.

Vince, on the other hand, doesn’t like to pay that much for a car wash. Neither does his dad. This would truly be an example of “like father, like son.”

So his dad directed us to the cheap, er, inexpensive car wash. Now, it was dark out. And it was definitely not a balmy 42 degrees. And I forgot to wear my winter gloves. So I elected to stay inside the car while father and son bonded over the scrubber brush.

Now, I’d love to report that the car was sparkling clean without a speck of dirt after the twenty-five cent car wash. It wasn’t. I’d also love to report that it only cost twenty-five cents. But it didn’t. They were forced to feed another quarter into the machine. Vince’s dad maintains that it was because Vince’s car was especially dirty.

And then we had to drive across the street to the gas station so they could clean the windows with a squeegee and paper towels. For free. (Otherwise, it would’ve cost a lot more at the car wash.)

I’m not certain that the squeegee and paper towels actually helped the situation because there were a lot of streaks and dirt left when they were finished, but (a) it wasn’t my car, and (b) I didn’t have to help. So it was all good.

And the upshot is that Vince has a semi-clean car and it didn’t break the bank. Even more wondrous is that he didn’t incite Mother Nature into sending a rogue blizzard our way. So I’m pretty grateful about that.

Let’s hope I have the same luck when I next wash my car. Or else you can blame the rogue blizzard on me.

Happy March!