It’s been a busy summer, and one of the things that’s been pushed to the back burner is regular car washes. I’m too cheap to take my cars through the automatic wash, and I feel guilty letting them stay dirty because my dad was a habitual (at least once a week) car washer and ingrained the same sense of duty in me. Besides, everyone knows cars run better when they are clean. So the other night after dinner I made like Rose Royce with the hose and bucket and gave the Tempest a much overdue bath. Lucky for me, I had a little help (apologies for the grainy cell-phone picture):
The nice thing about a white car is that it hides water spots. After spending much of the winter and spring under the car, it’s nice to spend a little time making it shine. It’s also interesting to find all the little things that you don’t notice until you’re three inches away from the car scrubbing at a stubborn bug carcass, whether it’s a misaligned bumper or a small aesthetic detail that hadn’t been seen before. Of course, that sort of detailed examination leads me to realize that I need new weatherstripping, the taillight lenses need buffed, the whole car needs clayed and polished, the interior needs detailed, and on and on. But at least it’s shiny.