Washed My Own Car Today

I have never, ever washed a car, myself, all alone, in all my 76 years. I didn't have one of my own until I was 40 and in southern CA. With the first one, my sis loved to wash cars and did it for me, then Jane came out and she did, and then Frank came, and, well, you get the idea.

Right now, the driver's side mirror is wobbly so I don't take it to a car wash.

These past two weeks or so, it has looked absolutely dirty, filthy, scuzzy - especially the right side which is the open side of the driveway and gets all the rain and splashes when parked. The driver side usually is on the house side, and isn't too bad.

So, this morning, I bit the bullet. We are not permitted to wash our cars on our driveways in our senior mobile home community. But they provide several little bays here and there. Each has a drain in the concrete and a hose connected to the water.

One is only a few homes from me. So I hauled out a bucket, a few old towels, a big fat sponge, a car squeegee with a rubber scraper on one side and a rubby thing on the other, my favorite folding stool, and a bottle of sudsy stuff. I decided to just use Dawn. I figured if it was safe enough to wash little oil-drenched duckies, it was safe enough for my paint.

It went well. I needed the stool to see and work on the roof because I am vertically challenged. The car looks great. It didn't take me long.

Of course, now that I did such a great job on my first car washing effort ever, they are predicting spontaneous thunderstorms both Friday evening into Saturday morning and Saturday evening into Sunday morning.

But now that I am experienced, even if it rains and makes the car messy, I can go use the hose quickly within a day or so of the spatters and they should just rinse off at that point.

I am so happy with myself.