Sometimes I think I should wash my car.
The rest of the time I use the fact that I live in Oregon to justify not washing my car.
See, it rains here.
And driving through rainy day after rainy day after – is that sun?… nope… nevermind – after rainy day is kind of like driving through a car wash all the time.
That’s what I tell myself.
Unfortunately, some joker around these parts set the everlasting cosmic car wash cycle to Drizzle. So my car’s perpetual layer of dirt isn’t ever technically removed. It’s more like the grime is moistened.
And, also, I’m a lazypants. But mostly it’s that whole “the rain should do it” thing. I swear.
Then there are times I think I should get my gutters cleaned. Something about how they’re full of dirt, leaves, and those miniature, plastic parachute guys we shot up there this summer.
But that involves picking up the phone.
Then the most amazing thing happened.
We had a genuine deluge! Right here in Oregon. The misty drizzle turned to showers. The showers turned to rain. And the rain turned torrential. It was a downpour fit for a monsoon.
And the deluge hit us in earnest right as I pulled my car under our overflowing gutters…
…and through our garage door. The pitter on our car roof was less patter and more SLAM BANG BOOM!
The children were as terrified as I was delighted. Because that right there was two birds with one very lazily tossed stone, baby! Overflowing gutters? Justified! Grime-laden car? Flushed clean!
Schadenfreude or serendipity? It’s so very hard to choose just one word.
(And, um, Michael? I’m sorry you had to see this. I promise I’ll call you soon.)
8 responses to “Schadenfreude: Deluge Edition”
I occasionally run my car through the car wash because Leigh likes it. Also, as a Mid-Westerner, I was raised in the belief that if you didn’t run your car through the car wash, particularly in winter to get the road salt off, your car would someday rust apart around you–AND EVERYONE WOULD KNOW WHY! Imagine my shock in finding that in the northwest, car washes close in the cold weather! You don’t salt roads out here, but it still makes me twitchy.
However, the INSIDE of my car looks like the aftermath of a particularly grimy street fair. Do you suppose that if I left all the windows and doors of the car open in a windstorm, it would give the inside the equivalent of a “rainstorm” wash?
I had to laugh! This is almost like what I do. The difference: when I see a decently-hard rain storm coming, I spray a mild cleanser all over the outside of my car, park it on the sloped part of my driveway, and watch Mother Nature do the scrubbing for me! (My gutters aren’t placed right to duplicate your exact technique…)
Please don’t be too apologetic. This is my car-washing philosophy also. We get rain. We even had a hurricane 2 months ago. That should do it.
uhhh…i keep hoping we will get to see a pic of the blue parrot costume!
But did it remove the two month old auction run numbers from the rear window?
This is SO not the better way.
Here is another way to justify not washing the car: It’s a work of art in progress. http://www.dirtycarart.com/DCAGallery/index.html
Oh my heck! As I’m reading through this post, I’m thinking to myself, “if Michael were reading this he’d be having a heart attack.”. And then you went and tagged him at the end so he’ll have to read it. And then I laughed.