Car Day

My little black Volkswagen was filthy dirty icky from the little bit of snow we’ve had that’s melted and the splashes of sand and grit and dark puddles have found their way onto its exterior.

But it was worse inside. I keep my car’s interior picked up. There are no food wrappers, water bottles, or mislaid receipts in my vehicle. It’s always ready to go for passengers.

My dearly departed husband’s car on the other hand was a second garbage can for him. The back seat was full of discarded Pepsi cans, boxes, bags, and other trash assortments. If we needed to use his vehicle for something, like for me to ride in it, it would take Ray about a half hour to throw out all the crap before I could sit on the seat.

But that was his car and how he kept his car was his business.

It’s funny; we used my car most of the time, except for when he drove to work. Wonder why . . .

I had a dentist appointment today, so I took off from work to get my teeth taken care of.

I’m good at getting regular baths for my car at car washes. But the car wash places around my house are just for outside cleaning. And I’m too lazy to use the vacuums for the floor and clean the interior windows myself.

My car’s interior is picked up, but it wasn’t clean. The dashboard was dusty, the windows were grungy, and the floor was covered with sand. I was getting grossed out whenever I got into it.

On the way back from the dentist, I decided to get my car washed. There was a line a mile long even at 9:15 am on a Tuesday morning! Can you believe it? I can’t even imagine what weekends are like.

But I patiently waited in line, listening to the radio, and texting Joe.

Then my little car got its bath and its inside all cleaned out. Now it shines all over and I thoroughly enjoyed my ride to get an oil change.

A couple of weeks ago, my battery died, so I went to Sears to get it replaced. The mechanic told me I was down a quart of oil and the oil was cloudy, and also an exterior side light was out. But he told me when I was ready to leave, not before they installed the battery. Well, I was ready to go then and didn’t want to wait for an oil change.

But being down a quart worried me and I was wondering about the cloudy oil. So I decided to get an oil change, not by Sears, but by another company I use, just in case Sears was full of crap.

My oil was down, but not a full quart and it wasn’t cloudy. I was right about my hunch.

So my little black car got fresh oil and a new bulb and it is clean, and life is good.

My other project today is to do my taxes. I’m installing Turbo Tax and will begin the process this afternoon. If I’m really lucky, maybe I’ll get some money back.

Our warm winter is coming to a short end. A cold front moved through this morning and shifted the winds from the north and the temperatures are going to drop tonight into the single digits.

That’s OK. This non-winter is quite enjoyable.

This might be the first year since 1990 (because I didn’t have a snowblower before then), that I won’t have to use my snowblower at all.

However, I don’t want to jinx myself too much. We still have the rest of February, March to get through and we can get socked in April as well.

But life is good.