When To Wash Your Car

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: February 20, 2008

Okay, you know your car is dirty when you are pumping gas and the attendant points out that my car is so dirty you could write messages on the back of it.

I appreciate honesty from people so I laughed when he said it.  I explained that Storm Team 10 is calling for wintry weather on Friday and that it would just get dirty again so I was waiting for the weather to pass.  He looked at me and his expression said loud and clear… Riiiiighhht, sure you are…

As I get older I take better care of my stuff.  When I was little my mom was always telling me to put things back the way I got them… to put my pockets in on my jeans when they were sloppily turning inside out.. my husband used to affectionately joke that I was the only person he knew who messed things up just so I could clean them up… all of the people in my life have gently guided me to be a neater person who flings less than before.

So when the clerk mentioned my dirty car I wanted to run it through the wash right away.  There is something about a shiny clean vehicle that sends a message of neatness and attention to business.  Some people won’t drive a dirty car while others could care less.  I do however get really bummed when I wash my car and it rains the same day even though the place where I take it regularly has a great raincheck policy.

I think I am going to stick with my forecast driven car care habits.  So what if for the next couple of days people who see me driving remark about my dirty car… what is that saying?  You can’t judge a book by it’s cover… Hopefully that includes “car covers” too.

If you have to be out in the wintry mess Friday morning I hope you have a safe trip.