Dirty!

That car in front of you, all covered in a layer of grime left by all that driving in snow covered in sand, the grime so thick it's obscuring the car's paint. And you know that your own car is just as bad. It hardly seems worth the time, money, or cold, to go to the car wash; the car will just be filthy again an hour later. But the image of a pressurized water spray causing the filth to just sheet off little by little, it's so compelling, it almost makes me want to do it anyway. Not one of the drive-through car-washes though; the kind where you park and just use a pressurized hose yourself, so you can see it happening.

As the season wears on, it becomes a mild obsession. I find myself wishing I had a way to keep my own garden hose usable through the winter, and somewhere to hose the car down (obviously I can't do it in the driveway, it would end up a sheet of ice). Sometimes at work (not usually until March though) they get out a real pressurized sprayer to clean off the delivery trucks right outside my window, and the transformation I see the trucks going through only reinforces the compelling obsession.

When the driveway is finally thawed enough and I can get the hose working to clean the car, that's one of the heralds of spring. (Though by then, the car's probably been mostly cleaned by rain anyway. The whole time you can readily clean the car, it's never nearly as grungy, and the act of cleaning it is no longer compelling, it's just a chore.)

Am I the only one?