Rookie Mistake

Yesterday I washed my car in the middle of the day. It hadn't been washed since shortly after I moved here approximately 3 months ago. This has made me a little crazy because my car is white and I am always overly worried about having it vacuumed. However, the mud, muck, snow, sleet, ice, rain, whatever precipitation is happening that day covers the outside and inside of my car. And it is WAY too cold to be outside vacuuming. Obviously the sun isn't as prevalent here and I have taken heed to the advice of supplementing Vitamin D while living in Vermont. What this means is that when it IS sunny, I am fooled into believing that it is a really nice day outside. So, yesterday, in the midst of running errands midday, I went ahead and pulled into the carwash because the sun was glaring brightly at me. In my efforts to save a few bucks (I am always making efforts to do this and it always backfires) I figured I would wash the car myself. One minute into my washing session I had an entire SUV covered in spray soap that had frozen solid. I had no idea what to do and was praying that the people traveling the road of my small town would not recognize me standing in the carwash bay with a frozen-soap-covered vehicle. So I did what any intelligent young woman would do and I pushed the button for the powerful water spray and got to work spraying that frozen soap off my car. As my carwash timer ticked by and frozen soap chunks were flying at me (in my work clothes), I successfully resulted in a car only half-covered in frozen soap and now fully covered in frozen water. This is where my intelligence really kicked in. I decided it was time to just quit but immediately opened the driver side door. No way was I going to have my door freeze shut and be stuck in a carwash bay and need to call someone for help. Nope, that was not going to happen to me! So as I left the driver door open and the car running in an attempt to warm it up, I had to ice scrape my windows just to leave the carwash. As I pulled out I heard the computer lady of the automatic carwash next to my bay talking to a man about to enter the auto wash. He would have his car completely washed and dried before exiting the enclosed auto wash. At that moment I had a great dislike for that computer voice and that man. Jerks. Upon exiting I glanced at my dashboard thermometer to notice that it read 18 degrees. I continued my errands wondering if anyone noticed that I was the only car on the road that looked like a frozen bubble. I do need to take a moment to note that my parents DID teach me not to wash my car in freezing temperatures. I know better. But, to me, the 18 degree day (in comparison to all of the recent -18 degree days) felt like a 50 degree day which merited a carwash. I have realized that I am still a rookie in this game of Vermont life.