Car Wash Extravaganza!

On my way home from the gym and a stop to hobby lobby, I went to the bank to cash my plethora of lay-off checks. I never understand it when banks don't provide a calculator. Hello?! I can't do math. You want me to add up 3 different numbers AND subtract one. So it was no surprise that when I went to the teller my numbers didn't add up. I had short changed myself by $100. Thank goodness for the good folks at the bank who know how to do there math.

Or so I thought. I had requested a roll of quarters to be included in my $80 cash back. She counted out the twenties. 20, 40, 60, 80 , 100(!?) I reminded her that I had wanted a roll of quarters. She took back a twenty and replaced it with a ten and a roll of quarters and told me to have a nice day. Back in my car and stared at my receipt, maybe she had thought I wanted $100 cash back. Nope, the printed receipt said I had requested $80 cash back and deposited the correct amount of money. I try to be an honest person-well except that time that I punched my coffee card to get a free coffee and I was punished for that because the coffee sucked. But I figure the banks got us into this economic mess i.e. me having no job, so the least they can do is offer up an extra $20 to fill my pocketbook. Does this make me a bad person?

I arrived home, satisfied that I had left the house for the day I was settled on staying home the rest of the day. I couldn't be running all my errands in one day. What would I do tomorrow? Or next week? After a chat with mom and more computer job hunting, I thought I really needed to take advantage of another beautiful day in Denver. After all, there are all those people at work stuck in an office. 

The bike is "fixed" and I "know how to fix it" if it breaks again but I just didn't feel like dealing with it. I don't exactly understand the problem and don't have a lot of confidence fixing it if were it to happen out riding-and then be stuck more than 3 blocks from home. It will need a trip to the bike shop for a professional's hand. Hopefully this will not cost more than $30 as that was the cost of the bike. The basket already cost more than the bike.

This meant a trip to the car wash. I had intended on washing my car this weekend, but it was "too cold" i.e. too lazy. I hate washing my car because it is only going to get dirty again and it's supposed to rain/snow/precipitate this weekend. But why wash anything if it's just going to get dirty again? I guess a dirty car just doesn't bother me. Now if I had a new fancy car then maybe-maybe. I had my quarters ready (because I had had intentions of washing the car tomorrow) and I got the squeegee and special car drying cloth-all the boyfriends, why would I own these things? I drove the 2 blocks, yes hardly seems worth the drive, to the car wash and parked the car in the stall. What you should probably know is that I have never washed my car at one of these places. I have washed my car in the front lawn, but there is endless amounts of hose water and no time limits or machines peeping at you.

I stared the machine for a mintue, trying to decide the best position for the dial. I picked the *caution*intense spray option, grabbed my watergun hose and inserted my quarters. I had 4 minutes and watched as my time counted down second by second by second. I pulled the trigger and aimed at my car. Nothing. I looked at the timer 3 minutes 46 seconds. I tried again. Nothing. 3 minutes 47 seconds. I was panicking, my time was dimishing. I had more quarters, but that didn't matter if I didn't know how this thing worked. I tried another option on the dial. Low pressure, for washing tires it said. I pulled the trigger. Water! Not a lot, but it was something. I walked around my car pitifully spraying it with this stream of water, of course focusing on the tires. 

I got tired of this and thought I needed to try something else. I tried the "rinse" dial and got a full stream of water.  I sprayed the entire car, to wet it down. All the while wondering why I was wetting it down and not just starting with the soap. So I went back to the machine and saw the soap dial. Jackpot! I also inserted a few more quarters. I used the spray soap and walked around the car again. I had noticed there was a soap brush option and another tool on the other side (and had watched the boyfriend use it when we went last week) but I didn't quite get how it worked. If I switched the dial to soapy brush, would the water gun start and the brush start sudsing? and if what was the case, why was there the option to have soap come out of the water gun? I heard a BEEP! I was running out of time and needed to retrieve more quarters from the car. As I grabbed the half opened roll, the felt the quarters slip from my hands and spill all over the wet pavement. I had not time to stop and pick them up because my counter was quickly approaching 30 seconds. I grabbed two and what was left in my hand and inserted the quarters into the machine. I now had another 3 minutes. 

Done with the soap, I switched the rinse and sprayed the car for awhile. Tired of this, I looked at the dial and found a setting that sounded exciting. Hot wax spray. I noted the additional rinse required and walked around the car several times, careful not to get tangled in the hose and trying to avoid the wind that was blowing the spraying water back at me. I finally switched to the final rinse spray and walked around the car aiming my hose until the time went off. I collected my wet quarters and drove my car to a parking spot where I could dry off the car and inspect my work. Not impressive. There is clearly a reason why you use a soapy brush. It may look clean with the sprayer but get it in the sun and . . . well my car looks better than before. 

I am hoping that it passes for clean to the boyfriend because I don't want to explain this embarrassing story to him. He'll make fun of me and declare my incompetence at car washing. I decided I would tell him that when I dropped the quarters, they ALL  rolled under the car, making it impossible to adequately finish the job. To finish off, I pulled out the shamy car drier thing and began wiping the car-and some of the dirt up. I even squeegeed the windows so there were no streaks, and also helped make the windows look cleaner. 

Back at home, it has taken me longer to write about this experience then it did to actually wash my car. I am working on a load of laundry and so far so good. I am hoping not to have a laundray experience like the BFF, I've had enough excitement for one day.

Curious about my unemployment claim, I tried to log on to the website today. All that was required was my SS# and my pin. I know I only filled the form out 3 days ago, but being that it was online and there was no confirmation, I just wanted to see if I was even in the system yet.  I know my SS#, but apparently I have already forgotten the 4 digit pin I picked out on Monday because after 3 attempts I was locked out of my account. Now I must call the unemployment hotline and have it reset. I dialed the number and surprise surprise, it was busy. I may never get my password reset. Or I will have to call first thing at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Catch the hotline before all those lazy unemployed people wake up.

I have made it a point for myself not to sleep in. Granted this is a tough thing to do when your only plans for the day are going to the gym-and it's open 24 hours. Also, I don't watch TV. That is a slippery slope. First it's just the Today show, and then it's a flip over to TLC  or HGTV and next thing you know, you're watching Gilmore Girls every day at 3pm. True story, I know this from the last time I was unemployed when I moved to Denver. And speaking of Gilmore Girls I must put a shout out for this show. I checked out the 7th and final season from the library and was absolutely addicted. Couldn't stop watching. It took me 6 days to watch the whole season. Did I accomplish anything, not so much. Did I stay up until 1:30 on a work night? Yes. 

And by the way, the results of the Hobby Lobby trip: I finally bought Bees wax to try my encaustic art method. I also bought a brush to brush it on with. Now I need to figure out how to melt the wax. I'm thinking a trip to the thrift store for a crappy pot so I can melt it on the stove. This might be tomorrow's project. I am also off to register for temp work tomorrow.