It started because I had to return the car I'd been driving for the last 15 months. It was a rented car for work, and when you get up to 25,000 km. you have to return it. You have to return it in as good as condition as possible, spic and span, inside and out.
I could have taken the car to the car wash; it would have been a small price to pay for the professional job they would have done. But no, I couldn't do that. I knew that the car and I had to spend our last day together. It was up to me to give it its farewell bath - personally.
I dressed in my car washing duds, brought out a good jazzy-rock CD to put into the CD player, lugged two buckets of hot water outside - one sudsy, one clear, went back for two clean cloths - one large and one small, and away I went - sloshing the water onto the roof and catching it on the way down with the large cloth, to swish over the windows, doors, and down to the tires.
Dunking my cloth into the bucket, and pulling it out to fling another load of water, this time onto the rear window, swishing it down the trunk, and down over the license plate, and taking time to rub the cloth between the numbers of the plate.
Plunging the cloth back into the bucket and pulling it out again to hurl it, laden with water, onto the roof on the other side of the car, and swishing the cascading water across doors and windows and the sideview mirror, then dunking once more and sloshing the water over the windshield, across the hood of the car and on down to the front plate and grill...
A short pause, then time for the second bucket, rinse water, this time only half the bucket to go all the way around the car. With the second half, my daughter used a sturdy brush to scrub the wheels.
Then wetting and wringing out the smaller flannel cloth to clean all the inside fixtures, all the inner doors and seats and the console and the dash... and finally, vacuuming all around inside the car.
When the car was clean, I felt proud. It was an act of love.
Today, I decided to do it again - this time to our own car. Just because. Just for love. The car looks cared for. When I look at the car, I feel like I've done something good.
