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Malvina Gets a BathMay 11, 2010 I know, I know: I've had this car less than two months and I just washed her for the second time. And vacuumed the inside, too, and shook out the blue-and-cream throw that covers Travvy's seat. Someone, maybe my father, gave me this throw years and years ago. I liked it from the first but till now it hasn't found the right use in any of the places I've lived. Turns out it's been waiting for Malvina. The colors are perfect, it covers the seat and then some, it doesn't show dog dirt, and it shakes out easily. It's probably washable too. Giving things away is good, but sometimes keeping them around pays off. Pretty soon I'll be out with the wax and polish, right? I hope not -- and least not for a while. Not till she needs waxing and polishing, and that's not yet. Meanwhile -- washing Malvina is satisfying. Washing Malvina makes a difference in how she looks. With Uhura in her later years, this was not true, and besides, pickups lose credibility if they're too clean. Also -- true confession time -- although I drove both Tesah Toyota and Uhura Mazda till they died, in the back of my mind is the thought that eventually I'll trade Malvina in before she starts eating money. Like around the time the extended warranty expires and my loan is paid off. See how the consumer economy sucks you in? Car payments are starting to seem normal even though I've only made one of them. If I eventually trade her in, I figure I'll get a better price if she doesn't look like a rent-a-wreck. Besides, I needed a work break. This started with pre-bath prep, which is to say getting the hoses hooked up so that they (a) reached the car, and (b) sprayed with enough force to rinse the dirt off. There's a faucet on either side of the little building that my apartment is on the second floor of. The longer hose was on the north side, the better hose on the south. The better hose is too short to reach all the way around Malvina. The better hose also has the best nozzle on the property, but it's stuck but good and won't unscrew. I tried the nozzle from Sarah's garden hose on the longer, less flexible hose: even at maximum opening, the force was pretty pathetic. At this point I remembered that I'd gone through all this the last time I set out to wash Malvina, so I did what I'd done then: connect the short hose with the good nozzle to the long hose with no nozzle. I was in business. Malvina does clean up pretty. I even borrowed Sarah's step-stool so I could wash the moon roof. (I love that moon roof.) The Baileys' three hens poked around the carpets, trash bag, and sundry other stuff I'd taken out so I could vacuum. These hens are totally fearless. Not only do they pay no attention to a salivating Travvy (who was watching intently from his deck), but they ignored my stomping and arm-waving in their general direction. I considered spraying them with the hose but didn't feel quite mean enough. They wandered off on their own. Once Malvina was dry, I put my round WUMB-FM MEMBER sticker in the lower right corner of the back window. Malvina's first sticker. A Mud sticker is next, once I decide where to put it.
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