My Car is Clean. . . for ONCE

I think everyone knows how I feel about washing cars. It's one thing if you've got an old classic or a show car or something, then I understand washing it all the time. If you've just got a run of the mill car like mine, I don't see the point. Well, I've started to see the point a bit. I was watering the front garden and yard the other day and I figured since I was so close to my car with a hose I may as well hose it off. Not a stitch of the dirt budged. They put something on the gravel roads on the Alcan to reduce dust that makes the gunk really stick to your car. It also snowed right before I got to Alaska, and they put stuff down there also that sticks to your car. So the combination made it so the mud on my car was practically cemented on.

While I was chatting with the neighborhood people last night, we were talking about my dirty car and they were telling me that the mud wasn't going anywhere unless I washed it. I still really didn't plan on washing it. Well, this afternoon our nextdoor neighbor showed up with his kids to wash my car! They brought the works, too. I went out and helped because I figured it'd be fun. First there was a solvent that took off all the gunk and bugs. Then there was the wash. Then he told me to pop the hood so he could clean under there. For me, that was new territory. Then they started waxing it! We even cleaned out my air filter. I knew I needed a new one - when I got my oil changed in Canada on the way here I asked them to change it, but they didn't have the part. I still need to put a new one in, but it's better than it was. We washed my car for hours, no joke. It was hysterical because it was a neighborhood effort.

My car now looks like it just came off the lot. I've never seen the outside so clean and shiny. I suppose now I should vacuum the inside. . . I'm going to have to wash my car whenever I come up to Anchorage now so the neighborhood kids don't think their effort was wasted.

After the car cleaning deal, Frenchy and I had to run downtown to make some flyers then we headed to an auction for the Kenai chamber. Free dinner, a silent auction and a live auction. I've never been to a real auction, so it was really fun. Some of the stuff was really great stuff. They actually had a South African safari and 6 night stay with all meals included on there. I think that one was worth over $4,000. Of course you still had to buy airfare there, but still a deal. I think it ended up going for $2,000ish. It was a good time. We sat at a table with a retired couple and it turned out that the husband was an electrical engineer but had studied physics in school, so we talked about M-Theory and Quantum Mechanics. He also told me all the places I should go when I'm down on the Kenai. I didn't want to go to this event at first because it started at 5, and I hadn't really done anything outside that day so I felt like it was too early to go do something like that. I'm really glad I went. I won three glacier tours in the silent auction. They should be worth almost $300 each, but I got them for under $100. It was a fruitful event. Plus they had some good wine there. It was at the Petroleum Club, which is pretty much like a country club without a golf course, although they have sister clubs with courses and things.

All in all it was a very good day. Tomorrow I might be going on a flightseeing tour for FREE. wooooooo! I've been dying to go on one and Frenchy got us in on a tour for free either tomorrow or Saturday. I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about that one.