You dirty cars

It is cold outside, 17 degrees (-2 degrees when you factor in the wind), and the cars are really dirty after driving around in the slushy mess that this winter has been. A normal person would say “screw it” and leave the cars dirty until spring or spend 7-8 bucks per car and go to a drive through car wash. No, not me… I fill a couple buckets with warm water from the kitchen sink, raise the garage door an inch (so the water drains out) and I hand wash the cars inside the garage. The temperature wasn’t too bad in the insulated garage, but it does make me want to install a heater out there…



This task has also lead me to the realization that we should have had them put a water faucet in the garage when we built the house. If I had a hose connection in the garage, I could clean the cars much faster and I wouldn’t have to schlep buckets of water through the house. Hmm… how did I over look this when we were building the house?! Now I need to decide if I want to tackle this plumbing upgrade myself, or hire a plumber to do it. Plus, I need to sell the idea to the CFO… I guess I will submit it along with my request for a heater!


Yes, this is how I spent part of Sunday afternoon, washing cars. Definitely not the most productive day, but a garage full of shiny, clean and happy cars is a beautiful sight. Sometimes it is just nice to step back and admire the results of your effort! Of course, it snowed last night so all that work was for naught, as they are both dirty after we drove them to work today. Oh well. Other than that, our weekend was uneventful. The cold weather sucks because you are basically cooped up inside and there is only so much you can do to entertain yourself inside. Karen’s solution is to “go shopping,” but we don’t really need anything, so why do that? We did get out Friday night and went to a hockey game; Bloomington has a low tier professional team that plays in a beautiful facility. We had a good time at the game, even though they did lose in a shootout after over time.


On Saturday, I bit the bullet and did our taxes. We are getting a refund, but not as big of one as I had hoped, considering the fact that we are paying mortgages and property taxes on two houses. That should equal out to a lot of deductions, right? Evidently not. Speaking of our second house in GA, we evicted our tenant, hired a new realtor to try to sell the house, and have contractors working to repair damage that the tenant did while living there (don’t get me started on this unless you want another F-word laced tirade of a blog post). We can only hope that we find a buyer soon so that we can part ways with that financial drain. I did make the mistake of adding up how much we have spent on the house in mortgage payments, taxes, repairs, utilities, etc. OUCH!


And, finally, in case you thought I forgot: Happy Hallmark Day (I meant to say Valentine’s Day, but I’m sure you got the point). What can I say, I’m a guy and I’ve never been a fan of this day. The only good thing about Hallmark Day is that it means that we are only a week away from my birthday! That, my friends, is something worth celebrating!