Early Halloweens

You all have most likely, at one point in time, seen a hearse. Either because you were just driving and happened to see one or you were in a funeral procession and it was leading it. But have you ever thought about what it would be like to drive one or be in one? Each time one comes in, I get chills. Let me tell you, first hand, it's really unnerving to get in those cars and drive them. I think, for myself at least, what makes it "eerie" is the fact that dead bodies have been in the car. I have always been extremely uncomfortable being around or seeing a dead body. I don't know why, I've just always been like that. I've seen dead bodies before. I saw one when I did a ride along back when I was a police explorer. But that is another story all together, I'll share it if people want me to. Now, if you work at a car wash and a hearse comes in, there are a number of things that a person can do. One thing is check inside the car to see if theres a casket. Two, just clean it regardless if a casket is in it or not. Or, just not clean it at all and let everyone else do it. That last one, not really the best idea because no one appreciates it when you do that. Personally, I do the first one almost every time. I guess I do it because its kind of suspenseful to see if there is going to be a body in the car. One time I checked, there actually was a casket. When I saw the casket my mind began to race with all kinds of thoughts. Was it an old person? An young person? Man, women? What did they die of? Old age? Murder? Disease? I wanted to know but I never asked. I wanted to know but at the same time I didn't. After all, curiosity killed the cat. hahaha. When the hearse with the casket came in, I was the lucky one that had to pull it into our "prep-bay." The driver even joked with me about the casket being in there. I cant remember what he said but I remember nervously laughing at it.

Hearses come to the car wash all year round. And all year round, I get all the those feelings I mentioned above. Each time they come. I'm sure some of you are saying to yourselves, that I probably was crying when I had to pull the hearse in with the casket but I am telling you truthfully that I was not. I was being very manly and just got in and pulled it into our prep-bay. No tears involved. It's just another car. It's just a car that has a dead person in it. I don't think I've had to pull a hearse or seen a hearse around halloween before. Even though I've been at the car wash for close to 2 years. So having a hearse come in around halloween....yeah. I kinda want to see a hearse come in with a bunch of halloween decorations on it. I just think that would be really interesting and really freaky to see.

Things TO do and NOT to do at the car wash

I've been thinking. There are a mass of people who don't know how to properly conduct themselves at the car wash. It is very important that you act properly while you are there because depending on your actions and or words, there may be consequences. I figured it would be fitting to describe some things that you should do and should not do and list some of the consequences that I have seen and may have done. 

1. First impressions are always important. When you pull up to the back, DON'T stop 2 car lengths back from the line. Doing this just annoys us employees. Yes, its not that big of a deal, especially if its just one or two BUT when its 20 cars a day at least, it gets kinda old and frustrating. Every time someone does this, we have to move the car up to where it needs to be so we can vacuum it. The consequence for this could be, depending how frustrated we get or how many times it has happened prior for the day, a lack of an attempt on the vacuum.

2. This kinda goes along with the first one. When you pull the car up, PLEASE DON'T turn the car off. This gets really annoying. You're not saving enough gas to make it worth while. We turn the cars off before we send them down the line. All you do when you turn the car off, especially when you get an exterior wash, is waste our time. It's annoying when we have to get in a car, maybe pull it up, turn it back on move it into our prep bay, then turn it off. 

3. Again, when you pull up to the back and get out of your car. Be POLITE! Don't be a inconsiderate jerk. Don't get out and start snapping at us when we haven't done anything to you. I can promise you, if you are a jerk right off the back, we will not take very good care of your car and you will most likely get charged extra fees depending on what kind of vehicle you drive. This one time, a customer came to the car wash when I was in the back selling and from the moment he got out of his car he was being a jerk. He just started demanding and saying how much we have sucked in the past. He also demanding that we vacuum his trunk. I told him that we would. We did but I also charged him the dollar trunk vacuum charge. The guy took his receipt and walked away, he came back like a minute later and asked me what the charge was for. I told him that we're supposed to charge for the trunk vacuum because we don't normally do them. He told me that it was ridiculous and he was never going to come back to our car wash. All I responded with was, "ok. Have a nice day sir." Finished vacuuming his car and sent it down the line. Normally I would never charge someone for a trunk vacuum, but he was being a jerk so he earned it. Another possible consequence of being a jerk to the people who vacuum your car is that they will "forget" to prep something before they send it down the line.

4. When your car is being dried off up in the front, DON'T go into the tunnel and start drying off your own car. Don't dry your own car off at all. Us employees do not appreciate this at all for a number of reasons. We all see this as an insult. We feel like you are saying that you don't like how we do our job and that we suck. Besides the insult, we all have our own routine for drying the cars and when you come up, grab one of our towels and start drying off your car, you mess us up. We lose track of what we have already dried off or done. It takes us longer to finish your car. Also, most people that do this tend to tip less which, in turn, makes us want to do a worse job on your car. 

5. When we are done drying your car off in the front. You should never, come up to us and tell us that everything looks like crap. That we do a terrible job. This will just anger us and we WILL remember you the next time you come in and the next time you do come in we WILL get our revenge. 

These are just the basic things that you should not do when you're at the car wash. It will always make your life and our lives easier and better if everyone follows these guidelines.

Random Songs

Today I heard the most random song that made me laugh. Mostly because it's such a funny song but also because I remember this song from sunday school when I was a wee lad. The song Who Built the Ark?  Who remembers this song? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Hahaha. I think the worst part of hearing this song again was that it kinda got stuck in my head and I could not shake it. I think I got it stuck in a few of my co-workers heads as well hahaha.

For those of you who do not remember or know this song. Here is a link for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1E7qs0bAbg

The Bored Games

When working at a car wash, there will be periods of downtime where you sit around and do nothing and just wait. It gets quite boring when you are just sitting there doing nothing. Sometimes, during these times we, the employees, come up with the most random games to entertain ourselves. They may seem really lame or stupid but when you're extremely bored, they are a blast. 

One game that we play is when we are in the back. Back by where we vacuum the cars. We have this little rock pit with two black "man hole" cover type things. The object of the game is to toss the rocks onto the man hole covers. Its harder than you might think. The rules are simple. You have to kneel or squat on the side walk next to the building(the farthest point from the covers) and toss the rocks trying to get them to stay on the covers without falling off. For each one you get on the cover is 1 point. The most points win.

A second game that we play, and we just came up with this game today and is still in the making. This game is also played in the back but it is played in our prep bay. In our prep bay we have a bunch of sponges that we use to get bugs and other stuff off cars, (they sit in barrels of water all day so they get pretty clean). The object of this game is also very simple. You are simply to take a wet sponge, bounce it off a car and hit the other person. If you hit the person you get one point. Most points win. This game may sound really dull and lame but it is actually quite addictive and fun. especially when its warm and hot out.

These are all the games that I know of as of now. As I learn of more I will blog about them.

Let me know what you think of these games.