The Cost of Laziness

[weltschmerz]

Jan 20, 2019 9:14:17 GMT -5 irishpad said:

Jan 20, 2019 8:52:10 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

I'm not in the South, and I've never seen one.

Interesting.   We have had the enclosed manual spraying car wash bays around here since I was old enough to own a car (40 years).  But I'm in northern MN so 5 months of the year it is necessary to prevent the water from freezing while you are doing the wash.   

I never, ever, wash the car in winter.
Water seeps into nooks and crannies and then freezes immediately.

[weltschmerz]

As it stands now, the driver's side door is frozen shut and will not open. Water must have seeped in somehow....maybe from rain.

[tskeeter]

Jan 20, 2019 19:27:58 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Jan 20, 2019 9:14:17 GMT -5 irishpad said:

Interesting.   We have had the enclosed manual spraying car wash bays around here since I was old enough to own a car (40 years).  But I'm in northern MN so 5 months of the year it is necessary to prevent the water from freezing while you are doing the wash.   

I never, ever, wash the car in winter.
Water seeps into nooks and crannies and then freezes immediately.

Having grown up in -30 MN and living in Buffalo, NY and Chicago, I disagree with your practice of not washing your car in the winter.  With the road salt, I think car washing in the winter is more important than during the summer.  I’ve skipped the winter washing and seen the damage that only a single winter without washing the car can do to paint and sheet metal.

I do agree that freezing water does cause some issues.  But they are easily overcome.  You combat frozen door locks by not spraying water directly against the locks.  If you use an automatic car wash, a piece of masking tape over the lock will keep the water out.  A squirt of WD-40 (water displacing formula number 40) into the lock can help, too.  To prevent doors from freezing shut, wipe down the door frames and the rubber door seals after running the car through the car wash. Takes less than five minutes.  To keep salty sand from rusting out fenders, wheel wells, etc., cleaning the undercarriage every time you wash the car during the winter will flush sand and salt out of nooks and crannies.  Following these car washing practices means the cars that we have driven for more than 10 years each didn’t have any rust damage when we retired them.  Cars are too expensive let them rust into oblivion.

[Lizard Queen]

My old car used to freeze shut on me all the time in winter. It wasn't just washing that did it. It happened way more ogten than that. It wasnt as bad when my remote starter still worked on the thing, as I could thaw it out without too much trouble then. So glad I can park in a garage these days.

[nittanycheme]

Depending on where you park and the temperature of your car, you could get condensation in part of the door, and the condensation could freeze.   That used to happen to me at my one apartment where my assigned spot was shady.  Nice in summer, annoying in winter.

I also try to at least rinse off my car, and its undercarriage, fairly regularly in winter.  PA loves its salt, and it just eats metal.  And the dings from the cinders......

[tskeeter]

Jan 21, 2019 21:35:26 GMT -5 nittanycheme said:

Depending on where you park and the temperature of your car, you could get condensation in part of the door, and the condensation could freeze.   That used to happen to me at my one apartment where my assigned spot was shady.  Nice in summer, annoying in winter.

I also try to at least rinse off my car, and its undercarriage, fairly regularly in winter.  PA loves its salt, and it just eats metal.  And the dings from the cinders......

Nittany, you shouldn’t be collecting water of any form inside your car’s doors.  Did you know that the bottom edge of car doors contains weep holes, to drain away any water that gets inside the door?  If you’re hearing a sloshing noise when you open and close doors, the drain holes have gotten plugged.  Open up the weep holes with a piece of coat hanger, or the like.  Then spray water against the closed window to flush dirt and accumulated debris out of the bottom of the door.  If there us a lot of gunk inside the door, you may need to clear the weep holes more than once before you have enough gunk cleaned out of the door so that the weep holes work as intended.

[nittanycheme]

Jan 22, 2019 13:43:13 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Jan 21, 2019 21:35:26 GMT -5 nittanycheme said:

Depending on where you park and the temperature of your car, you could get condensation in part of the door, and the condensation could freeze.   That used to happen to me at my one apartment where my assigned spot was shady.  Nice in summer, annoying in winter.

I also try to at least rinse off my car, and its undercarriage, fairly regularly in winter.  PA loves its salt, and it just eats metal.  And the dings from the cinders......

Nittany, you shouldn’t be collecting water of any form inside your car’s doors.  Did you know that the bottom edge of car doors contains weep holes, to drain away any water that gets inside the door?  If you’re hearing a sloshing noise when you open and close doors, the drain holes have gotten plugged.  Open up the weep holes with a piece of coat hanger, or the like.  Then spray water against the closed window to flush dirt and accumulated debris out of the bottom of the door.  If there us a lot of gunk inside the door, you may need to clear the weep holes more than once before you have enough gunk cleaned out of the door so that the weep holes work as intended.

I am not hearing sloshing noises in my door - I would get condensation between the two faces of the door panels.  So, when you open the doors, you would see some water droplets on the edge of the open door and on the door jamb on the car .  So the painted parts of the door that are close together when the door is closed.

And its not my current car.  Its built much better than my 85 Renault alliance.

[countrygirl2]

I just ran my truck through the wash today, the ones with brushes, to get the snow melt stuff off.  Did great, got on the side road to the house, met several semis and got crap all over it again.  Nothing froze.

[toomuchreality]

Jan 10, 2019 11:09:34 GMT -5 sheilaincali said:

We pay a lovely man named Spencer $45 a week to mow our lawn. We could easily do it ourselves but frankly we don't want to and it keeps us from having to give up a Saturday to mow.

In the winter I pay extra per gallon to go to the full service gas station so I don't have to stand outside in the cold.

We've eaten out every dinner for the past 4 nights so we don't have to go to the grocery store.

You still have full service stations available? ! ?     I am SO jealous!
It has been years since I even saw one.  I didn't know they even existed anymore.
Wow.

[toomuchreality]

  I like this thread.

[NoNamePerson]

Jan 23, 2019 1:12:37 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

Jan 10, 2019 11:09:34 GMT -5 sheilaincali said:

We pay a lovely man named Spencer $45 a week to mow our lawn. We could easily do it ourselves but frankly we don't want to and it keeps us from having to give up a Saturday to mow.

In the winter I pay extra per gallon to go to the full service gas station so I don't have to stand outside in the cold.

We've eaten out every dinner for the past 4 nights so we don't have to go to the grocery store.

You still have full service stations available? ! ?     I am SO jealous!
It has been years since I even saw one.  I didn't know they even existed anymore.
Wow.

Don't know where sheilaincali lives but this explains the "self service/full service rules/laws or whatever just a little.

In the United States, gas jockeys were often tipped for their services, but this is now rare as full-service stations are uncommon except in the states New Jersey and Oregon (counties with more than 40,000 residents), and the town of Huntington, New York, where retail customers are prohibited by law from pumping their ...


Filling station attendant - Wikipedia


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_station_attendant

[TheOtherMe]

I live in a small town in rural Iowa.  We have a full service gas station here that is locally owned.  I have gone there in the winter when it gets really cold.  It's worth some extra money for it.

[Tennesseer]

Jan 23, 2019 7:40:40 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Jan 23, 2019 1:12:37 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

You still have full service stations available? ! ?     I am SO jealous!
It has been years since I even saw one.  I didn't know they even existed anymore.
Wow.

Don't know where sheilaincali lives but this explains the "self service/full service rules/laws or whatever just a little.

In the United States, gas jockeys were often tipped for their services, but this is now rare as full-service stations are uncommon except in the states New Jersey and Oregon (counties with more than 40,000 residents), and the town of Huntington, New York, where retail customers are prohibited by law from pumping their ...


Filling station attendant - Wikipedia


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_station_attendant

An old boss of mine once told me that was the only good thing about living in New Jersey.

The boss hated New Jersey, her job, and all the employees in her organization. When she finally quit, the three of us employees who worked on-site with her (the rest were in the field) helped put her belongings in her vehicle and remained in the parking lot until she and her vehicle left it. We wanted to be sure she was not coming back.

[NoNamePerson]

Jan 23, 2019 10:40:50 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

I live in a small town in rural Iowa.  We have a full service gas station here that is locally owned.  I have gone there in the winter when it gets really cold.  It's worth some extra money for it.

There are times when I wish we had a few but they would probably be in the north or south part of the county and would have to drive 20 miles one way to find it.

It has been so long since full service that if someone walked up to my car at service station I would think they were going to try to rob me or start begging for gas money to get the pg wife to the hospital.

[TheOtherMe]

There is a full service station in the next town over also.  The gas stations right off the highway exit are chains.  Pretty much have to be local to know either one is there.  

[NoNamePerson]

Jan 23, 2019 10:59:10 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

There is a full service station in the next town over also.  The gas stations right off the highway exit are chains.  Pretty much have to be local to know either one is there.  

In my case the next town over would be the state west of me - county line butts up to it

[mollyc]

I don't know about Montreal but BC doesn't use salt anymore or at least very rarely. Up here they use sand and small gravel. Easier on the environment and cars and some what reuseable.

[sheilaincali]

Jan 23, 2019 1:12:37 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

Jan 10, 2019 11:09:34 GMT -5 sheilaincali said:

We pay a lovely man named Spencer $45 a week to mow our lawn. We could easily do it ourselves but frankly we don't want to and it keeps us from having to give up a Saturday to mow.

In the winter I pay extra per gallon to go to the full service gas station so I don't have to stand outside in the cold.

We've eaten out every dinner for the past 4 nights so we don't have to go to the grocery store.

You still have full service stations available? ! ?     I am SO jealous!
It has been years since I even saw one.  I didn't know they even existed anymore.
Wow.

I live in Minnesota. It's a small service station owned by friends of the family (the owners are godparents to my nephew as their daughter is my sister's bestie). We used to have a couple but now it's just down to the one. They do oil changes and small service tasks there too. Family owned- it's just Randy, his dad and Randy's brother (brother suffered a traumatic brain injury as a kid so he still lives at home with their dad).

True story- I didn't know how to pump gas until I went to college. We had an account at a different full service station so Tom pumped every tank of gas I needed from the day I got my license and my first car until I left for college. I actually had to go into the gas station when I was in college and ask the attendant to come and show me how to pump gas. Fortunately it was a tiny town that my dad's family is really well known in and my aunt's family owned that gas station chain so I just named dropped and the guy very kindly showed my dumb ass how to pump gas. 25 years later my family still laughs about that.

[TheOtherMe]

Jan 23, 2019 11:03:12 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Jan 23, 2019 10:59:10 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

There is a full service station in the next town over also.  The gas stations right off the highway exit are chains.  Pretty much have to be local to know either one is there.  

In my case the next town over would be the state west of me - county line butts up to it

In my case, the next town over is 4 miles away.  It's also on the way to where dad lives.  It has come in handy a few times.

[Lizard Queen]

Jan 23, 2019 11:13:23 GMT -5 mollyc said:

I don't know about Montreal but BC doesn't use salt anymore or at least very rarely. Up here they use sand and small gravel. Easier on the environment and cars and some what reuseable.

From what I've observed driving to visit in-laws in Cinncinati, they don't plow snow in southern Indian a and ohio. They just salt the crap out of the snow with some chemically looking salt.


As far as full service gas stations go, in not sure there's any left anywhere within 100's of miles near me, but the little shop on the corner still might be. They have pumps, but don't advertise gas prices, so I'm not sure.

[weltschmerz]

Jan 23, 2019 16:37:20 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

Jan 23, 2019 11:13:23 GMT -5 mollyc said:

I don't know about Montreal but BC doesn't use salt anymore or at least very rarely. Up here they use sand and small gravel. Easier on the environment and cars and some what reuseable.

From what I've observed driving to visit in-laws in Cinncinati, they don't plow snow in southern Indian a and ohio. They just salt the crap out of the snow with some chemically looking salt.


As far as full service gas stations go, in not sure there's any left anywhere within 100's of miles near me, but the little shop on the corner still might be. They have pumps, but don't advertise gas prices, so I'm not sure.

I believe we mostly use gravel/sand.
Salt becomes ineffective at very low temperatures and very bad for the environment.

[chapeau]

Jan 23, 2019 10:59:10 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

There is a full service station in the next town over also.  The gas stations right off the highway exit are chains.  Pretty much have to be local to know either one is there.  

The next town over from me has one full service station.y town had an ordinance requiring gas be pumped for you until recently. I loved having someone else pump the gas for me when I was pregnant.
It’s kind of funny to me—the stations in my town always charged 10 or 15 cents a gallon more for gas, and we chalked it up to full service. Full service went away, and the price of gas? Still 10 to 15 cents higher than the self serve stations just outside of town.
The station in the next town charges only a penny or two a gallon more. I go there occasionally when I’m in that town. The guy who pumps the gas went to high school with my husband.

[TheOtherMe]

In Iowa, salt is used on the roads.  The warning for the weekend is that it's going to be too cold for the salt to be effective.  Seems to me since I moved here, environmental concerns about the salt are not as problematic for the powers that be as they were in Colorado.