I honestly don't know what it's called, but there it is. The windshield cover for my car. I know lots of people have them and use them but I never ever did until we moved here. It was purchased very shortly after we moved to Florida. After I had burned my shorts wearing legs one too many times because of car sitting outside in the hot summer sun, off we went to good old Walmart to find a solution. I opted for the pretty butterflies with absolutely no hesitation. Tim bought a cover for his cars windshield as well (his does not have butterflies on it in case you wondered) but never ever uses his. I presume that he doesn't bother because his air conditioning works. Mine does not.
Most of the time having no functional AC is not a big deal. And I mean that very seriously. First of all, I rarely drive anywhere. It's a small island. Almost every single place I need to be is walking distance. Secondly, most of the year, the weather is gorgeous thereby making each errand walked, a delight. And lastly, I like walking at least as much as I dislike driving, maybe more. For me, this works. During those couple of horrible high heat and humidity months, I borrow Tim's car. Usually it's just for grocery shopping. When the heat/humidity dealio is super bad, let's say, the month of August, I don't want my yogurt turned into soup before I get home so Air Conditioning is a darned good idea. No big deal. Tim has no problem with me borrowing his car now and again. The rest of the year, in my own car, if I absolutely must drive, I just put my windows down and enjoy the breeze. AND I find that as long as I use the windshield covers, or whatever they are called, while the inside of the car may be stuffy from being closed up when not in use, at least the seats are not blazing hot. The vast majority of the time, this system works just fine. But every once in a long while, there is an issue. Like this morning when Tim dropped his car off at the garage for some work to be done and I needed to pick him up. I certainly didn't mind picking him up. And it was early enough in the day that the heat wasn't an issue. And it's late enough in the season that the humidity is starting to back off a little bit. Nope the problem was that since I drive so rarely, and drive my own car even less frequently than that, I forgot something important. The place where I was picking Tim up was off-island. Now, we live on the west coast of Florida. In fact, we live on an island off the west coast of Florida which means that we drive east to get off the island. Dead East as it so happens. And this was first thing in the morning which means as the sun is coming up. So I was driving directly toward that big fireball in the sky. What's the issue, you wonder? I mean, I do own perfectly good sunglasses, right? I do not know what it is called and I do not know why it exists, but my car (maybe it's all cars, I have no idea) develops this little film on the inside of the windshield that can only be detected when driving directly into the sun. This little film makes seeing out of the windshield nigh on to impossible. I forgot about this. It's been a long time since I drove anywhere facing due east first thing in the morning. So at the appointed time, I jumped behind the wheel, started her up and drove, first south which is not a problem. The issue simply does not exist unless I'm driving into the sun. My visibility is absolutely perfect driving south. Or west. Or north. Or in the shade. Or under cloudy skies. Or at nighttime. The problem is completely undetectable unless I'm facing into the sun. Which happened as soon as I turned east. Dang! Now I remember. I immediately pulled over, which itself was an accomplishment because I could see almost nothing out the window, and scrabbled through my purse and the glove box looking for something to...I don't know...maybe wipe down the inside of the windshield? First I pulled out my glasses wipie cloth thingie. I don't know what that's called either. Man, I'm having a day here. Anyway, it seemed logical to me that if it would clean a pair of sunglasses, or a TV screen or a computer monitor that it would also clean the inside of a car windshield. As it turns out, that is incorrect! It kind of smears whatever is already on the glass. Not good. Now at this point, I know that Tim is probably waiting and wondering what the heck is keeping me, so I even starting looking in the pockets of the back seat wondering if someone had, at some point accidentally left behind a scarf or some socks or, I don't' know, am errant sweatshirt? (I know, crazy) But unfortunately, I keep my car very clean and tidy. Usually that is not a bad thing. But in this one instance, it would have been great if I had overlooked an abandoned beach towel or something. I was seriously considering my own shirt when I found one of those small tissue packets in the back of the glove box. There was one lone tissue in it. I folded it over several times and leaned way forward into the windshield to put as much pressure on that itty bitty tissue as possible and scrubbbed with all my tiny might at a portion of the glass that was directly in front of my face. Marginal success. Enough for me to very carefully limp down the road, over the bridge and pick Tim up. The way home was fine as we were once again pointed westward. Whew! Anyone know what the heck that icky film is? Has anyone else experienced this? What causes it? How do I prevent it? Or at least properly clean it? That was a downright scary drive!
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AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
November 2024
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