All I wanted was to wash my car

"MM54" (mm54mk2) 02/20/2016 at 14:47 • Filed to: None

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After Lunch, I decided to take advantage of the unseasonally-warm day and wash my car. Since I moved into this apartment/townhouse/whatever in June, I’ve washed my car other places, so this would actually be the first time I’ve done it here.

I try to connect my hose to the spigot in the garage - it doesn’t fit. Further investigation reveals that this spigot had an external vacuum break which someone removed...

Talked to the front office, they put in a work order but it will be Monday at the soonest that anyone can look at it.

I walk around the side of the building, and there’s a spigot on the exterior wall - vacuum break in-tact! Ah-ha! Turn it on... no water.

After thinking about it for a while, I remember seeing a couple weird shutoffs in weird places inside (I live in the unit on the end where the water main comes in) - most of them were already on, but the one behind the washing machine was off. I turned it on and went outside...

Turn on the spigot, and there’s water! The problem though is that the water was coming out of everywhere except for where it’s supposed to - the vacuum break was broken so it actually plugged the hose connection and was ‘venting’ all the water.

By this point I said screw it and drove to Home Depot (where I parked next to a very nice e38) - they didn’t have the part. Went down the street to Lowes (where I parked diagonally from an e60 M5) and they didn’t have it either.

With a heavy sigh, I decided I’d just feed the machine all my quarters on my way home, to at least rinse the 1/8" of salt and sand off most of the car. I noticed there seemed to be more traffic than usual this time of day. I discovered it was due to the line at the car wash wrapping around the building and back out into traffic 1/4 mile .

I came home. My car is still dirty.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > MM54 02/20/2016 at 14:54

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Welcome to hell. One of few upsides to SFH living is that you can actually wash your car and wrench.

I'm amazed you even have a place to wash your car - most places have HOAs and HOA Nazis that will prohibit you from doing it or fine you.

MM54 > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2016 at 14:58

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Lucky I’m just renting, 8 months into my year-long lease, and I’m lining up to close on a house by the time that lease is up - a house that’s far far away from any sort of subdivision/HOA.

I’ve gotten a couple dirty looks working on my car here, but nobody’s said anything yet. I’ve seen a few other people washing their cars so I doubt anyone will mind that, if I ever get my hose hooked up.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > MM54 02/20/2016 at 15:09

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Well that’s too damn bad. Dirty car for you.