Picture this: clean machines

Jul. 23—Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that I like things clean and neat.

I am particularly inclined to keep my cars clean, inside and out. I feel like they run better when they're clean, and they feel almost new when I get them washed on the outside and vacuumed on the inside.

There is a myth/missaying in the car world: "It's hard to keep a white car clean." But I am hear to testify that it's much harder to keep a white car dirty, because it shows all the dirt, and for me, that just urges me to wash it.

Another saying in the car world is that car colors like brown "hide the dirt." Sure, I agree with that, but for me it's simple: I don't like hidden dirt any more than I like dirt in plain sight.

Keeping things clean is also critical for my cameras. A colleague once texted me a photo she had shot with her camera, and I replied immediately, "clean the front element of your lens." Just a few seconds passed and she texted back, "How did you know?"

A lot of the used cameras that I buy look worse than they are because they tend to be filthy. I can get a dirty camera to look nicer in about 90 seconds with a toothbrush and a teensie bit of film cleaner.

I thought of all this today when I drove past Ada's Central Fire Station to find firefighter Riley Wilson washing Engine 8. I was reminded of the Beatles song Penny Lane... "He likes to keep his fire engine clean, It's a clean machine."

Also, I feel like I should apologize to the woman in the parking lot at a local box store this week who got kind of upset with me for not putting away a cart in the cart rack. I know we live in contentious times, and it's easy to get upset by the actions of others.

In my defense, I was going to put the cart away, but I got a text message from a friend and stopped to answer it, and putting the cart away got forgotten. You know what, if you are that lady and I upset you, find me and I'll buy you a cup of coffee.