After traveling 609 miles, our car badly needed a wash. We saw this car wash and thought it was a good deal, only to find that the fully automated wash was out of service. So, I had to opt for the self serve wash.
I had no change so I went to an open door, presumably an office and asked a man sitting and counting money if I could have some quarters. He just stared at me. I asked again and he said "outside on the wall."
I found the change machine and got $10 worth of change, thinking I would only use $5 to clean the car. Well I put $2.50 of quarters in the coin receiver and the wash started up. I began following the proscribed sequence of six steps but before I was even done with step one, a siren started blaring to let me know I had only one minute to finish the wash. Really? How could I possibly be expected to clean the car in two minutes?
This sequence continued until I had spent $10 and the car washing was still not done. The alarm went off again as I fumbled around trying to find a few more quarters before the timer ended. I found the quarters, inserted them into the slot and the time kept ticking down like a time bomb.
By this time, I had inserted three more quarters which the machine did not accept, so instead of being able to incrementally add my quarters, the timer went off and I had to start over with $2.50 in quarters.
I went to the man in the "office" and explained what had happened. He seemed quite perturbed. He got up, gave me one quarter and turned around. I once more told him that the machine had taken three of my quarters and in a surly voice he asked what bay I was in. I told him, he flipped a switch to turn the water on and did not do as much as turn or make eye contact with me when I said "thank you."
Everybody has their day and this was his. even though I spent $10 + he chose to be a grumpy old man and Ann-Margret was nowhere in sight. read more