Yeah, Maria's got a raw deal.

Ack! Seven is too many hours.

Last I saw MFNLaw had been on the road for more than 5 hours. Yeesh.

It took a friend of a friend 4 hours to get 7 miles. The local news is saying people are preparing to sleep in their cars on 83 (the highway that runs north-south from the beltway into bmore). It's been closed for hours after a tractor trailer jacknifed on it.

I am VERY happy I was able to leave work early this afternoon.

ION, my next door neighbor is belching REALLY LOUDLY.

I regard not washing my car as a protective measure that makes it less attractive to potential thieves.

Marie has been not going anywhere for way to long

I'm just enough worried about her that I keep checking, even though I can do nothing from this side of the country

She'll be ok, but I do wish we'd had the foresight to tell her to burrow in in DC or here.

Looks like the GW parkway is 'clearing' so maybe she is moving

My mother says that most people get their cars washed once a week.

I don't think I ever washed the crappy Ford Tempo that I had for 4 years. (It was grey, but not nice grey, that sort of dark steel grey -- it was more grey like...white mixed with about 5% black paint. People always thought it was a white car that hadn't been washed, when in actuality it was a grey car that hadn't been washed.)

The place around the corner vacuums the car and clean off the dash and the insides of the windows, and then they take it through a drive-thru wash but then when it comes out they check it by hand and do some more specific scrubbing where the car wash didn't get it. That's all about $14, and I tip the guy about $5 (hey, the economy sucks, I imagine he doesn't get paid much of a wage, he's doing a chore I clearly have proven I don't want to do, and so if I have the money, I'm happy to tip him well above 30%).

Anyway, I get the Spud washed in the winter if the car has gotten horribly salty and mucky AND the temps are above freezing. Other than that, I get it washed maybe once or twice more a year, if the car has gotten muddy or particularly gnarly or something.

And ALWAYS the day after we get back from the beach, I take it in to get all the sand vacuumed out and the saltwater and sand washed off before it destroys my paint job and underbody.

Basically, NOT once a week.

the salt and sand from the roads builds up on the windows so much that I can barely see through them if I let it go any longer than that

Well, that kind of stuff I just clean off myself, everyday (or when it needs it).