Over the weekend I decided that it would be a good thing for my Focus if I put it through one of those drive-thru car washes at a gas station. I had been running errands all day, saw the opportunity to fill up and pay for the car wash, and took it. Those of you who know my Focus also know that she (yes, she) has been subjected to a few incidents that involved me knocking the side mirror off of her while backing out of my downtown driveway. This later turned into the right side mirror falling off while I was driving 80 mph down 95 to Miami with three of my friends, and none of them even blinked an eye while I grabbed the mirror, held it in my car, and drove to the nearest exit to buy some duct tape. The duct tape has been on the right mirror for a few months now, but the left mirror has also been sort of loose, and able to be popped back on.

As I’m sitting in the car in the car wash, I’m feeling happy that my car wasn’t going to be dirty anymore. And then I realize that this is definitely not a touch-free car wash. It has those big furry looking things that spin, and it’s going to hit my left mirror, which is not duct tapped to the car.

Oh shit.

I watched the spinning brush thing come towards my car, and on its first pass, Focus’s left mirror survived. It wasn’t so lucky on the second pass, and I prayed that it wouldn’t come off and get flung at my car, because the huge spinning brush had knocked it off at that point. There was a car behind me, and I couldn’t go forward, couldn’t back out. So after the car was over, I hauled my ass out of there and drove right to the dealership, who fixed both mirrors, as well as the dome light (which had been hanging down). For a measly $350.

And that’s the story of how my dear little Focus, who gets 27 mpg, became a lot less ghetto.