Wax On, Wax Off

My current automobile surpassed its ten year anniversary this year.  

 It has a been a reliable Mazda which we originally purchased as the alternative to a dying mini-van: seats six, has a fold down back, and (most importantly) is a standard transmission.  The car has performed well, seeing us back three times to Old Home and back again and numerous in-state travels.  Its status as "my automobile" occurred when the determination was made that the back seats really were not all that comfortable and a mini-van was really needed for the hauling of people, animals, and things at which point it reverted to me (the old saw about my next new car being my wife's old one is rather true).

We have yet to crack 200,000 miles (The Plague Of 2020 saw to that) and may not do so until next year.  That said, it it has had it 200,000 mile service and overall is in fine running condition inside and out.  A few things have gone wrong, of course:  the fancy cable port to hook up your phone for music no longer works and the CD player no longer plays CDs but that is a minor issue and - since I drive far less and listen to things far less in the car - not really an issue.  The interior remains in relatively pristine condition:  scratches on the plastic of course, a small dent in the ceiling where a 4" x 4" post went in a bit - but still eminently serviceable for the all too few times I haul anyone besides animals around any more.

The outside is also in "reasonable" shape considering 10 years of molten sunshine and freezing cold - again, the minor scratches and dings that any car acquires after so many years but the paint has held up relatively well.

My hope is that I can keep the car for another 10 years (I was spoiled by an early 1990's Ford Escort my wife had when we got married; we got 310,000 K mileage on the car and only got rid of it because it failed emissions testing; it still ran fine).  Given my current or even future mileage over the next 10 years, this seems very possible given it is a standard transmission, I change the oil regularly and the transmissions fluids semi-regularly, and I continue to foresee low mileage.  But the outside has to hold up as well,

So this weekend I waxed my car.

Car waxing is a thing that I seem to remember being done far more often than I see it being done now.  My father would do it from time to time with the cars we had growing up:  I remember him washing them in the driveway, smearing the wax all over it, waiting for it to dry, and then polishing it off.  Polishing it off was a fun task when one is young - for a while, until you get bored or it becomes clear it is a great deal more difficult than it looks.  Later - in my teenage years - my father got a buffer, which helped matters immeasurably.

My car - being small and short - makes waxing at least possible.  I washed the car, put on the wax, and waited.

And thought while I waited, of course.  There is always that.

What I realized is that in fact one does not see people doing this anymore at all.

Oh, occasionally I will see someone in the neighborhood doing it.  But it is a rare - to be fair, it is rare to see anyone really doing anything to their car in the driveway anymore.  For long years we had droughts and washing a car was forbidden at home; this seems to have stuck and now it almost never happens (I cannot tell you how odd it felt doing it in my own driveway).

This represents, I suppose, just another task most have outsourced.  I believe they call it "detailing" now, where the car goes through the wash and then someone else does the work while one drinks coffee and watches the phone or someone comes to your place of business and does it while you do your regular job.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this of course - the value of time and money, etc. - and represents the same general trend that sees lawns mowed and bushes trimmed by a third party and oil changes done while you wait.  I certainly understand it: yard work is the least favorite of my domestic chores, my confidence in working on my car and not creating a larger issue is low,  and there are certainly more profitable ways to spend my time.

But I wonder if we lose something by all of this outsourcing.

As I discussed earlier, the Economy of Service can be a dangerous path to go down - not only for those that become dependent on it but for those that use it.  Skills atrophy or are even lost.  The ability to do a relatively simple task like waxing a car or mowing a lawn becomes a task which is overwhelming in our mind, something left to someone who can do the work well instead of our pathetic efforts to do so.  Given enough time and outsourcing of our skills, we can become incapable or doing anything or even being willing to try.  Everything must be left to the "experts".

I finished the polishing of my car within an hour after starting.  There were certainly spots that I missed and I had to go back and re-polish (there always are; the sign of an amateur), but it overall looked better and at two hours, was not an immeasurable task.

Who knows?  Maybe next time I will get better enough to have to re-polish less.