11 August 2011

The Sweet Sweet Aroma of Vomit:

16 years being a part of my family and my truck is still going strong.  There are some dents, scratches and rust, but with all of those age marks comes a lot of character.  Nearly all of my childhood memories include that truck.  There were so many long car rides to Georgia where all six of us would be crammed next to each other.  My siblings and I would bicker the whole way.  I would ask where we were just about every 30 minutes and when I wasn't nagging about that I would be begging my parents to stop so I could go to the bathroom.  I'm almost positive I was the most annoying child to travel with.  It's seen a lot of spills, barf and dog hair.  I wanted to tackle the job of cleaning it out even though it hasn't been cleaned in 10 years (that isn't an exaggeration.  sad, but true).

There's been a really funky smell lingering in it for some time now, but I didn't care enough to do anything about it before.  The weird odor probably comes from the fact that I was a "very vomitous child" as my mom says or it could have been from the completely shriveled "mystery fruit" that we found under the seat.  Basically, things were pretty nasty in there. 

 This isn't all that bad looking, but under the mat was a thick layer of mulch and mud.

 You can't tell from this picture, but every surface that was gray had a think brown layer of scum on it and behind this seat there was a garbage tower.

 Mmmm, look at all that dust.

It looks pretty jank as you can see.  If you look carefully you'll notice stains all over the dash and floor mats.  

I wish I video taped my experience at the car wash.  Since it was the self-serve car wash, you're timed and you pay for each minute you use the equipment.  My mom was putting the coins in and I was running in circles trying to clean everything as fast as I could.  The force of the water coming out made it a little hard for me to balance as well.  By the end I was dirtier than the car was to begin with.

15 dollars in tokens at the car wash, 3 bottles of various cleaners, 2 different vacuums, 1 whole roll of paper towels, a sponge, wash cloth, towel, leaf blower and 7 hours of hard work later, it's almost unrecognizable.  The term "elbow grease" took on a whole new meaning for me.  I scrubbed every surface to the point where I may or may not have developed a form of carpal tunnel in my arm.  I was all smiles though because I could see what a big difference it was making.  

I used all purpose cleaner, pine sol and carpet cleaner and I still couldn't get all of the stains out.
 I couldn't get the carpet stains out, but the seats were vacuumed twice and the mats were scrubbed three times.

 I had to spend a lot of time cleaning under the mat because there was so much accumulated dirt.

It's the best he's looked in a long time.  The time and effort definitely paid off.

However, I worked so hard to make it look new and clean inside, but no matter what I did I couldn't get all of the stains out.  I won't be able to keep it clean forever.  It may be a bit of a stretch, but it makes me think about our sinful nature.  No matter what we do, we can never be perfect or "clean".  We can work really hard to be good, but we'll always have struggles.  It's only by Christ dying on the cross that we can be righteous in the eye's of God's.  Putting your faith in Him is like getting a miracle wash for your car that will blot out all the stains; past, present and future.  It's amazing how even just cleaning a car can be a reminder of our sinful condition and the beautiful message of salvation.