It's raining, so I washed my car

No, really! I went out and washed my car in the rain this morning. I have the day off (thanks to the wisdom of the university I work for), and voted early, and I’ve thought about doing this for some time now. Why waste all of that free water that rinses from top to bottom?

Vlad/Igor

Because…um…when you go through any mud puddles that happen to be laying around after the rain, it’ll just get dirty again?

Other than that, I can’t see anything wrong with it.

Well, yeah, but I mean, they’re not that dirty. My car needed to be cleaned, as the maple tree I park under dropped something (sap? pollen?) on the car, and it was looking pretty grungy.

Vlad/Igor

I’ve always wanted to do that! It seems like such a perfect time to wash a car***, especially if you don’t have to drive off right away.

***But only if there’s no lightning!

I worked as a lot boy at a car dealer when I was in high school. The first time I had to wash cars in the rain I thought I would let the rain rinse the cars off. The cars all looked shiny and clean and I saved myself some time.

It didn’t rain the next day. Every car I washed the day before had a white residue from the soap because the rain did a lousy job of rinsing off the soap. And the residue was a PITA to wash off. Learned a lesson the hard way.