Car Wash Rainbow

Every once in a while I run into some cool technological marvel that brings the wide-eyed child in me onto her feet, exploding with excitement. I grew up in a pretty low-tech culture-India in the 50’s and 60’s-so it doesn’t take a lot to enthrall me.

This week, it was my first drive through a Touchless Car Wash. My little blue Toyota Matrix was covered in summer dust so thick that squirting it with wiper fluid and turning on the windshield wipers merely smeared the glass with brown sludge. So yesterday I went to my local gas station, paid $9.95 for a wash ticket, and drove around the back of the parking lot to the car wash.

After I’d punched in my ticket number at a sunshine-yellow gatekeeper gizmo who looked a bit like Yoda, but without a face, a green light came on, directing me to drive slowly forward into the car wash’s concrete cave. Inside, jets of water sprayed upward, whispering of underground springs, cleaning the mud off my car’s under-carriage.

Virgo heaven!

While I was still grinning with delight, another green light beckoned me deeper into the cave. Not sure what creatures inhabited its recesses, I inched forward.

Then, a great magic wand wafted over my car, releasing streams of water that sluiced down the sides like monsoon rain. Moments later, a celestial starburst of pink-and-blue-and-yellow foam spurted from on high, covering the windows in softly melting sparkles of color.

I sat there enthralled, wrapped softly inside a foaming rainbow. My inner five-year-old got so excited, I honked the horn, which echoed and re-echoed eerily in the rainbow cave.

By the time the dryers had whooshed the last droplets of water off the windshield, I’d had enough excitement for the day. I drove home, crawled into bed and had a nap.

And dreamed of whooshing rain and foaming rainbows.

How about you? What wonders danced into your life this week?