It has been a very dreary, rainy weekend. You know, to finish out the Triumvirate of Weather – what with the snow two weekends ago and 80 degrees last weekend.
All of this rain has gotten me thinking a lot about windshield wipers. I guess I can’t really help thinking about them, since when I’m in the car I’m continuously tinkering with them. I can’t ever get them to the exact right speed.
I really dislike them in general, because the back and forth motion makes my eyes very sleepy. But I also can’t stand to have water on the windshield. So I want them on a speed that takes care of all water, but has no extra rotations in it.
However, Chris is a much more sparing wiper user. He will let the windshield get completely covered in little droplets before using them. I will be sitting in the passenger seat, DYING to reach over and hit the wiper knob. I have to remind myself over and over, “Don’t do it. It’s ok if I can’t see – I’m not driving. He knows what he’s doing. Don’t do it.”
He’ll put up with a fair amount passenger seat driving from me because he has a tendency to not pay attention to where he’s going, especially if I’m in the car with him and we’re wrapped up in conversation. He will completely miss exits or turns that he takes on a daily basis if he’s in the middle of a conversation with me. Who knows WHERE we would end up if I didn’t pipe up.
I know, I’m just that distracting. :)
So I have this habit of always being aware of where we’re going and how to get there when he’s driving, because I often save us from detours.
However, I think telling him when and how to use windshield wipers would cross the threshold of my allowable backseat driving input.
So I will keep reminding myself that as long as he can see, then I don’t have to.
We just might miss a turn or two.
I can SO relate to this! I wonder sometimes if my husband has some kind of super-human ability that lets him see through all the water on his windshield. I know I don’t have that gift!
On a related note, have you ever noticed that when you hit a bug with your windshield, it inevitably hits at a location that your wipers don’t go? You can spray all the wiper fluid you want and turn your wipers up to turbo speed, but the bug remains aren’t gonna budge! Grrrr.
Do you think the deal with the wipers is a man thing? Leo will not turn them on until I have not been able to see already; and, yes I want to tell him to but try not to say anything since his is driving. Also, I agree on the speed, I cannot EVER get them like I want. I also insist on always having new wipers, they must get all the water. LYB
AHhhh, I just left you a comment, and then my internet shut down and I think the comment was lost! Oh well! What I was saying was, my husband is totally anal about windshield wipers too. He buys new ones all the time and is always tinkering with them.
My husband does that, too! It must be a man thing or something, where they can see through water far better than we can. I have restrained myself from reaching over to help him in the task of clearing the abundance of water he barely notices.
On a similar note…yesterday he was making pancakes like he does every Sunday. I stand next to him because I’m the resident butterer/syruper person. I know those are not real words, at least “syruper” anyway. So I kindly reached over to increase the heat to the two frying pans he was using. Several minutes later we had two burned pancakes and he wasn’t very happy. He never did blame me because he was multi-tasking. The dishwasher had been calling his name to be emptied as the pancakes were cooking.
Needless to say, I will not be turning up the heat in the kitchen!!
If you put the RainX on right, you can (almost) get by without using windshield wipers. When my husband was in high school, his truck was a disaster. One night, his wipers quit, but he had to get home. He used Rain X and was able to make it 20 miles to his house.
After riding with my husband in the rain yesterday evening, I can say he also waits until way past my visiblity comfort zone until he turns on the wipers. But he will also keep them on until way past the point of needing them.
I wonder if this goes back to their lack of multi-tasking skills? They’re focused on driving, and will ignore such petty problems as visibility in order to accomplish the goal of getting from point A to point B. But once, the wipers are on, they ignore the horrible grating sound of dry rubber on glass because they are still fully focused on the task at hand, which is driving – not fiddling with the wipers.
So just for those of you who are dying of curiosity as to why a comment was “removed by the author”, I accidentally posted my comment twice, so I removed one of the comments. : )
I know exactly how you feel, don’t they understand the amount of anxiety that is built-up behind those huge droplets of rain. So when I finally say something like, I can’t see through this windshield, can you? He puts them on high and leaves them that way, even long after the rain has stopped, it’s terrible because they squeek something terrible. One time we were at a bank drive thru (under a covered area) and they were on high and one of them flew off- I am totally serious, we still have the gouge in the windshield where the metal in middle of the blade scratched the windshield, a continual reminder to listen to your wife (your helpmate) she does know best. This has been one cleansing laughfest for me thank you!! Just keep up the great writing!! I’ll be back.-Jen