Advice

I get a lot of advice from people, mostly those I don't know very well, like co-workers and acquaintences. Anyone who knows me at all won't ever set me up on a blind date, invite me to join them at church, recommend a chain restaurant, or a say to me a second time: "[insert movie name here] was so great, you'd love it!" This is pretty much all because I won't. Won't go on a date with your friend, or go to church (with you or without you), or like any restaurant movie that' s not foreign, indie, or at least weird. So most people don't try telling me that I'll want to do something because they thought it was a good idea; maybe I'm a contrarian, and just don't like it because I've been told it's great.

But I did get some good advice yesterday: Since the heat is baking my poor car in the parking lot, which is full sun, try cracking the windows a half inch. Otherwise they might actually crack as the0 hot air inside the car expands. It seemed logical and not a matter of preference, just a scientific tidbit. So when I remembered to try it today, imagine my surprise when the car was actually cooler when I got in to leave for lunch.

Once I tried washing my windshield with wiper fluid (stored under the hood, and therefore out of the direct sun, so much cooler) on a sunny afternoon. Well, this was my old Civic, and it had a hairline crack in the glass which instantly spread to several inches long when the cooler liquid made conact with the scorching glass. Of course, common sense might have told me what it took me $180 to learn. (But at least the guys came out to work to replace it several days later, when I finally decided that I couldn't live with it that way forever. Ironically, I wrecked my car soon afterward.)

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