10,000 Starlings

10,000 starlings have gathered in my bare maple tree over the past few weeks. My car, which gets parked under this tree, became completely covered in bird poop. 

Today my husband Bill and I finally decided to find a car wash. I knew of one in my area - Thundermist on Pulaski Boulevard. It was completely automated from payment to wash and rinse. The big cobalt blue rag brushes twirled on metal arms passing back and forth along both sides of the vehicle giving the illusion that we were moving. Then there was a sudsy rinse and a blow dry that felt like a hurricane. It was my first amusement park ride.

When we arrived back home and got out and inspected the clean car I noticed my rear driver's side red plastic taillight cover was gone. Bill suggested that we go back to the car wash and see if it was there. I imagined that if it was it would be crushed, driven over by patrons. My husband was more optimistic.

There was a man at the car wash with a pickup truck off to the side tending to the grounds and I walked over and told him what happened. He asked me which bay of the two and then walked right into the car wash to look around for it while it was spraying water on a customer's car. He's going to get completely soaked, I thought. My husband followed him and, Mr. Physics that he is, thought to check the corners and guess what? He found the tail light cover and it was intact. We thanked the man who turns out was the manager. He said, Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Bill dismantled the whole tail light from the vehicle and it was clear that it had been glued on in the past, probably by the previous owner. Now we have glued the cover back on with special glue that we purchased at the neighborhood auto parts shop.  We now have to wait 30 minutes for the glue to set before we it reattach it to the car.