The ConverSAYtion
The ConverSAYtion is simply a couple of middle aged men sharing company and conversation. Psych and K take their time sorting through so much to say about society, culture, relationships, education, finance, technology, health, and more. Inspired to find engaging ways to entertain and enrich the lives of their listeners is their primary pursuit. Join them as they invest themselves in providing value to their audience. Welcome to The ConverSAYtion.
The ConverSAYtion
When Convenience Meets Absurdity: A Gated Community Saga
In this engaging and humorous episode, we dive into the trials and tribulations of daily life, focusing on the oddities of living in a gated community. Join us as we recount wild experiences and discuss recent changes that turned a simple entrance into an obstacle course! From unwarranted rule changes to the absurdity of excessive regulations, our conversation flows with laughter and relatable anecdotes.
We also shift gears to the fascinating realm of car rentals and detailing, sharing a recent adventure in Phoenix, where luxury meets confusion. Listen in as Letter K delightedly narrates the intricacies of driving a BMW for the first time, bringing insights into the rental experience and the joys of car care. If you’ve ever found solace in maintaining your vehicle, you’ll resonate with the discussions around detailing techniques and tips for keeping your car looking pristine.
This episode challenges you to consider how rules and regulations shape our lives, often leading to unnecessary complexity. How does this mirror your own experiences? Join us for an entertaining exploration of modern living, full of humor, insights, and captivating stories that will leave you reflecting on your own daily hurdles. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to stay connected!
You don't gotta do it if you don't want to. You don't gotta do it if you don't want to. You don't gotta do it if you don't want to. It's just a suggestion. That wasn't an accident. I have no concept of that. We've been over this. Yeah, I know, and I actively. That's you, yeah, and all I do is take it off and put it back on.
Speaker 2:So I don't know how I can, but you've been consistently putting it back on this.
Speaker 1:So I submit that I might not be the problem.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. I contest. You had one job.
Speaker 1:Let's get some vodka in the glasses. Is that a cultural tune? There we go Good, good, good. So we're just getting things going here. Welcome back to the conversation. I'm Letter K.
Speaker 2:I'm.
Speaker 1:Syke and they're Syke. Oh, is the magnet going to go through that sweater? Yeah, it's a little looser, that's good. I'm going to turn it on. Are you on? Of course I I am. I don't think you are I disagree okay, is that left and right? Those two, those two channels are left and one and two. Okay, you got it I'm not making it.
Speaker 2:Where's my frame? Figure it out?
Speaker 1:let me get on my mark so we don't have a topic today. You know things, so many things have been going on and we've been missing a lot of recordings. It's because I've been sick three times so far this year. You shouldn't have done that. I take 100% of the blame. I got a sinus infection and then I got the flu, and then I just came back from the Spartan race in Phoenix and I got an upper respiratory infection and that was brutal. So you know, I thought it would just be good for us just to catch up and I bought bears.
Speaker 2:We've got to sync this episode. What We've got to do the clappy claps, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We can do that anytime. Episode what we could do the clappy claps, oh yeah, yeah we can do that anytime.
Speaker 2:We'll put that in the episode because we're already started.
Speaker 1:I started recording three minutes ago, so the first thing I want to talk about today let's talk about it is the unnecessary added challenge getting to your house yes, so, and you haven't even seen the additional challenge to leave my house oh gosh, so so I have more to look forward to today.
Speaker 1:Yes, so cycling is in a gated community. I'm not gonna tell you where, but uh, you know, it's one of those things where you roll up, you roll your window down, you get the little screen there, you punch in your code, boop, boop, boop, boop, the door opens. But I imagine somebody popped the curb and took out the.
Speaker 2:That's precisely what happened yeah, yeah and so got a photo of it in fact, and so first time it's ever.
Speaker 1:Have you been here for a long time? Yes, and that's first time it's ever happened first time somebody's hit it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it might have been bumped and jostled before, but not knocked clean over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but not knocked all the way off, but still, uh, dysfunctional at the end so so, and I'll tell you why this irks me, but I want to finish explaining what's going on. So you got the window, the boop, boop, boop, boop. But because somebody jumped the curve and took this thing out the, for the first time in the 15 years that sykes been living here, they decided to erect a one of those, one of those, those five and a half foot um, concrete, yellow painted poles in front of it. So now you can't actually drive up to it, no, so what? So I had to come in at an angle yes, get as close as I could, yes, which seems even more dangerous than risking popping the curb. Okay, keep going. And then I had to roll the window down, unbuckle myself, shift over and lean out the window to touch the buttons, and I was stabbing them because they were so far away, and I'm six foot one, so I can't imagine how you feel being sub-six. How is that working out? Please give me the story there.
Speaker 2:Well, first I have some commentary about the process that you took to not inconvenience yourself by inconveniencing yourself. Seen yourself. I simply pull up in the middle and I and I and I take a stroll and I go and I get back in.
Speaker 1:So you're telling me that the answer is to get out of my fucking car? Yes, I didn't do that.
Speaker 2:I don't want to curb my wheels and I don't want to have my my lean out my window or brace myself from a steering wheel as I'm putting too much torque on you know something that I think you don't want to do it because you could not.
Speaker 1:I was able to pull it off barely at my size, so I don't care to try all right. Well, you never know. You're never gonna know if you have the capability to do that.
Speaker 2:If I had just a few more inches, I could make put myself into an uncomfortable position, and if you had just a few more inches, I could make put myself into an uncomfortable position and if you had just a few more inches, you could do that in a lot of different ways yes depending on which direction those inches go.
Speaker 1:Take that how you will. It was a dirty joke, okay. So here's my problem, and this is the. This is the problem that I have with rules in society. We something goes wrong. We put up a sign. You see signs everywhere that are so absurd that you know somebody did that, prompting them to produce and hang this sign. Say this here. This here happened because, as I guessed correctly, somebody knocked over the electronic stand that has the touchpad. Yes, one time yes, and probably in the entire time this gated community has been in existence.
Speaker 2:Yes, knocked it clean off of its foundation. Just nothing but a post and a screen and just flailing wires and so, because something happened one time.
Speaker 1:Our reaction is to make it impossible to comfortably engage with that device ever again. Yes, so that's an issue for me. I share your concerns. At work we have a three complaint rule, okay, so you know, you have an av system that's been running for however long one year, six years, whatever.
Speaker 1:Somebody complains about something, it's you know and it's. It's something like I don't like the way the touch panel doesn't allow you to do this or something like that. Uh, we don't just jump out there and go change that one touch panel because they're all the same for that one customer. Second person complains about the exact same thing and they're not related. Then we put it on a, we put it in a, we put it in a full. We have a list of complaints about specific things in specific spaces. A third person complains about the same thing. Then we go look at it. We don't need to jump through fiery hoops Every time. A single person does something, whether it's right or wrong or a complaint, it's it's. So it's absurd to me that now, now you're getting out of your car and walking several feet and I'm and I'm ruining the torque of my steering wheel because I'm reaching out the window just to get into your gated community. Because one person?
Speaker 1:because in I mean how many houses are in this community a few hundred, uh, maybe, maybe a hundred, maybe a hundred hundred houses perpetually full people going in and out all day. You know tenants, residents, guests in and out all day, thousand cars a day. One time in the 20 years that this place has been in existence, somebody, drunk or high, popped the curb, knocked over that pole and were immediately putting a concrete barrier between us and the touchscreen.
Speaker 2:You nailed it 20 years. This place is 20 years old. Yeah, it's ridiculous, it is. It is absolutely absurd. Yeah, I don't agree with it. It surprised me because I came home, I left for work and it wasn't there. And I came home and it was there and I was like what do I? I was a bit confused at first. I was like what do I do? Where do I place my vehicle? All right, I was like you know what. I was like what do I do? Where do I place my vehicle? All right, I was like you know what? There's no way I'm going to get too close because I don't want to open my door and crash it into this thing. And if I try to come around which I've seen people do I've seen people do what you just described as far as like trying to come in at an angle. I was successful by the way. I got in. So you have astonishing control over your automobile. I don't think very many people could have done what you did and I'd like to see it in person again.
Speaker 1:But be that as it may, Now that we've started drinking, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:I figured all right, I'm just going to accept this. It doesn't do any good. I know why they put it there. I disagree. I suppose if I was really invested, I could file a complaint with the board. I could go to the HOA and lodge a complaint and plead whatever case came to mind and offer any evidence that I could muster up and see if I could get a result.
Speaker 1:But even worse than this, even worse than that, that I think okay, but you answered my second question, which was did they even engage the community before they made the decision to do this?
Speaker 2:Maybe I haven't checked the mail in a few days so maybe I missed it. Wow, that would have been a decision. Yeah, they usually send out. I usually get emails. I have an account with the HOA and they will have announcements and stuff, and many of them I check I would say about over half of them I check. Occasionally I'll miss one. I'm like, oh, okay, they changed the gate code, or oh, they're coming in and doing some tree trimming, or oh, there's a yard sale day and they're going to have the gates open all day. So there's a lot of them that I do come across, but I never would have expected one for that. So it's possible they did notify everybody and give people time to prepare and or object, and I just missed it On the way out.
Speaker 2:There has always been those spikes. You can only drive over one way safely and you back up, or you go the wrong way and your tires are toast right. Well, that thing has been in disrepair since we got here. It seems like monthly. They have a company come out to fix it and service it because the springs or it'll pop down, but one side won't pop back up. It's in three sections and there's typically one section that just gets jammed. There's stuff that gets in there. They're fixing it, it's just a mess.
Speaker 2:So here's what they did they took it out and put a speed bump in its place, right in front of the gate track, in front of it, directly in front of the gate track. So here's my thing and I know I'm a little hypersensitive because I just recently purchased a vehicle, a new, a newer vehicle, new to me. So when you go over that speed bump, you're at the high right and you come back down and you're coming right back down on a sharp edge and I'm just like I'm concerned about my tires, I'm concerned about everyone's tires. You go up. I know you drive over. If you drive over the track, that's fine. You're driving up it and then you're coming back down, but now you're higher, so you have more momentum, you have more velocity coming onto a sharp edge that could potentially damage one side and it doesn't serve the original purpose of no, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:Keep anybody out going the wrong way. Somebody drives out going the wrong way. Somebody drives out the gate open. Somebody could drive in, who doesn't?
Speaker 1:so what doesn't reside here? I would love to sit down with the people who made those two decisions and ask them why, because they both sound absurd to me, especially speed bumps. I complain about speed bumps all the time because it's not just speed bumps, it's speed stops, it's speed humps it's speed bumps and there's so many different things, how can we can't decide on what a speed bump should look like.
Speaker 1:You know I, when I drive to work, most people go like the back roads. To get to livermore it's patterson pass, patterson pass corral hollow and years ago old altamont pass road, yeah, but specifically down corral hollow and uh, yeah, passing past. You know there was complaints from the ranchers that are that are in that area and, uh, people going too fast. So maybe about four or five years ago they put in speed humps, 25 mile an hour speed humps for the last like three miles and they're both bubbles and it's every oh wow.
Speaker 2:I haven't driven there in years, when I used to commute out that way, I I was one of those people that drove that ever too fast.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing so it's a 50 right, okay, the whole on both. Both roads stretches of 50 and the speed humps are 25 mile an hour speed humps. They got the the signups as 20 miles an hour, but they're not bumps, they're just like they're like. They're like humps that have kind of a sharp grade. And then there's a section of flatness just for like five or six feet.
Speaker 1:Everybody's going over them at 50 miles an hour anyway. You can just fly over these. So all they're doing is fucking up people's cars? Yes, that's they're doing is fucking up people's cars. Yes, that's the only purpose they serve, unless you slow down. Unless you slow down, which nobody does but you you are once again. You are the one-off guy who?
Speaker 2:because I know how much tires and suspension and brakes and and your springs and your control arms and all that stuff costs. You know from working on vehicles. I don't want to I don't want to damage my stuff.
Speaker 1:So so you're an outlier. Everybody else is just flying over these things, and if you do slow down and I do slow down, not to 25 miles an hour, but I slow down because I don't want to fuck up my car people get mad and they start burning around you, and now, in my opinion, putting those there has made the road more dangerous.
Speaker 2:You might, might have an argument. One day I was taking that road to work and I was flying and there was this car in front of me driving too slow, too slow for you and too slow for all the people backed up behind me. So I got closer to this vehicle than they liked and they decided to flash their red and blue lights at me and I was like, oh, I didn't realize that this was a, a police officer. It was an unmarked car and I thought it was just some guy fooling around. So I called it in and I gave him the plate number and like, oh, yeah, that's one of our own. Yeah, I was like, okay, I'll give this guy his space. But yeah, that was years ago. I'd never been flashed with lights from an unmarked car. It's interesting who was in front of me?
Speaker 1:You would be the guy to get it though.
Speaker 2:Try not to get too close anymore and so. So on the way out, you're going to get to experience that speed bump and tell me what you think. So I drive extremely slow over it and I see people just flying through all the time and they're just like stabbing their tire every single time, and I'll have two, two or three cars behind me as I'm getting up, because I'm just rolling over it with both sets of tires and I'm like okay, you can, you're welcome to do what you want to to your vehicle. I disagree with this. I am going to, I am going to find out what happened, because, as far as the security of the community which is why people choose to live in a gated community in the first place that's unacceptable it unacceptable.
Speaker 1:It negates the whole purpose of that. Yes, Because we're having an extended episode that I plan to cut up. We're taking it a little easy drinking some beers. Today I found Octoberfest Lager it's March, by the way At my local liquor store, A little dusty, but it's good. It's good Dust Bowl. I like Dust Bowl.
Speaker 2:I do as well. Yeah, their brewery is nice. Have you been I?
Speaker 1:don't think I have Interlock.
Speaker 2:No, it's huge. Yeah, it's big, big outdoor area, family friendly. Got a bunch of food out there.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:It's family friendly got a bunch of bunch of food out there.
Speaker 1:It's a nice spot, yeah, yeah, you know when, when we were, when we were working in livermore we're all just kind of plebs before you know, everything happened and now I'm in charge and juice is in charge and everybody's in charge. Yeah, um, we used to get together once a month on a friday. We'd all go. You know, there's all kinds of micro brews in in livermore, they're just everywhere, yeah, and we would all go. There's all kinds of micro brews in Livermore, they're just everywhere, and we would just go to them, a group of guys, eight or 12 of us, and it was fun. So they're fun spots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Went off of First Street and then in Pleasanton Juice and I went.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one time. Yeah, they had the beer garden. Yeah, that was nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like those kinds of things and the weather is so pleasant there, especially in the spring and the summer when it's too hot over here in the Central Valley.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Over there. It's nice. I think it's a fun concept as we're trying to cater to the experience-driven millennial generation and such, having those kinds of things Like. Last time I went to oregon to visit my family in oregon city they've totally gentrified the downtown area and it's just a congested mess. Used to be just this tiny little bumpkin town and now it's like a total, like a portland suburb.
Speaker 1:All right, which is it's one thing, but without the crazy well, maybe some yeah, oregon is oregon, but uh, you know, we went there and there was there was a local brewery. They had they had the perfect center spot at the bottom of the hill at the base of town and they had this outdoor area, indoor, indoor seating, outdoor seating. They had something like like 40 beers that they had produced. That's a lot. Yeah, there was a lot. Oh, wow. They had all kinds of kitschy pun names for everything. Some of them were really fun. And then across the street was one of those food truck parks yes, those are always nice and it was all interconnected to where you go over there and they had like 25, 30 choices for all kinds of stuff, everything from korean barbecue to, you know, you know, to like, you know, flavored cotton candy bowls, and then you could just go back and forth and you mean, and then you're within walking distance of shops in the area, like we went to a used bookstore or closing stores, clothing stores.
Speaker 2:Go make a day of it and it was I mean it was Make your afternoon.
Speaker 1:And that's what we did. We actually and it's right at the end of the Oregon Trail. We were with my nephews and so we walked down to the end of the Oregon Trail, you know, and I was two sheets to the wind at that point. That's why I bought that um, you just died a dysentery shirt. Yeah, I bought it at the at the end of the oregon trail, which I thought was brilliant, even though it was the worst quality shirt just a box shirt from china, still awesome. Yeah, I like those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:Um, the weather's warming up, I mean spring's well, you know it just turned on yesterday. Yeah, this last week was warm. Uh, I think we're supposed to get some rain tomorrow and in midweek and uh, I'm, I'm ready to get outdoors, start doing some more stuff outdoors, grilling, you know. Go for a, go for a weekend drive.
Speaker 1:Maybe take a weekender or two yeah, it's all I'm doing is weekenders. This year we're traveling everywhere, but I don't, I can't, I can't just go on vacations all willy-nilly because I don't have a pto. And if I did my, you're at a pto. No, no, I have plenty, but I have it all planned out throughout the year. Oh, okay, my work right now. You know the guys are, they need me and I'm starting to get into like heavy, heavy stuff I can't talk about it stuff. Yeah, that I'm needed, it's like you know, it's that kind of thing. So a lot of weekend jaunts. We just came back from Phoenix, which was a great time Did a Spartan there, learned a lot about the difference between the California Spartan.
Speaker 2:I want to hear about the car. Tell me more about the vehicle that they bestowed upon you.
Speaker 1:So you know, I did the how's it pronounced. It's Sixit S-I-X-T. It's a German-owned car rental company.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, us, yeah, I suppose they're out there. So you were looking for luxury. I know you were trying to fly out there first class, so we did Do everything first class.
Speaker 1:This is my first time ever that rhymes with fixed. It's called sixth okay so. So, yes, you know it was. It was, uh, valentine's weekend. We actually flew on valentine's day and the wife wanted to go and, do you know, she wanted to come with me and I think that's great. So I was like, well, shoot, you know, we're not just going to go there and watch me run a 5K, let's turn it into a thing. So we did a whole weekend. I got first class seats to fly out there. I mean from California to Phoenix. I mean Sacramento to Phoenix. It's not very far, but Sacramento to Phoenix it's not very far.
Speaker 2:The tickets cost like an extra $30.
Speaker 1:There you go Take my money. It's kind of funny. I tried to get a nice car. I tried to get a convertible. Here it was a Camaro or a Corvette convertible. They were having a special. I used Expedia to book this whole thing. Every time I clicked on the car link it crashed. Expedia Got a broken link. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was the special. So I was like, eh, that's a little sus Special's out, and so I ended up. So I did it two or three times and it just kept crashing the app. So I just was like you know, forget it. I went with the camry or similar and it's like whatever, not a big deal, you know, we're not going to care. Either way, we get there and yeah, the guys like guys like you know what you guys seem like a, seem like you're here to have a little fun. We'll upgrade your vehicle. Nice thing about working for a german auto rental places we got a lot of beamers on hand and he gave me and he upgraded me to the, the bmw a 228i. Okay, that's what it was, and what a gorgeous car I mean it. It took me a while to figure out how the seat worked because it it didn't just go up, back, forward, up and down and and in and out, and it had it had like like stuff for your, for your back contour the bolsters on it.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was all these buttons and you can't see any of the buttons. You're just sitting there, dude, there's, there's four more buttons. What the hell's going on here? And so, yes, and then it was like unnecessarily difficult to drive, like. So there was a learning curve. It wasn't a normal car, like you had to hold things down to shift and press stuff and add all kinds of features that didn't expect you to do it yourself, which most cars do, and so I had to figure all that stuff out. I was asking chat GPT how to drive the damn car.
Speaker 2:Very helpful by the way they should have put that AI right in the car itself.
Speaker 1:but we got it all going and it was just one I mean not one of. It was the smoothest ride I've ever driven. I mean, just, do you think our next car will be something similar to that? Nah, probably not. I don't need to spend that kind of money on a vehicle. It was nice though it was a nice experience.
Speaker 2:You could get that car two or three years old for the same price that you paid for your car new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess so. So then my answer is ask me again when it's time for a new car, and I don't get suckered into it, I think you should just put the decision in my hands.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, thanks, we can just. From start to finish, I will guide you through the process of arriving at the most luxurious automotive purchasing experience ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still remember when I was buying the Corolla for my wife and I asked for your advice and you sent me a link to the custom car build. With every single box checked it was like an $85,000 Corolla yes, no thanks. And she drives it a total of 5.2 miles a day.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that was overkill for her, but for you it makes sense.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna help, don't worry. But yes, I was amazed at how how driving 80 felt like driving 30 and that was what struck me. And I was, you know, I was in phoenix, actually stayed in tempe, which is the suburbs right next door, I mean they're basically slapped together did a lot of stuff in phoenix, um, and so I was on the freeway. Freeways are nice there, nicer, a lot nicer than like sacramento, which is just a loop-de-loop mess. It was nice, it was easy to get around, but I kept looking at the uh, the desk, oh snap, you know, because I didn't realize how fast I was going, because it was just like yeah, it was a nice car.
Speaker 2:So the guy was right you were looking to have a good time and looking to have some fun.
Speaker 1:And while I'm not a driver I don't like driving, you know this it was a great car and it was a nice experience and I had fun.
Speaker 2:I just want to clean my car and go for a drive.
Speaker 1:Nice drive. So when most people say I just want to clean my car, they take it through the $6 quickie car wash and then they're off and running. That's not you, though.
Speaker 2:No, not anymore, Not anymore, please. Those car washes will destroy your paint. They will destroy your paint. They will not Calm down down.
Speaker 2:If you drive through one of those car washes that uses that touches your vehicle, right, whatever cars that have proceeded, you know, come before you, whatever was on their car is likely stuck to the washing media inside that car wash and it's just pummeling. Every time it hits it's just slapping, slapping cracks, and not full-on cracks, but like swirls and scratches into your paint, into your clear coat. You're gonna have, you're gonna have damaged paint at the end. Okay, so if you go through one of those touchless car washes and they're nice, they're nice if I'm going to offer the audience if, if you want to go through a car wash and you want it to have, you know, if you want to be as hands-off as possible and you don't want to be involved but you want a clean car, go through a touchless car wash. Now, the touchless car washes do use chemicals that are more harsh on your paint because they have to clean your car and get what's ever stuck to your car off of your car without touching touching exactly. So you'll find that you'll have products that are more, more, more alkaline or more acidic or a combination of both. Um, you know one, and then they'll alternate back and forth and then you know your car. It looks better than it did, but it's not. It's not great.
Speaker 2:So I've been really getting into car detailing and I started back in christmas, back after I got my car in november. December came around, my wife got me a car detailing starter kit and that inspired me to figure out what else was out there, and I've since been taking a deep dive into this rabbit hole that is car detailing, including the history of car detailing and all of the different methods and philosophies and products. In media they just had SEMA at the end of last year All the new stuff. So off camera over here in the corner there's probably 30 different products that I've accumulated in the past month. Yesterday I was on a towel spray. I just had towels, just microfiber towels. You know getting the right blend. You know 70-30 and then 80-20 polyester to polymide.
Speaker 1:Hell of a dump dude. So, according to grandviewresearchcom, approximately 8 million vehicles are washed a day in the United States in drive-thru car washes. Yes, and those people don't care about their vehicle as much as I do, and I've seen all 8 million of those cars and they don't look damaged to me. It must be wonderful living in your world, having your vision I'm living in the same world as everybody, but you, you just can't see what I see. No, what are you looking at?
Speaker 2:I'm at the point details, details, details, which is where. So my paint? I mean I bought my vehicle used or certified pre-owned or it's it's the same thing. It's a used vehicle and there's swirls in the paint. The only way to get those swirls in the paint out or hopefully it's not swirls in the paint, oh, it's just like minute scratches in the clear coat the only way to get that out is to polish off a layer. It's like sanding the exterior of your car until it's completely smooth.
Speaker 2:I'm just talking with rod about this after, after our workout this morning. Uh, it was describing iron remover when you got here too, or decontaminating okay, go out to your vehicle when we're done. Okay, you can run this test, okay, and just take your hand lightly. Or you can put your hand in like a ziploc bag. You can run this test, okay, and just take your hand lightly. Or you can put your hand in like a Ziploc bag and then put it on the surface of your car, no pressure, and just slide it and tell me what you feel. If it doesn't feel smooth, that means you have stuff embedded in your paint.
Speaker 1:And so if I can't see it but I physically need to touch it to see it's there does it matter? Only you can answer that for yourself I'm getting to the crux of it all. No one gives a shit.
Speaker 2:But you, and now you've got okay, ask, ask, chatty how much money car detailers make per year, or how big is that industry, or words to that effect. How big is the car detailing industry in the United States?
Speaker 1:Okay, wow. So according to Statistacom, in 2022, the car wash and auto detailing market in the US. So it puts washing and detailing together. It was valued at approximately $14.7 billion. But let's see here Specific data. Isolating expenditures solely on car detailing services is limited. However, considering that detailing services often command higher prices than standard car washes, it's reasonable to infer that a significant portion of this market value is attributed to detailing. So Chatty seems to think that, of that $14.7 billion, a lot of it is auto detailing.
Speaker 2:I was just watching a video of this guy. I think it was a 19, 20-year-old. He started a mobile detailing business and within a year, he was making $1,. Started a mobile detailing business and within a year, he was making $1,000 a day just driving to a job. You're at work, okay, yeah, okay, come out, do this for so many hours. This is what I want. Done you? Customize your job whatever you want, if you want exterior, interior, if you want coatings put on and so on and so forth, and if you can fit two or three of those jobs in a day and each one is somewhere between three to $600.
Speaker 1:So the average exterior car detailing costs between 175 and 250 dollars so, and that's just the exterior.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's just a regular maintenance wash that doesn't include coatings. If you put a ceramic coatings, go for about 7800. If you want to clean, decontaminate and coat your car with something that will last three to eight years, depending on the ceramic coating that you apply to the exterior of your vehicle, which will provide a bunch of hydrophobics. Everything will just fall right off your car and it makes your car cleaning easier every time. After that, your car gets less dirty over time because there's less static electricity.
Speaker 1:I've been really going deep into this static like so, so you put a dielectric on your car so I don't have that yet, but I'm going to get some well, when you talk about static electricity like a dielectric, so that that that coating is a dielectric.
Speaker 2:Yes, so, like I said, I don't have that coating yeah, you're gonna get it, though.
Speaker 1:So that still doesn't answer my question about what is, is the? Is the? Is the visual enhancement worth the extended cost of doing that? And is, and, and there's an end, okay, and is that extended cost only of value to you personally?
Speaker 2:so it's. It's a couple things. First answer yes, of course, if it, if something looks pristine, I love it. Right, if it's I, things that are flawless, things that are perfect, perfection. And if I can achieve it, if I can get close to it, I like it. The other side of that is the process. I find it. I find it it's stress relieving, it's to watch, even when I so I was practicing on my wife's vehicle before she got into that, somebody re-ended her and messed her vehicle up.
Speaker 1:But anyway, that aside, just drive it right into the, into the dump, into the, into the local local junkyard and drive it right off into the dump.
Speaker 2:It's hard not to. So just the process of taking the steps. It's like consider the things that you focus in on and you're just right there where you have to be present. Right there where you have to be present, where you get immediate feedback of the job that you're doing and you see the results immediately right there, which reaffirms and reinforces you to continue that. And then you do the next step or the next portion, the next section, and oh, I did that, that's done, that's complete, that's perfect's perfect. You move on.
Speaker 2:For me, it's a stress reliever yeah for me it's almost meditative, it's hard, it's hard to describe it. I get in that flow state where, okay, I'm just I'm doing this and I'm focused on this and I did that and that looks great. So, yes, I have spent an exorbitant amount of money. Yeah, it's your new thing In the past few months. Yeah, that savings. Well, it's going to take a while to get back because I'm going to have to provide quite a few washes, quite a few details before I'll get to a point where it can break even. But it's the process. It's learning something new. I like to learn and if I don't know how to do something I want to know. And especially if it's something that benefits me, it can benefit people around me.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, you like to learn, you like to spend, and if you can marry those two concepts, it's an immediate W. Yes, I have, yes. So you've got half a palette of card detailing stuff here. You've got every percent blend of polymicrofiber cloth in bulk?
Speaker 2:Yes, and if you want to know, use the 70-30. Okay, 70-30.
Speaker 1:And so what do you do with the ones that you bought? You bought all the other ones. What do you do with the ones?
Speaker 2:that you bought all the other ones. What do you do with those? Oh, so those. They have purpose, but for the most part, 70-30 are used more often. They're considered more valuable. They're more absorbent because they have more polyamide.
Speaker 1:It's the same with solder 70-30. It's the best one to use in most cases. Yeah, 70-30.
Speaker 2:It's the best one to use in most cases. No, they all have a place, so I have it in my car. Okay, try not to ridicule me too much.
Speaker 1:No format.
Speaker 2:In my car. Currently I have a waterless wash that I've blended together. So if something sticky gets on my exterior or bird droppings fall down or something you don't want there, that if it remains, if it's too acidic and it remains there and can etch your, etch your clear coat, I can take out the spray bottle.
Speaker 1:So I've had that happen to me before. You know used to have great Aunt Opal's Buick Century and I left it under a tree one time and the birds destroyed it. It was berry season and they just shit all over the whole car and it ate holes on the paint all over the car. I had to get it repainted. So I am kind of curious about your waterless wash. The wife, she would be interested in something like that. Sure, she's not psych level crazy about detailing her car, but I think she might be a car you might. She might be interested if you were like looking for somebody who wants to be at your level of crazy I'll pledge you a bottle.
Speaker 2:You can take it home and present it. Yeah, no, yeah, it'll take care of that. But then I also have a glass cleaner. You want glass cleaner? That's not. It doesn't have ammonia ammonia for anything, I swear.
Speaker 1:I swear. If you use glass cleaner on your TV at home, send me your address so I can come smack you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do not, especially if it has ammonia. But in cars it will. If you use enough of it it can take the tint If you have a car tint.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, a window tint Because it's a coating. Yeah, it's the same as the coating on your display screen.
Speaker 2:It might not damage it after one time or two times. But if you are using Windex sorry Windex on your car and it has ammonia in it, or a glass cleaner that has ammonia in it, you'll wreck your window tint.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's illegal to have a tinted window in the California way. No, it's not. It's not.
Speaker 2:No, I thought it was no, it's not. It's not, no, no, no, so it the the. You can have limo tint on your rear windows and your, your, uh, your rear passenger windows and your rear window, and then you have to have your front windows only be strict regulations yeah, be tinted only to a certain level. I think I don't know. I'm probably gonna be lying to people. I think it's like 10 or 15 percent of the light.
Speaker 1:I can tell you, uh, so, so you can only frost the top four inches of your windshield. The front side windows must allow 70 of light through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, the rear side windows.
Speaker 1:That's more than I thought um, can be as dark as you want if you have the side mirrors on both sides of the vehicle. Interesting, and there are medical exemptions. No mirrored or excessively reflective tents are allowed. So you can't, you can't have, you can't have sci-fi reflective stuff on your windows so what?
Speaker 2:I've seen some videos of these guys getting pulled over and they know they're getting pulled over for the window tent in their front windows being too dark. Yes, so what they'll do when they get stopped? They roll their windows all the way down. Well, that was the reason why they got stopped. So the officer asks them to roll their windows up. So there's a little gray area there, because you don't have to provide the officer evidence against you there, because you don't have to provide the officer evidence against you and you're in your vehicle, you have control over your vehicle.
Speaker 2:Unless there's another reason to pull you out and take control of your vehicle and essentially search your window, then some people have been difficult, to say the least, or refused. And then then what do you do? Because they have, they have this thing that they'll put over your window and I'll just kind of like it's on both sides and it's measuring the amount of light that passes through your window, through the tent. So, yeah, but yeah, tinted windows. Well, you were in arizona. How are your windows there in the vehicle that you rented? Were they? Were they clear? Were they tinted?
Speaker 1:yeah, they were just normal windows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay yeah, I would think in arizona almost every vehicle would have tinted windows because it keeps the interior of your car cooler yeah, I mean it's scorching hot, it's regular okay, yeah, yeah, um, it was nice while we were there.
Speaker 1:Like I mean we were there, you know, february 14th through the 17th and it was like 42 degrees in Stockton and it was like high 60s, low 70s in Phoenix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but so waterless wash for the exterior, like a detail spray for the exterior, window window cleaner and then a detail spray interior detail spray. So basically a spray that you can put down on any surface safely If you have a spill, something gets too dusty, you want to clean your nav screen. Something you can just spray on quickly anywhere and just some spray towels, that's it.
Speaker 1:So Chatty says that your idea to roll the windows down as a as a good idea, but it's not a flip or flu pole, because because the police can order you to roll the windows back up, they can also um, you can also incur an incrimination over the argument that that that might not hold Well anyhow.
Speaker 2:Anyhow, not my problem. This is not legal advice.
Speaker 1:No, Jesus no.
