Dirty Vehicles

Today my sister is having her third chemo-therapy treatment; and I hope that everything goes well.  The adventure car from last Friday finally got a bath - but I'm discovering that these sport-utility vehicles have a lot of spots on their "backside" that automated car washes don't touch.  There's a lip over the top of the rear window, and the area under the lip doesn't get touched; most of the license tag stays filthy; and the vehicles that have a rear-view camera set into the tag surround always need a hand-wash, as well.  And, of course, since it's a semi-warm day, with no precipitation expected until Tuesday, the lines at the car wash were huge.  One place washed over 1200 cars in 8 hours yesterday.  At least I only had 4 cars in front of me - but it still took 50 minutes to get inside and have the automated machine start running through the 7 cycles.  Yes, seven.  With all the salt and other chemicals on our roads, I always get a hub scrub and a turbo power rinse for the undercarriage.  Thank goodness I don't actually own a car of my own.  It costs $6 to $25 for each wash, deciding on how much you want done...  And the owner will reimburse me - I only drove the car home, to the car wash, and will drive back to the Denver Airport to pick the family up Saturday evening.....  Between dirt, sand, grit, and all the chemicals, cars get extremely filthy in a very short time on the roads.
   There is a very large raccoon that visits Rosie's house. The critter's hind feet are almost half the size of one of my hands....  Either a giant of it's kind, and/or, extremely well fed...
   We've been having from 8 to 10 squirrels in sight at one time at the apartment - I'm hoping that the suspected tularemia has either passed, or never was.  Ernie, our local apartment raccoon, has been missing for the last few months.  But we seem to have a great number of smaller birds, as well as the regular visits of a red-shafted flicker and the red-tailed hawk.  I just have to keep a close watch on Lovey and Nedi, if they're outside, when the hawk is is sunning on our fence line.