ED AND THE GERMAN CAR WASH

 Sunday, 3 November 2024

The above photo is from the internet. It is a place we frequent. We did not take this photo. In the large picture the car wash in Ed's story is the white building on the right, behind the gas station. 

Enjoy Ed's story.😂

Yesterday, Saturday, Ed decided it was time to get our car washed while he was out running errands.

We were told by the office missionary in charge of cars, that FamilySearch has officially given our car over to the Hamburg Mission. They will now be able to see where our car is at all times monitor our travels, our speed and any violations. They will also make sure we obey the mission rules regarding the vehicles. Those mission rules include the care of mission cars which must be washed at regular intervals. Seniors have a little more latitude than the young missionaries who drive,. (One rule is that we should never exceed 130kmh, even on the autobahn. Nora did discuss this fact with Elder Wulfenstein because sometimes it is necessary to exceed the 130kmh just to pass someone on the autobahn!)

Anyway.....on to Ed's story...

The picture above  is of the gas station we have been using to pick up all our Amazon Germany packages delivered here to HERMES, a delivery company used by Amazon in Germany. We do this since we cannot guarantee we will be able to receive packages at our apartment. Ed has been getting to know the people there. They speak a little bit of English and they have been helpful in receiving packages and very kind in getting them to us, so Ed decided to buy gasoline.

They also have a “typical gas station car wash” so Ed decided to use it to get the car washed there.

He asked them how to use the car wash and they told him to pay for it there (inside), get the code, drive the car around to the back of the building to enter the car wash. Ed understood them to say, “The door will be down, scan the code and the door will open. Pull the car in and get out and press the “start” button.”

Ed felt confident he understood but, what Ed understood is not exactly the way it worked.

Ed drove around and there was a man (German man #1) standing outside the closed car wash door. Ed found the box, scanned the code per the instructions he understood but nothing happened. Ed scanned the code again at which time German man #1 started to speak in very passionate German to Ed. Also, a notice came up on the scan box in German which Ed did not understand. Meanwhile, the excited German man #1 waved his arm dismissively since it was obvious Ed did not speak German and he could not speak English so neither one of them knew what to do.

Ed then tried to figure out what was going on and now could hear washing sounds from the other side of the closed door like it was washing something inside. He scanned again and then noticed that a timer on the box was counting down. He determined that the door would not open again until the time ran out. There was about 4 minutes left on the timer so he waited four minutes and scanned the code again. The reader then read “0.01” which Ed interpreted as one second so he continued to wait a little bit. Still nothing happened so he then scanned again and he still got the same message with nothing happening.

Now there was another car behind our car and Ed was not sure what to do.

All of a sudden the door opened and German man #1, who had been standing there watching Ed, walked in, got into his very clean car and drove out the other side. 

Well ok! 

Ed now drove our car in, stopping at the indicated spot. He got out of the car and must have looked confused because he was looking around inside for the "start" button he thought was there. German man #2 began speaking excitedly in German waving Ed to come to him. So Ed walked out to him. 

He communicated without understandable words that he wanted Ed to give him his ticket which Ed did. German man #2 punched Ed'scode in, the door went down, and Ed could hear the sound of the car being washed.

About 6-7 minutes later when the car was washed and the door opened again, Ed walked in, got into our car and drove away, having now learned how to wash a car in Germany or at least in that place we frequent so much.

But here is the rest of the story:

What may have had German man #1 so excited is that his car was being washed and there is a red emergency stop button on the panel where Ed was repeatedly scanning his code. Ed never would have pushed that button, but sadly, German man #1 did not know that and must have been nervous that Ed was going to push that button and stop his car from getting the full wash. 

Fortunately, not only was it clear what the button was, but the people inside where Ed purchased the code had told him very explicitly,  “DO NOT  TOUCH THE RED BUTTON!”

We wonder what story German man #1 and German man #2 will tell their friends and family today about Foreigner #1 washing his car.