Warning light

My washer fluid is low.

It has been for a few weeks now. I know it is low because a friendly, yellow box lights up on my dashboard when I turn corners or am heading up a steep hill.

Being a curious type of person, I did an internet search on how washer fluid sensors work. You see, there is typically a magnetic float thingy and a reed switch doodad to detect fluid in the washer fluid tank. The float, as its name suggests happily spends its days bobbing around in the unnaturally colored washer fluid. When the level drops, the float thingy moves, triggering the reed switch thingamajig which then lights up the friendly reminder on my dashboard.

Of the many types of car maintenance issues, ensuring adequate levels of washer fluid is one of the easier ones. You buy a jug of the washer fluid for a few dollars at the store and find the tank under your hood that has a symbol on its lid that looks like someone wasn’t fast enough when changing a baby’s diaper and then fill it up.

Most of us end up carrying around partial bottles of washer fluid in our cars, because the global cabal of “Big Washer Fluid” has conspired so that the amount needed to fill the tank is less than what is in the jugs. Yet there is not enough to fill the tank twice from a single bottle, so there is a constant state of partially filled-bottles.

All this aside, my washer fluid is still low. I have a jug somewhere in my car. I say somewhere, because at this point in the year, my vehicle resembles a rolling storage unit for the various groups and projects I am involved with. Among the tent parts, snow-cone cups, folding chairs, rolls of raffle tickets and ever-useful tool buckets it is in there lurking about. I catch a glimpse of it every now and then while loading or unloading for some activity.

You would think, it would be easy to just take a few moments to grab the bottle, pop the hood and fill it up. I know I should take the time to do this, but when you are in the middle of things, it is hard to justify taking a break for a little self-maintenance. This is not to mention, the self-consciousness of popping the hood of you car in the middle of a parking lot or park.

Other than during a car show, popping one’s hood is something you do in the privacy of your own driveway or at a service station. Popping your hood in public places leads people to think you are experiencing car trouble which triggers all sorts of judgmental observations of various degrees whether real or imagined.

With the near constant state of rain this summer, I have not had to use my washer fluid very often. This is another point I use in my ever-growing list of feeble excuses, why I haven’t taken the time to top off the washer fluid tank.

Even to me, my internalized excuses are starting to sound lame and pathetic.

My washer fluid level is low. I know it is low, the friendly light on my dashboard tells me it is. But I haven’t done anything to refill it.

Summertime is among the busiest time of the year for community newspaper people in Wisconsin. Given Wisconsin’s weather most events are crammed in the weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day with prime weekends having multiple overlapping events.

Community events are a great time to go out and get pictures of people having fun and doing cool things. Regardless of what some may think, newspaper people much prefer running these types of stories and pictures rather than ones of tragedy and conflict.

The summer has passed in a blur. I measure the flow of the seasons by light that enters the windows of my bedroom each morning when I wake up, usually around 5 a.m. Most of the year is is various shades of darkness and gray pre-dawn light. For a few glorious weeks in late June and early July I wake up to the full light of day. We are past that point though, and each morning it is slightly darker when I get up. With the creeping darkness, I am reminded that summer is fleeting, and soon fall will be here.

My washer fluid is low. I need to take the time to fill it up before it runs dry.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News. Contact Brian at BrianWilson@centralwinews.com.