I see it a lot with people and their auto's.
I ask because I watched a guy come out of the car wash,
Now two guys wiped it dry for six or eight minutes, then
sent him on his way.

We both went to the Burger King,
He didn't get food , but he took a white cotton cloth out
and wiped it down again.
Opening all the doors and the hood and hatch back.

He spent an additional 25 minutes. Getting in every nook
Crack and cranny. Double wiping the chrome accents.

If 10 is meticulous, I am about a five.

People compliment me on the appearance of my LeSaber, in passing

three or four times a year

As for car washes, I do pay for an "unlimited" plan and after a few washes, I'll typically wipe down all the door jambs, dash and interior windows. With the damp cloths (supplied by the carwash), I also wipe down inside the engine compartment.

A lot of people might call that meticulous, but it only takes 15 minutes or so.

I'm more toward the Oscar Madison side than the Felix Unger side.

I'm probably in the LOW area on a lot of things.
Safety items I am in the high area. I was involved with worker safety in the auto industry.

Not necessarily meticulous, but have been described as "particular", may be due to a fair percentage of German ancestry.

My meticulous goes to Eleven!

Probably more than many if not most. I don't do carwashes, I wash, dry, and detail at home.

The "new model" car wash, where you pay $40 a month for them to run a self cleaning service that you clean the entire inside yourself.

I use them maybe once in a while have an air gun, I will go over the openings on the car to blow out water from the areas it hides including the lug nut areas on the wheels, so yeah a little anal about car cleaning.

In my defense, I do that with my EGO leaf blower at home

Does anal retentive have a hyphen in it?

I’m constantly running out of time due to work and family but if I didn’t have to work I’d be extremely meticulous about car care.

If we are just talking about our cars, then I'm on the low end of the scale. I drive an 8 year old Ram that is quite aware its a truck. I run it through the wash every few weeks.

Other things, yea, these go to 11 might fit.

I used to be like a dog with a bone; now I’m more like “if it’s good enough, then it’s good enough”.

Me and "meticulous" in the same sentence...

Now THAT is some funny shit!

I can be if the situation warrants it, but vehicles ain't within an AU of that.

Not that I always follow it myself, but I have this quotation posted where I can be reminded of it:

“Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.”
— Michelangelo Buonarroti

When it comes to automobiles I'm probably an eight. With the rest of life...not so much.

I have a total Random Abstract personality. I'm married to a person who is a Concrete Absolute personality type.

I'm competent is a couple of areas. However the term "meticulous" is something I have never, and never will be, called.

They do get dirty, but when it's time to wash and clean, it's almost always a good hand wash followed by a thorough wipe down. I used to detail cars as a part time job. If it's worth doing...

Really depends on what….

There are things I’m pretty meh about, there are others I’m anally meticulous about. Drives the wife crazy especially what I’m meh about often are things she prioritizes

SigFreund, my life motto is "The enemy of good is perfect."

I learned that from my brother-in-law, who admits that his life is a mess because he can never finish anything; nothing is perfect enough. He has several airplanes in his garage that he bought years ago intending to "fix up". Meanwhile his younger son buys old planes at auctions, fixes them up and sells them. He bought a big power boat, and in one long weekend designed and built, with the help of a hydraulic press, a trailer made of a huge aluminum I-beam to hold the boat. It may not have been perfect, but it sure was good enough.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
SigFreund, my life motto is "The enemy of good is perfect."

True enough.
I and friends who are writing books must remind ourselves of that. Such things can be revised continually, which is why mine will probably never be finished, much less published.

On the other hand, there are many things that other people obsess over, such as how their cars look, that are meaningless to me.

Some things like cleaning guns sort of fall in the middle. They need to be clean enough, but not spotless, and the best way I have found to finish the jobs of cleaning enough is to develop a routine: on the bench when I get home, certain steps in a certain order with a timer reminding me when a step is finished.