I find that once the rubber portion of my windshield wiper has worn away and the metal part begins cutting a nicely arcing groove into my windshield, it is time to replace the windshield wiper blades. After tromping off to the nearest auto parts store or hold your nose-Wal Mart, (preferably on a sunny day) make your way to the windshield wiper section where you will find six thousand selections from manufacturers like Anco (where my mother-in-law worked on the assembly line until she had more tape on her fingers than an NFL wide-receiver before moving the plant to Mexico) or some other name like Goodyear, or Bosch or I don't know, is this how you get money from writing articles on this website-by shamelessly plugging? Please let me know and I'll add more...

Anyway, there are two basic options-A. Buying inserts or B. Buying the blade and insert together. If you have the extra cash, go with what is behind curtain B, because option A. is like a sewing class getting steered into an auto shop class as you try to un-thread and re-thread this squiggly stringy rubber gasket along a track and hope you get the right sized one, otherwise you'll be ready for option B. which stands for Beer, preferably Heineken in my instruction manual. This method is so easy it can be handled with your brew in one hand and is as easy as pulling a clip out of the center arm and making sure you put the new blade assembly in the same spot correctly-it can be put in backwards or upside down (depending on where your head is located at the moment) which gives your windshield the appearance of a false eyelash which might work on some minivans or red Corvettes, but does nothing for a Ford F-150 or Chevy Silverado except cause mild laughter-and then snapping the new clip in place. If you really want instructions, you can go to Popular Mechanics' link at http://www.popularmechanics.com/how_to_central/autom otive/1272261.html. Good luck, and if you see an F-150 winking at you someday, you might just want to wink back.

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