From Noxious to Nostalgic

Walking out from workplace the other night I inhaled the nighttime air deeply. With the beginnings of   Autumn peeking about, the smell of crunchy leaves and drying corn is just to hard to resist. I reached my car, pulled open the door and dropped into my seat with another deep inhalation, more of a "I'm headed home!" kind-of-a sigh.

I nearly gagged.

Closing my door, I quickly checked the bottoms of my shoes. I must have stepped in dog poop. Or cat poop.  Maybe a dead bird....Nope, all clear on the shoes. What on earth was causing this wretched, eye-watering stench? Ugh.

I popped open my door again and looked on the ground. Nothing.
I checked my shoes again. Nothing.
I closed the door. This time, no deep inhalations. I tried to only breath through my mouth.
I couldn't stay sitting here; I might as well start the drive home.

As I drove, I kept trying to identify the offensive odor.
Was it the garlicky bag of chips that I'd stashed under the passenger side sun visor?
No, I had eaten those and thrown the bag away.
Did Ryan leave a half-eaten sandwich under my seat? I pulled over and checked. Nothing.
This was going to  drive me crazy!

Okay now: think! It was fine, just fine, this morning when I drove to work. So, did an animal crawl into my car, under the hood during the day and die? It just didn't make sense. All I knew was that I was headed to Wal-Mart and I needed to get an air freshener along with the other groceries we needed.

My shopping done, I headed back to the Stinky Car. A lot of times I just toss the purchased items into my back seat but this time I popped the trunk. When I did, an almost visible wave of stench waved from my sun-heated trunk.

I nearly gagged. Again.

There, on its side was a yellow gallon jug of milk from two or three days ago. It didn't explode exactly, but no longer able to contain its contents, it leaked about a half gallon of sour, spoiled, rotten, foul (you get the idea) milk into my trunk. The rest of the milk was one lump of a curdled mass and I really hoped that wasn't what Little Miss Muffet was eating when the spider sat down beside her.

I am not sure if knowing the cause of the smell made it better or worse. I have memories of my best friend's family car when we were kids; someone had spilled milk in it and the smell seemed to linger for years. That actually was a nice thought because I always liked going home with her in her car so in that sense I kept thinking the noxious aroma I was being assaulted with now might actually fade to a nostalgic remembrance in years to come.

In another sense though, this was like a black cloud of stink that no matter where I went in my car, I couldn't escape. You know, like how you can get away when you drive by a roadkill skunk or a farmer's field with freshly spread manure. You have a minute or so of stench that makes your nose wrinkle and your throat clench but then, it's done. You drive on.

When I finally got home I promptly evacuated and ran into the house and grabbed a box of baking soda. You know, to absorb the smell. Especially since I completely forgot to purchase air freshener when I was at the store.

The smell must have burned a few of my common sense receptors.

Love,
Dianne