This one is more recent...like today. And it's not so much public until this is posted here...but for the past few days I'd been noticing a smell inside my truck...all that mud and snow and rainwater goop here there everywhere I think...that place-mat under the brake pedal and accelerator, wet-damp...funky...only, I stop to gas up over at Louie's right...and so that's what I do, stop, get out...there's some lady on the other side, smart shoes, snappy pants, leather jacket...a whiff of perfume. I catch her wrinkling her nose...I left my door open, right? My door w/advertising on it? Name...rank...serial number...impressions. I realize I'm not very intuitive, but when she clunked the nozzle into the receptacle and then stepped to the door of her...vehicle...one of those not an SUV/not a car but a little of both? Caught her wave a ring-filled & polished before her face before she ducked inside, clunked the door shut...one of those highly satisfying noises...not like mine where you have to perform the act two three times...either the seat-belt is hanging half out the door or my big fat arse is...anyway...I'm thinking air-fresheners, right? One of those little pine cones you can hang form the mirror...until John Law stops you and tells you that sir is against the law.
I finish filling her up...3.39...get in take off driving down the road...had to stop at the hardware store for some rubber gaskets...lock up go in purchase back out, open the door, and the smell seemed even worse than the past few days, than half an hour earlier...maybe the heat from the motor...almost sub-zero temps lately.
And then the epiphany. Heh! Remember the stories about the dead fish or some other varmint under the hood...back seat maybe. I did it to myself this time...no, not a fish...just a wrapper, chicken wrapper. You ever notice how much the garbage can smells a day or three after chicken? Yeah, nasty. What had happened is that I told my wife I'll take that out in the bush (and burn it though I didn't say that...it was understood)...only I forgot.
So...what do I do? Put an ad in the local paper? Local carpenter cleans up! Can you imagine the scuttlebutt?