The Unmistakable Smell of Death...

We spent most of last week living in a yellow and purple beach mansion... a real life sand castle that my Uncle and Aunt rented for the entire week.  They have perfect timing in that this week will be the start of yet another school year. 

This year we were actually able to get away from Wednesday through Saturday, which is a pretty big deal seeing how Husband is a tobacco farmer and tobacco farmers generally do not get that many days in a row to be away from their crops.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good vacation.  I got to spend some time with my family which was wonderful.  It is an exciting time for our family... my cousin is marrying a really great guy this coming Spring, another is about to move into a place of her own, two are just before graduating from college with engineering degrees, and we are about to add to the size of the clan with a baby... so with all these happy changes, it is nice to be able to spend some time together and reconnect.

Saturday we returned home and immediately I got busy unpacking our suitcase and toiletry bag.  By six o'clock that afternoon I had everything washed and put away only to realize that I badly needed to make a quick trip to the grocery store.  I sat down and made a quick list, called Husband to see what he needed and headed to the garage.

Tuesday had been a busy day for me.  I had an appointment with the dentist that morning, followed by an emergency hair removal trip that afternoon, as pregnancy prevents me from being able to do my own waxing-- you sort of need to be able to see what you're doing, especially when it involves hot wax.

Of course my dentist appointment took longer than expected which did not leave me much time to get from Smithfield to my next destination.  I made it to my waxing appointment on-time without a moment to spare, but that meant skipping lunch, which can be a little unnerving when you are six months pregnant.

Regardless, after one of the best waxing appointments I've ever had, I quickly made it to a Burger King and got myself a burger.  I'm not sure if it was the hunger or the food, but it was really, really good. 

I next went to my mom's house to pick up a bill for Husband and on the way home my air conditioning started to make a strange sound.  A loud clicking to be more accurate.  I happened to be on the phone with Husband and he could hear it when I held my phone to the vent.  As we were talking I turned up the A/C dial and the sound got louder, then followed by sound-- something akin to paper being sucked through a vacuum.  The sound stopped and Husband said that it probably was a piece of paper that got caught in the vent. 

I paid little attention to the smell the vent was putting off-- a mild sweet smell as I thought it probably was the Burger King bag that had been sitting in my hot car.

The next day I followed Husband to carry his truck for a tune up.  I noticed that the smell was still present, but it wasn't exactly unpleasant, just different.  When Husband sat down in my passenger seat, I mentioned that my A/C smelled different, but we were both quick to point out that it was probably just my super human sense of smell brought own by all the pregnancy hormones coursing through my body, because he didn't smell a thing.

Upon arriving at home, I parked my car safely in our two car garage and forgot about the strange clicking sound and the strange smell and started packing like a mad woman because we were to leave after lunch at it was already 1:30.

So Saturday I went into the garage and opened my car door.  I was hit by a wave of stale, hot air that smelled very much like the unmistakable smell of death. 

I sat down in the car, cranked it up, hoping that getting the air flowing would help the smell.  It didn't.  I backed the car out into the driveway and popped the hood expecting to find a dead something... nothing seemed out of place.  Husband had gone to work and so I called and told him what was going on.  He of course, couldn't help me.  I called my father, who had always taken a more active interest in my car, as he is the one that bought and picked it out for me when I was 16.

He said it probably was a rusted out coil and that what I was smelling was antifreeze.  I drove with my windows down and sun roof open to the grocery store, purchased what I needed, and quickly got the groceries in the boot, rolled down the windows and sun roof again, thankfully there was nothing wrong with the electrical system and headed home.

After unloading the groceries, Husband came home and popped the hood.  He saw nothing unusual and other than the smell, which he said did not remind him of antifreeze, he was at a loss as to what to do next.

An hour or so later, Mama and Daddy were in our driveway inspecting the car.  Daddy confirmed it, it had to be a dead something, probably a mouse or something small that could easily find it's way into an A/C.

I'll be the first to admit, that this summer I'd done very little driving and the likelihood of something finding it's way into my car is likely, but really?  I've had this car for a really long time.  The worst thing that had ever gone wrong with it was when a spark plug cable got messed up and caused the engine to not run properly.  It was an easy fix.

From what I've read on the Internet, this is not going to be an easy problem to fix.  This morning my car went to the shop to be repaired.  I need my car by Thursday morning... and I'm hoping that it will be fixed and normal smelling by then. 

I find this so ironic, because over our beach trip it was mentioned that I would have to get a new car for the baby.  My two door car is not really practical after all.  I mentioned how I dreaded getting a new car as my car had been so good to me and that I would not get rid of it, ever!  143,000 miles and still going strong, 13 years later...  when I didn't have the baby with me I'd surely be driving it over the new car.

Now I'm a little more motivated to get a new car that doesn't smell like death... I'll keep you posted on what the poor mechanic finds.