July 22, 2008. Chevy Chase, Md. My Car.

My can smells. It is not supposed to smell, but it does. But only when the weather is very hot and very humid. If I inadvertently leave all my windows closed when parking outside in the sunshine, the smell in my car is horrible. Not too long ago, all my carpets were shampooed. It did not smell then, but that was in the Spring with the temperature moderate. In the hot and humid summer in Washington, my car smells, but only when I drive it. Fortunately, I only have to drive for about ten minutes at a time, to and fro the office. And I am in Nova Scotia part of the summer, so my car is in the garage when I am away. If I forget to keep windows partly opened, on my return, I wish I had remembered to open them before leaving. Soon the weather will no longer be so hot and humid, so my car should cease smelling so badly.

There are two reasons why my car smells. One was my fault and one was not. One day when returning from Nova Scotia by myself, I approached my car to realize that my car smelled. You could smell it from about ten feet away. I'm surprised that someone did not think that a dead animal was in the car, it smelled so strongly. I got in the car and drove away from the garage, keeping the windows open. While I am driving, I was feeling under the seats to try to find the smell, but I found nothing. On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store. I looked under all the seats and found nothing. Then I opened the trunk and millions of fruit flies flew out of my trunk. Millions and Millions of fruit flies came pouring out of my trunk. When the air cleared, I saw what had happened. I had left a bag of fruit in the trunk, where it rotted. Of course, as I drove, the fruit rolled all around the carpet in the trunk, so I had rotted fruit all over my trunk. Using the plastic bag, I scooped up the mess, and deposited it in the Safeway dumpster. Later I scrubbed the carpet, and sprayed disinfectant. The smell stayed for a long time, and then was gone. Except in the hot humid summer.

The second reason my car smells is that one time, when we left my car at the Baltimore airport, some critters took up residence in the trunk and made some nice little nests. As the car was at the parking lot for three weeks, their presence in my trunk soiled the carpet. On the way home from the airport, the air-conditioner did not work properly, so the next day, on the way to work I dropped the car off at Community Auto. They replaced some tubes, because they said that something had chewed through several parts of the system. I thought nothing about it, until. the following Thursday, I opened my trunk to put my purse in, to find several little nests. I did what any woman would do. I closed the trunk, and kept it closed until I took the car in for body work, where they were supposed to find how the critters got into my trunk. No luck. It was magic. Now my car is perfect on the outside, and perfect on the inside, except when the weather is hot and humid. Then I just open the windows when I drive and keep the air-conditioning on full blast. It only lasts for ten minutes on my way to work!!