I hit a skunk on the way home from dinner last night.
Oh. My. Word.
I immediately drove to the car wash and sprayed the van as best as I could. Once I got the girls in the house and started on their bedtime routine, I took off the clothes I was wearing and tossed them, and my coat, in the washer with a big dose of vinegar in the rinse cycle.
I opened a window in the garage.
I put a bowl of vinegar in the van.
I put a bowl of vinegar in the kitchen.
I opened the other garage window.
I backed the van out of the garage.
I poured vinegar on the garage floor.
I opened the garage door first thing this morning. I would have left it open all night, but in the past that has earned us a garage-dwelling possum. So, no.
E3 wanted to know the skunk's name. I suggested Stinky.
Everything still reeked this morning, like a skunk had sprayed the entire backyard, but I had some errands to run. So, I loaded E3 and F into the van and endured 10 miles of, "Stinky!", "I smewl somefing!", "Watch out for a skunk on the road!", "I smewl skunk!", before they finally moved on to saying non-sensical things and laughing at their brilliant hilarity.
Before we headed home, we got burgers and fries - mine with onion - to help combat the interior stink. Then, we went through the automatic car wash and splurged on the double wash. It seems to have helped a bit, as I can only smell it when I'm standing right next to the van.
The bowl of vinegar is still out there though(I hardly sloshed any while driving!), and I left the van parked on the driveway and the garage door open.
My Mother-in-law is staying with the girls (and, hence, the van) while I join Rob at a conference in Florida. I hope the air has cleared before I leave tomorrow.
4 comments:
Ewwwww!!
I'll share our skunk story with you. Ten years ago, give or take, Rodney and I lived in my mom's house in the country. We had this crazy dog who was still very much a puppy, who was an outside dog.
One day we'd gone into town for something and were gone until dark. When we drove up, we saw we'd accidentally left the garage door open, and the door from the garage into the house was open too. No dog to be found anywhere. (Sounds like something you'd see in a slasher film, right LOL. Where everyone in the audience is saying, "Don't go in!!!", and the stupid people go in anyway.)
We got out of our car and immediately were overwhelmed with skunk smell, which got stronger the further into the house we went, and which peaked in the master bedroom.
Apparently the dog got out of his pen, cornered a skunk up near the house, got sprayed, freaked out, ran into the house (guess the door between the garage and house wasn't latched all the way), and went and hid UNDER OUR BED!!! Ewwww, ewwww, ewwww!!!
Rodney finally managed to drag the dog out from under the bed and back outside. But in the meantime, the skunk reappeared near the house and the dog saw it and CHASED IT AGAIN!! (ah well, he *was* rather dumb LOL).
Rodney ended up shooting the skunk (they can carry rabies and we were afraid the cornered skunk would bite the dog or the dog would bite the skunk), and he was nice enough to give the dog a couple bathes. But it was a several days before the house aired out enough for us to be able to sleep in our bedroom.
That was one funky-smelling house!
I completely sympathize! Hitting an animal on the road is traumatic enough, but getting stuck with a stinky reminder is even worse. We had a skunk living in a log near the house for a long time and every evening when that bugger came out to hunt for dinner the entire area was plunged into skunk stinkiness. Their mere presence makes for an odiferous experience.
It's just one of those smells that lingers and lingers and lingers.
Jenn
Have fun in Florida!
For some reason, an e-mail I wrote to you came back to me. There's a few of us bloggers trying to get together on March 31. If you can make it, let me know and I will give you the details...
Post a Comment