The family car
It began when Gleek wanted to go ride her bike. Gleek is not quite old enough for me to feel comfortable with her being out front alone and all her older siblings had run off to friends’ houses, so I had to accompany her outside. As she happily rode around our driveway I wandered around looking for something to do to keep occupied so she could play longer. I decided to clean out our van. It started with just picking up garbage and toys, but it was quickly apparent that what the interior really needed was to be stripped down completely, fumigated, and reupholstered. All crevices were packed full of wrappers, crumbs, and wads of unidentifiable things in layers. In one spot this “layer cake” had water spilled on it, thus creating a primordial soup from which new life forms would have undoubtedly emerged. I ended up removing all the seats and vacuuming thoroughly. I even went so far as to remove the floor mats. This was a mistake because I now know exactly how dirty the carpets have become. I’ll be borrowing a carpet cleaning device and taking the van apart again sometime in the near future. Hopefully before my road trips next month. It’d be nice to have the car smell like soap instead of primordial soup.