Thursday, May 19, 2005

My Car Smells Like Gasoline

The other day, I filled up a 2.5-gallon red jug with gasoline and put it in the trunk of my car. You can see what’s coming, can’t you. It tipped over and leaked gas in my trunk (or petrol in my boot, if you’re reading this in Australia). I keep a quilt back there for emergency picnics, and this quilt absorbed a fair amount of the spilt gasoline. The jug was about two-thirds full when I righted it, but that’s still a lot of gas to spill. (Is jug the proper term for a gas container? Perhaps not.)

Anyway, at first the fumes in my car were strong enough that I needed to leave the windows open overnight. But now it’s just to the point where I actually like the smell in my car. I have one of those fragrant, green pine-tree-shaped things hanging from my mirror, and the combination of that with the lingering gasoline smell works well for me. Or maybe I’ve just inhaled enough fumes to become slightly dotty in the head . . .

On the other hand, my wife made me hose off the quilt before she would wash it, and it’s now on its third time through the washer, and she plans to tumble it in the dryer with no heat, so it won’t ignite and burn down our house. She fears that some leftover gas smell will stay in the washer and infect subsequent loads. Would that be such a bad thing?

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