Pains In My Ass :: Mike Neir's Page

The past few weeks have been a lot of the same old same old. A few noteworthy events have happened though.

About two weeks ago, I noticed a strange smell in my car. I couldn't place it, and it wasn't very strong, so I ignored it and went to work. A few hours later, when I went to grab something out of my car, I noticed the smell again. I looked around, and found the source. I had left a gallon of milk in the trunk. It sat there for two or three days I figure, plenty long enough to go bad in the hot summer sun. It had leaked about a quarter to a third of its fluid components out into the trunk lining, and it smelled pretty bad. I immediately threw it away, and used a hose at work to wash the trunk lining out the best I could. The crappy thing is that it leaked down into the piece of fiberboard that seperates the trunk from the spare tire compartment. It soaked in there, and I couldn't really clean it. I gave it a good dousing with febreeze, and that seemed to do the trick for a few days, but I've been noticing that the smell is returning. It's not really bad, and can be easily subdued by opening a window or turning on the HVAC fans. It still stinks though (pun intended). Hopefully the bacteria will run out of raw materials soon, and the smell will go away on its own.

Last week, my brand new TV decided to die. I was attempting to plug my laptop into the VGA connector to see how things looked, but the TV shut itself off before I could enable the external VGA out on the laptop. This is normal behavior when a VGA signal can't be found. What isn't normal behavior is that the TV won't power on now. I called Polariod tech support, and the customer service rep seemed genuinely surprised about it. I can't blame him, because it makes no sense. It has to be some sort of buggy firmware or something similar, becuase there's no reason why a TV should power itself off, and then refuse to power on again, unless it's expressing a hatred of Star Trek or something. The customer support guy got in contact with a local repair company, and they'll be out tomorrow to have a look at it. With my recent luck with home theater components, it'll be broken, and the repair people will have it for a few months. Grand. It's less than two months old.

I also really need to stop browsing eBay. It's a really bad idea. The purchases I made last month had more of an effect on my bank account that I realized at the time. Lesson learned I suppose.

Matt :: 06/12/2007, 1:18 pm :: Reply

Every once in a while I'll catch a rank stench in my car... typically it's leftovers I brought home from a restaurant and forgot about. Hopefully that milk won't stick around.

Mike Neir :: 06/14/2007, 6:01 am :: Reply

Same here. Even running the car using the remote starter for a minute seems to clear the smell, so it's not going to be that big of a deal. I'd still rather not have a dead milk smell in my car...

Michael :: 06/14/2007, 8:58 am :: Reply

If you clean the carpet it should be fine. At least you don't have oil in your trunk, that stuff never comes out.

Jonny K :: 06/14/2007, 3:52 pm :: Reply

I did a similar thing once, except it was with a gallon of apple cider. It didn't smell nearly as bad as old milk, but it was pretty funky none the less. The worst part about that wasn't the smell, but all of the fruit flies that it attracted (mine was on the floor behind the front seat).

Good to hear that you finally replaced that ancient tv. Too bad the new one doesn't work now.

Mike Neir :: 06/14/2007, 4:49 pm :: Reply

Yah... I felt pretty dumb about it, but hey, shit happens. I haven't seen any insects so far, and hopefully I won't.

Yah, It was nice for the month or so that it was good. It's off at the repair shop right now. Hopefully it gets back more sooner than later.

Ben :: 06/20/2007, 6:36 pm :: Reply

I always have a problem with smells in the back of my truck. I think it's from hauling bodies.