What's that smell?

Last week Joe took our car on a road trip with a friend from college. They went mountain biking, played some rugby, and then Joe slept in the car during his solo 14-hr return trip home.

When I sat in the car for the first time on Wednesday to drive to a meeting, I was surrounded by the detritus of Joe's man trip: three empty soda bottles, tangled mess of cords for various electronic devices spilling out of the center console (including one new electronic device that I know we did not own when he left for this road trip), candy wrappers on the floor mats, several popsicle sticks, and receipts for gas sprinkled around like confetti.

It was an unusually cold week in Denver, so all the soda bottles were crusted with frozen sugar, the electronic devices took five minutes to turn on, and the popsicle sticks were welded to the floor mat. And because it was so cold, and because this mess was not mine to clean, of course it stayed in the car. Yesterday was the first day it was finally above freezing, and the car sat in the sunshine all day until I got in it this afternoon. And besides the fact that the soda bottles were all steamy inside from thawing sugar and the popsicle stick was now free to attach to my shoe, there was a very distinct odor of sweaty boy. It's like it was there, frozen in the seat cushions the whole time, and now that it was finally warm enough, it too was thawing out and releasing into the air.

After a few minutes of driving I couldn't smell it any more, and I'd hoped that it had released itself and was now gone, but this morning when I got back in the car, there it was again. In less than a week Joe had managed to not only turn our shared vehicle into a mobile trash bin, but he also managed to entrench man-stink into the very fibers of the interior. And so it is with great sincerity that I am recommending we get a second vehicle. Or a steam cleaner and instructional video for Joe. Either one. I'll let you know how it goes.