Yesterday was quite a day. The day before was a long drive from northern Illinois to Baton Rouge. I had planned to fly The Countess, but the weather was below my personal minimums. So we uneventfully drove the brand new car 1,000 miles in 13 hours.
Yesterday began with the birth of my tenth granchild, Conrad Sterling Martiny. My eldest daughter, Angela, came down to help out with the two older brothers. As she packed them into the car to take them to the hospital, the engine in that car failed to start. She popped the hood and found an animal nest in there.
So the two grandfathers (I and Mike) drove to the house to clean out the mess and get the car started. Other than the normal disposal of nesting materials from the entrails of an engine, this was uneventful. A simple jump-start was all that was require in the end.
Then, on the way back to the hospital we had to cross the I-10 bridge over the Mississippi to East Baton Rouge. Traffic in my lane was stop and go. While stopped I noticed next to me a rather large puddle of pinkinsh goop on the road. Then a moster truck barrelled past and spashed that crap all over my brand new car. It was a horror scene.
The windshield wipers would not clear the goop. I was reduced to peering through gaps in goop while trying in vain to use the washers to dillute the greasy goopy gunk.
Mike did a quick Google search for a car wash and we crawled our way to it.
"Car Wash" is being generous. This was a concrete block building with three bays, no equipment, and one guy with a hose and a bucket. But we were desperate. He immediately called a buddy, and the two of them worked for over an hour to clear the gunk from the car. In the and, after $60 worth of rinsing and washing and wiping and sweating (97 degreees), they finished up. I asked them what the stuff was. They said: "Fish Guts".
The car still smells of fish. I'll be running it through large mechanical car washes several more time over the next few days.
The rest of the day went very well. Mother and Baby are fine. Family is joyous. And the Grampa's will one day tell our new little "Chum" why we sometimes use that name for him.
