Maximum overload has been reached

We will allow nothing further.

I delivered flowers for four hours today - I can always use the money and the couple who own the store can always use the help on the big four delivery days - day before Christmas, day before Easter, day before Mother's day, and the biggest day of all, Valentine's day.  So I drove about 56 miles, crossing into two cities and making about 15 deliveries.  Not too bad.  When I was finished, I took my kids to a gift wrapping party - lots of great food, company, and the opportunity to wrap some gifts without prying eyes.  Good times indeed.  I sat with a friend for a while and relaxed, and thought about how great it was that I was ready for Christmas.

It was when I got home that it all went to hell.  It's the REST of my life that I'm not ready for.

See, I had bought two bottles of ATF transmission fluid, as the level in my van is low.  While driving home, my kids kept telling me, "Boy, it really stinks in the car."  It did smell strange, but I'd been delivering flowers, most of them with lots of pine, and it smelled a bit piney.  Two arrangements had birds of paradise, and one had calla lillies, so I assumed that the smell was a residue of the flower scent.  Some of those things smell.  We drove home with the windows open. 

When we got home, I decided to clean out the van.  While mucking it out, I noticed a red fluid on the floor - the vinyl floor, thanks be to God for mercy right there.  I began to wipe and realized that the fluid was the cause of the smell.  Hmmm, did the pine branches leak off that much sap?  Nope.  Turns out that someone stepped on a bottle of tranny fluid and it popped, leaking all over the car. 

Great.

I cleaned, I wiped, I mopped, and I left the windows open.  The smell is gone.  As well as my brain, apparently, as I tossed my covered in transmission fluid polar fleece - my beloved fleece that I wear to run every day - into the washing machine, with several other hanging around pieces of clothing.   Poured in the detergent and walked away, to clean up the rest of my atomic bomb level house. 

Except I kept noticing the smell, and it was driving me crazy.  WHERE was it coming from?  It was giving me a headache, and I searched and searched.  I realized after a while that it was coming from inside my washing machine. Where an ENTIRE load of clothing now smelled like slightly demeted pine trees on a rampage. 

I rewashed and rewashed, and tonight I'm going to to to Wal-Mart - I KNOW!  Today of ALL days - to get some odor remover.

Oh, and some ink remover.  Since I sat on a red ink pen that exploded in my back jeans pocket, so it looks as if I received a VERY special visit from my most favorite aunt ever, all over my behind.  And all over the pale peach chair that I was sitting in.

All is not lost, though, as I will be making a stop at the Mexican hole in the wall up the street on my way home, and dropping myself in one VERY large Margarita.  With extra salt.

Comments

[chris]

Drop me in that margarita with you, we'll drink our way out.

[Heather]

Dang! What a day, Carmen! You need that margarita. That margarita is well deserved, indeed. Drink one for me!

[Blaine]

Oh my!! You might just need to drink two margaritas. So sorry to hear about the rotten day. 8^(

[Karly Campbell]

Ha! Red ink...visit from your aunt! Haven't had that happen since high school...and mine wasn't ink...am blushing just remembering how very very awful that day was. Very awful. Am off to pour another glass of wine to dull the pain.

[cathy]

have a margarita for me, maybe two. i seem to have gotten the 'i got the flu shot flu' for christmas! it is becoming ever more evident with each passing minute! yetch!

[meritt]

Could have been worse... the transmission fluid could have been on the ground... coming from under the hood!!!!!

:)

(I'm having that kind of week too. I've started a list on the side of the refrigerator of everything that is breaking down this week).

[Izzy]

Drink TWO margaritas! You deserve them :)

Merry Christmas!

[FishyGirl]

Oy, Carmen. Drink up and enjoy - that's a lot for one person in one day.

[AJ]

Stop, take a deep breath, and turn it over to Cuervo. And have a Merry Christmas!

[Jenny]

Oy! I'm going to send DJ to get me some margarita mix, stat.

[Mel]

I can't think of a clever comment . . . but I was here. I read. I sympathized.

[Kris]

Oh, man, WalMart. You might need two margaritas. Hope all the smells and ink came out, and Merry Christmas!

[Brandy]

I've never had a Margarita, but drink one for me anyway. And it seems that bad luck is going around, my van is stalling every time I come to a stop in drive. *sigh* As a matter of fact, have 2 for me.

Happy Holidays!

[rachel]

gah.

I hope that your Christmas miracle is that the smell comes out. But may your other Christmas Wishes come true, too!

[Christina]

Have one for me!

[veronica]

What an awful day. I can identify.

[Still Standing]

Wow, that sounds rough. I can't decide which is worse, the van, the washer, or Walmart. Enjoy your drink, it's well earned.