This story starts with a car – Maggie …
Actually the story starts with 5 cars. We own five cars – and every one has a purpose between horses, camping, commuting, transporting 4 generations at once and more. Now you would think with that many cars it is no big deal if one breaks down – we have four others right? Yeah, right. In the last month something major has gone wrong with every single one and AAA has become our best friends. I pretty much should just keep them on speed dial and have a coffee ready for them when they arrive. On this particular day we had to have the Yukon towed to the garage which meant I had to drive the Magnum. Now I adore Maggie, but lately her brakes have been throwing little temper tantrums and I have been less than appreciative.
Day 1
While I am cruising around with Maggie I start hearing this chirping noise. I notice all my sensors look fine (except her usual temper tantrum stuff) and the chirping seems to be at consistent intervals. When I get home I tell my husband (who is more than fed up with vehicle issues at this time) that my car is making a funny chirping noise – maybe there is a bird on the engine…. I say “I will know more tomorrow if it is still chirping”. Keep in mind we are in the middle of a heat wave and the “feels like” temperature every day is more than 100 degrees so if there were a bird on my engine, I can’t imagine how it would survive. As a side note – I am PETRIFIED of birds, completely debilitating fear of them. Expecting me to open up that hood to check the engine – not gonna happen. I would sooner do that for a snake or an alligator – than a bird. I don’t hate them – but I am afraid of them. We can co-exist but I can’t mingle with them.
Day 2
I start driving to work and guess what – the chirping is back and seems to get louder with the air conditioning on. I pull over, google chirping noise “vehicle” and it tells me quite clearly it is an issue with my serpentine belt. Confident that that mystery is solved I go home and tell my husband that we need to drop the car off soon because in addition to Maggie’s current temper tantrum, she has stepped up her game and now has a serpentine belt issue.
Day 3
Guess what?! The good news is – it isn’t a serpentine belt issue. Bad news is – my car now smells like a rotten decomposing animal. Now I have to get my car to the auto mechanic, and I am completely sure he will call the cops because my car smells like a dead person. My mission was to find the source – after all even if it’s a bird, it clearly isn’t living anymore.
Mystery solved
Maggie is quite clean. There isn’t all my barn stuff or anything in her. It is simply a hair brush and a car seat in the back seat for our 4 year old grandson. BUT – I peek into the backseat and see a beach towel on the floor. It must have been from when my daughter drove Maggie a few days before. No big deal – let me get that towel out of there. UGH the smell was horrendous and amplified as soon as I moved the towel. I unroll it and wrapped up nice and neatly in it – a dead sparrow!
Looking back
How was I to know? The chirping was a steady consistent chirp, , chirp, , chirp… At no point did it vary and become a distressed ccchiiiirrrrpppp… It never became a weaker chirp… It never became a panicked chirp,chirp,chirp…
So between my car making noises, throwing temper tantrums, smelling like a dead body – I get anxious getting in the car now knowing that somehow, for two days, a bird (OF ALL THINGS) was right behind my seat begging for its life to be spared.
Oh Lordy – that is alot of stress…
Well, you have a happy ending which is far better than the alternative. In addition to an interesting story and a good reason to check your back seat in the future.
oh no, poor sparrow. So sad, that you found him dead. At least your car got fixed. And yeah, maybe next time check the inside of the car too 🙂
poor sparrow.. they’re looking for a warm place and your car is the best place maybe.
That Chirrp never really lets you be in peace, because it keeps telling my OCD self that something is just not right -however trivial .Thankfully , yours got sorted soon .Loved reading this post -great style of narration.
Yikes! That’s quite a story. I’ve never met anyone that is afraid of birds. I’m afraid of frogs.
Oh wow- car troubles are the worst! And that poor sparrow- glad things turned out okay in the end.
What a great story and whats most important it has a happy ending.
Cars can seriously cause so much stress. I am so glad that you figured out what the issue was even though it was not what you expected.
This story made me giggle a little bit with the outcome of it. Glad that it was something like this!
Oh no! I can imagine that wasn’t a nice find – but I am glad you found out the issue and it wasn’t even more car trouble. Car trouble is the worst, especially if all your cars decide to break down at once!
This story kind of made me chuckle but, I am so glad that you were able to figure out the issue. Car trouble is never fun, it is actually one of my biggest peeves!
Thanks for sharing your story! Car trouble isn’t fun but haven’t experience it yet (or many yes, but I don’t stress myself, I let y boyfriend handle it). And I prefer the chirping birds while waiting to fix the car 😀
This story made me laugh, but I’m glad you were able to find out the problem. Vehicle difficulty is never fun; in fact, it is one of my pet peeves!