This is an odd question to ask, I admit. I called Dr. Geek from the parking lot of a local grocery store today to ask just that question. He had recently been in my trunk cleaning out water in my spare tire well that had seemed in during our torrents of rain a few weeks back. He had no idea why there was dirt or sand clods in the trunk. As I was talking to him it suddenly hit me, "Oh wait, I have to ask my dad. He had my car on Friday." Dr. Geek, immediately replied, "oh yeah I bet he has something to do with this."
A bit of back story about my dad and my vehicle. For my entire life my father drove a beige 1970 VW Bug. He had the car prior to marrying my mother. She had a gold 1969 Camero. When I came along mom some how lost the toss and she had to trade the Camero in for a Ford LTD station wagon. I know I can hear the collective grown, she so got the short end of that stick.
During the years the bug was a good stable car. Once it needed major repairs when someone didn't approve of where my father parked and they cut the distributor wires and the engine blew up. My father was thrilled that not only did the insurance company pay for the repairs they gave him the car, it was considered totaled.
A few months after my dad and stepmother were married the car finally gave up the ghost and he has not felt the need to replace it. He lives in a major metropolitan city and is a HUGE fan of public transportation of any kind, but most especially trains! So he manages to get around and since he is retired it's not as if he needs to be anywhere on a regular schedule.
I try and be a good daughter and lend him my car, a 2000 Dodge Neon, not a spectacular car but I try and keep it up. When Dr. Geek and I go out of town I will let him use my car if he'll provide transport to the airport etc.
I have noticed that Dad has some rather interesting quirks when it comes to using my car. He routinely will remove all personal items of mine from the inside of my car and deposit them in a box in the trunk. This would be fine if he would then return those items back to where he found them prior to handing the keys back to me. When I say personal items I'm talking, maps, guide books, the small trash bag in the front. One time he also yanked all the connections, wires and external CD player that Dr. Geek so carefully installed and tossed them into the box as well. This shocked me since my dad prides himself on radios and their proper installation.
Dad has also changed the preset stations on my car, again not a problem so long as you change them BACK!
So this brings me to the discovery of sand in my trunk.
Last week I was attending a conference in the city and spent $28 the first day on parking and didn't want to do it a second day. I called Dad and asked if I could drop him my car if he would take me to the convention center and pick me up. This translated to him dropping me off at the local commuter station but details... not always his strong suit.
Dr. Geek recently installed a new fancy stereo in my car and it has a removable face plate. I removed that before dad ever set foot in the car. Once I got back that evening I replaced the face plate and all was right with my stations. The one snag was I had to inform Dad that he was driving with the parking lights and not the headlights but otherwise no problem.
So after I returned from the grocery store today I called Dad and asked, "Hey, did you notice any sand or dirt in the trunk of my car on Friday? I want to make sure that it isn't a neighborhood kid throwing dirt clods at my car and I obviously have a leak or a bad seal on my trunk (I've had a bad seal before and rain water would build up in my trunk). Dad's response, "Oh yeah I meant to clean that out, I apologize. I had sand bags in the car."
Why sand bags you may ask? Well when we had the torrents of rain Dad was concerned about water flooding his house. He and my stepmother live on a steep hill. Yes the streets sometimes get some steady river-like flow in a good downpour but it has to go downhill about 3-4 more houses to the bottom of the street. If there was water coming into their house I'd be heading for much higher ground, forget about sandbagging. As it turns out the sand bags were not needed, SHOCKER, and he was returning them to the city.
Thus ends the mystery of the sand in my trunk!
I have been told that if I need sandbags he can help us out. Ok thanks, I'll remember that!
