Death Bomb!!!

Update 8/18/06

I called the body shop that has been working on my truck today. It's taken a while, but it sounds like they are finally wrapping up work. Interestingly, they ended up doing more work on the truck than I ever expected.

On the phone, the repair shop owner explained that they stripped the interior down to bare metal, and then let ADVANCED BIO TREATMENT get medeval with their super cleaners on all the components. He said they even used an anti-stench fogger in the cab to help remove anything left over.

I didn't know this before, but apparently when creatures die and roast in 140 degree heat all sorts of vile fluids exit their bodies. So much of the cleanup effort was focused on removing dog essence from my interior ( I got the word essence from the dark crystal....remember that flick?!)

To rid my car of dog essence, they replaced the carpet, the entire passenger seat and part of the center console with brand new parts from the factory. They also had to replace the tools in the tool well underneath where the dog died. I can't believe all the damage that this sucker unleashed on my car.

The moment of truth will occur on Tuesday when I get the truck back. Will the term 'deathmobile' stick?

Update 8/6/06

We're letting insurance take care of the truck restoration/desmellification. A flat bed driver came to haul the truck away on this past Wednesday. I have no idea why, but the driver decided to drive the pickup onto his flat bed. I wasn't there, but Steph said she could see the driver physically gagging while he was in the cab.

The truck is currently at a body shop and the interior will be removed and cleaned later this week. They are calling in Advanced Bio Treatment to clean the interior pieces as they come out of the truck.

After everything has been removed and cleaned they will begin reinstalling everything back into the truck. I just hope everything comes clean in the end. The nastiest part of the truck should probably be the carpet and I think they are completely replacing it. Fingers crossed.

Update: 7/29/06

The neighbor took the truck for a thorough cleaning on Monday and as of this morning it still reaks like death.

I called insurance and luckily my comprehensive includes dead-dog-in-the-backseat coverage. Insurance has contacted a bio-cleanup specialist and they are going to rip apart the interior to clean everything in the car!

Original Post:

In a blog a while back I complained about the neighbor's dogs that were using our yard like a public restroom. Since that time I have had a change of heart and I actually started to enjoy the dogs hanging out in the yard while I am out watering palms and such.

One of the dogs was particularly cute. He's was an old red labrador kind of dog, though I'm not sure exactly what kind. Everytime I'd go out to do something in the yard he was my companion, watching what I was doing from a comfortable distance, occassionaly rolling over to have his belly scratched.

Unfortunatly, all of that has changed.

Friday night Stephanie and I returned to the house some heavy shopping bags and we had to unload from the truck. We left the passenger door open, unloaded everything and then returned a few minutes later to close the truck door.

Unfortunately we did not know that my little red companion had hopped inside the truck and curled up in the back seat.

Saturday both my neighbor and I did yard work within feet of my truck and neither of us heard any barking or any signs that the dog was trapped inside my car. Steph and I went to leave for dinner on Sunday night and that's when we discovered that old red had died in the back seat!

Finding the dead body was a morbid scene. The dog was dead for 2 days in JULY heat!! The smell of death invoked an urge to vomit and flys were swarming everywhere.

My poooooor truuuuuckk!!!!!!!!!!

My neighbor has been great in this situation. We broke the bad news to them and they are taking full responsibility for the dog jumping in the back seat. Tonight they removed the body and begun the bio-cleanup. Tomorrow they are taking the truck (aka deathmobile) to the detailers to be cleaned. I'm just praying that they can get the smell out.

This whole situation is remeniscent of a bad movie or something....sort of like the myth where a dead body was stored in a Corvette and no one wanted to buy the car because it smelled so bad.

Anyone wanna buy a Toyota Truck!?

SuperJack!!!

A few days ago, I became trapped behind an eighteen wheeler that was traveling 35 in a 55 zone. There was really nothing I could do to get around it because it was a two lane highway with a solid double yellow line. While I was stuck, I came up another great invention, called a SuperJack. Words do don't do justice to this idea, so I created the following figures to get the point across:


Figure 1: Andrew's Truck stuck behind rig going 20 mph under the speed limit.


Figure 2: Behold the SuperJack!! SuperJack is deployed remotely from Andrew's vehicle and guided underneath the offending semi.


Figure 3: SuperJack goes into action!!!!!


Figure 4: No longer impeded, Andrew continues on his way....at the speed limit (maybe above).