Stuff that stays in your car all the time, some for no apparent reason. Stuff in the trunk (boot for our British friends) does not count. My list includes:
2 harmonicas (like I am really going to learn to play them one day)
2 training manuals from work, about 3 years old, that never made it into my office
About 1/2 dozen cassette tapes, various genres of music
A tire pressure gauge
A pair of Vise-Grip pliers
A roll of duct tape
Roughly 30 sheets of paper containing handwritten notes that I no longer need.
Anyone else drive an automotive black hole?
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
Oh geez. I’ve got about 400 McDonald’s wrappers, thanks to my husband. Crayons in various stages of meltage, thanks to my darling daughter. I don’t think there’s anything in my car that actually belongs to me right now. But we just got a new van for my husband, and as soon as he cleans my car out, I can commence trashing it myself.
change for the parking meters… a jar of bubbles and wand for all the times I am stranded in traffic or waiting at a stoplight… A map… My insurance and registration stuff… A blanket for those spur of the moment picnics… oh and in the trunk… the remains of the last man who annoyed me
I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature!
lots of jingly change, a couple of cigars, spare Zippo fluid, a bunch of CD’s, a pair of beach chairs (to hold the subwoofer in place), jumper cables, a winshield screen, tool kit, and a map of Killearn (Killearn is a suburb of Tallahassee… most of my friends live there, but the roads are like spagetti!!!)
Lots of maps which I never use…a hair brush which I should use more often; numerous sets of keys of which only 1 out of 100 do I know what the key is to and a vial of pepper spray which I was supposed to turn upside down every mo but haven’t touched it in 2 years.
My car is mostly filled with old food wrappers, empty cigarette packs (and i don’t even smoke, you can thank my hubby for that), a car seat for the youngest child, various tools jammed inside a duffel bag, some spare change rolling around underneath the seat, two baby strollers (which we don’t even use anymore, but I am too lazy to take them out) and a few errant plastic pop bottles. Oh, and my insurance and registration info in the glove box.
3 10BaseT hubs
1 UPS
an MSCE training book (official Microsoft)
almost a ream of various papers
a window squeegee (comes in handy on a dewy morning)
paperclips (in the coin tray)
cheese wrappers (I love cheese)
a clothing box (leftover from Christmas)
a red suede jacket
several pens
bank receipts
a pair of Teva sandals (it’s winter too hehe)
ice scraper/brush (it’s winter you know)
gloves that barely fit
Day Runner
notebook
among other stuff…
My Honda looks like crap! (it’s sorta clean on the outside)
A leatherette bag from Pep Boys intended to be the receptacle for said gum wrappers, but it’s in the back seat somewhere.
Innumerable printouts of MapQuest maps for navigation.
Beach thongs for when I get a pedicure, so I have something to wear if the polish is still gummy (I live in Phoenix so this works year-round).
Cheap-ass Pep Boys compass that can’t tell direction anymore (why I still have it is a mystery in the same vein as keeping dried-out pens in a drawer, “just in case” they might have a little bit of life in them yet).
Books I keep meaning to loan to my mystery-reading buddy.
The usual scraper/brush thing for snow, tire gague, jumper cables, a bunch of maps from states and cities I haven’t been in for years, car manual, and standard “emergency bag”: flashlight, blanket, spare gloves, extra socks, etc.
I also always carry a phone book; I toss the old one in the car when the new one comes. It comes in really handy sometimes, looking up addresses or phone numbers, or using the maps, while I’m out and about.
Totally stupid stuff: junk mail I haven’t gotten around to tossing, a compass on the dash that doesn’t help me from getting lost, and a dead mink tucked into the dash cubbyhole, tail draped insouciantly over the door to the glove compartment.
“A dead mink?”, you ask? Yes, a joke gift from a very twisted acquaintance, removed at some time from one of those ghastly stoles. His name is Maynard The Road Mink. He listens quite politely to my commentary on other drivers.
Maynard is also a quite effective anti-theft presence. (Many people have been startled, looking into my SUV and seeing a dead rodent on the dash.)My theory is thieves pause to wonder if there might be a timber rattler under the driver’s seat.
I used to keep a Bible on the floorboard of my backseat. I figured if I ever got into a bad wreck and tumbled down an embankment where no one could see me or find me for Lord knows how many days… it just might come in handy!
There are a zillion maps (isn’t this like an echo or something?), a roll of paper towels to wipe dog slobber off the back window, a pair of binoculars under the seat for when I get bored while waiting for my wife, and a rather powerful slingshot for when I am REALLY bored or really pissed off.
I also keep a cane to lean on when my wife finally manages to get me to go into the mall. (cane is handy for warding off errant baby strollers also)
FixedBack
“Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.”~~G.K.Chesterton 1908
Two small wooden crates are kept in the trunk of my car so when I’m bringing home groceries, I can put the bags in them and my bags and/or items purchased don’t go flying around. I also have an empty cassette case, various empty cd cases, a leather cd case, insurance cards (I keep one from every cycle), pens that don’t work, and some of those security alarm stickers that you put in the window. Somehow I never got around to putting them on.
I’m afraid to look in my truck. Who knows what kind of crap can be found in there. Hubby drives it more than me and he’s quite the slob.
An old pair of gloves. An ice scraper/brush. 2 or 3 cassettes (varies–right now: Randy Travis and “assorted”). A towel. Books (number and titles vary–right now: Ethan of Athos, The BIG Elfquest Gatherum, Time’s Arrow: Book Two, Time’s Arrow: Book Three, possibly one more). An empty gym bag. Two magazines that my sister gave me (I forget what they are). An empty Pepsi can. Several pens. Some old mail. Directions to several places on various sheets of paper. A map of Illinois. A map of Wisconsin. Probably more stuff, but I don’t remember what else.
Tissues, change, a Red Cross emergency kit, a cell phone that came with the van but doesn’t work b/c I’m too cheap to pay the 10 bucks a month to give it life, a wad of ATM deposit envelopes, a couple pens, an umbrella, an ice scraper, and jumper cables.
