Ramblings of a Crowe

Car Fungus

So today has been another one of those days. I woke up this morning to find my cell phone not working. I had an error message on it that wouldn't clear so after a minor freak-out, I spent three hours trying to find a Cingular store open in my town (two of those hours were wasted at the mall). After getting that remedied, I went to pick up my mother's day gift at the flower shop, only to learn it wasn't done yet. They were gracious enough to give me someone else’s order, which was supposed to go out on delivery later in the day. Sorry unknown person! But thanks for the flowers!

For some reason my car wouldn't start while I was at the mall. It's been doing this off and on for months. I suppose I should take it in but that whole job thing kinda puts a damper on things. So far, after a little fiddling, it always starts back up--but I know there will be that ONE TIME when it won't.

Hopefully my cell phone will be working when that happens.

Anyway, I finally get home around 11am. Dink around on the net, call back the company who wants me to do an interview on Wednesday. Dink around some more, then go check the mail. Not that I'm expecting anything--except rejection letters and an ungodly cell phone bill. But I'd been sitting on my ass for the past hour so a breath of fresh air would do be good.

I'm blasted with gale force winds. Typical of this area. Kinda scary too sometimes. Plus I have this stupid phobia of wind. Yeah. I know. Almost thirty and the wind scares the shit out of me. So sue me. It probably stems from that one time I was picked up by an ginormous dust devil and spun around into a barbed-wire fence. I cut up my lip, freaked out the neighbors horses, and cried like a banshee. Very traumatizing for a five year old.

I put on my brave face and march out there. Of course, nothing of interest expect my car insurance statement and my new proof of insurance cards. I usually just toss the envelope into the car unopened, but since I was bored and figured I might as well take the time to read what they had to say. I'd just refinanced my car, so I'm sure some of the language had been reworded to fit my credit union and so forth.

Oh boy, reworded is an understatement.

Imagine my surprised to discover that my insurance doesn't cover fungus. Yes. Fungus. As in mushrooms, spores, mold, the stuff they put on pizzas. I had to read it several times just to make sure they'd sent me the right policy.

Is this something I should be worried about? Should I call and complain that my car isn't protected from athletes foot? I'm a little worried. The statement didn't say WHAT kind of fungus, so I'm not sure if there's some new car eating mold roaming around on the *gasp* wind, waiting to infect my poor little car.

I have half the mind to call them and ask them to clarify, "fungus" for me. Just to see what they have to say.

I know that certain microbes (Zoso's busting out the big words now), can live in gasoline. But they aren't a problem and I doubt the FDA would allow for high doses of penicillin or dimethyl sulfoxide to become additives to our fuel source. Ha ha.

Maybe they mean lichens. They're classified in the fungus kingdom, though really they are made up of fungal filaments and algae (plant) or cyanobacterium (bacteria). I guess if you left your car out long enough...like 100 years...the lichens would come (like in Field of Dreams).

Weird...

Posted by Zoso at May 12, 2006 12:57 PM