On Why Strollers are Evil

Strollers are a necessary evil. When you are a twin mom, you rely on them to contain your children whenever you go anywhere. They open quickly, restrain your children, and carry all of your junk. They are awesome (especially if they have cup holders!). They are also huge, take up an enormous amount of room in the back of the car, get filthy from spilled things, and can be unwieldy. See? A necessary evil!

A few months ago, I took both of my strollers (a single and a double) out of my car.  It was amazing having the space in my trunk available to me!  I forgot how much you can fit back there.  Then, the last time we went to the zoo, I borrowed Daddy's stroller because it was clean.  My strollers have been sitting out in the car port getting dirty.  So, into my car went the 3 pieces of Daddy's stroller.  I like the stroller; it has lots of space and is easy to push.  However, it is still in my car.  Sitting there.  Taking up space.  Since the stroller has been hogging the back of my car, any bags have had to be evenly distributed around the sides.  Most bags stay where I put them, but several have fallen behind the stroller, their contents disappearing from view.  I've been very careful to check all around the stroller to make sure nothing, especially perishables, is left in my car.

You probably know what is coming.

Over the past week or so, I've noticed a strange smell in my car.  At first, I thought it was a diaper.  The smell seemed to come and go and I wasn't too worried about it.  That is, until Monday morning.  When I got in my car, it smelled like someone had died in my car.  It's an unmistakable smell.  If you've ever driven through Mexico, where animals die on the side of the road and are left to rot, you know that terrible smell.  Horrified, I opened my trunk to see if the smell was indeed coming from the trunk.  I searched for a few minutes, moving the stroller and finally, stuck my hand down into a bag behind the stroller.  My hand encountered something plastic and I grasped a hold of it to pull it from the bag.  As it came into my line of vision, I flinched.  I could not believe what was in my hand.

What was it?

On December 27, I went grocery shopping to buy supplies for a chili dinner for our friends.  I bought two packages of ground turkey and one tube of ground beef.  When I unloaded everything from the car, I was in a hurry and did not check as carefully as I could have.  I remember briefly wondering where the tube of ground beef was as I browned the ground turkey for the chili, but then it left my mind.

The item I pulled from my trunk was indeed the tube of ground beef fifteen days after I purchased it.  A tube of beef that had been trapped in my car through very cold temperatures and several days of 80 degree weather.  The smell was awful.  Even more disturbing was the softball sized air bubble distending from the side of the package!  I walked it as carefully and quickly as possible to the trash can (thank goodness it was trash day) and threw it in.  I used several wipies to scrub my hands and I still felt dirty.

Since then, my car has not had any other smells emanating from it.  I can't help but blame the whole incident on that huge stroller.  It is the stroller's fault that I almost had an exploded package of ground beef in my car.  Can you imagine if it had exploded?  Oh, eeeeewwwwww!

Strollers.  Necessary.  Evil.