Twas a lovely day. Overnight low was 38, but the sun was shining this morning and it warmed up to the mid 60's, with fluffy white clouds in the sky; we enjoyed lunch with friends ... and now ... the sky is overcast, the wind has picked up, the temps are dropping and winter is back.
Oh, and this was the back floor of the car this past Monday:
We figure they are blessings in disguise, because the mushrooms showed us there was still moisture in the car -- something we couldn't feel by pressing on the carpet. Took car to dealer. They found a seal on the frame under the car wasn't tight. They've stripped the inside of the car down, ordered new carpeting and other items, dried the car out, repaired it, tested the repair, sanitized the inside, tested it again, and have kept the car over the weekend to make sure all is good before they reassemble it all. We have an extended warranty, so everything is covered -- including the cost of the rental we've been driving.
Without all the strange weather we've had the past few months (more rain than normal and temps cooler than normal), the tires wouldn't have had all the water to spray up on the underside of the car, it wouldn't have come into the car and we wouldn't have grown the mushrooms. The car likely would have slowly filled with unseen mold under the carpet, and perhaps made us sick, as well as slowly rusting everything out (who turns upside down and checks the underside of the seats in the car?) -- and the busted seal wouldn't have been discovered until our warranty was over and it was too late to fix. The mushrooms were our visual clue.
So we are very thankful for the unusual rain, the strange temps, the fungi, the extended warranty and a dealer who didn't scoff at us, but dug right in and found the problem. It's sometimes the little things that are the biggest blessings. So bring on the rain, it will water the flowers that have survived the hail we had all week.
