DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

 About five days ago I started to smell something vile near my fridge.  It smelled like bad meat and it was just around the corner where my little dog sometimes has accidents.  (She's old and has trouble with her bladder sometimes.  I can't blame her nor punish her...I'm old, too.)

 

The floor where she pees was dry and had no detectable odor, so I went back around the corner and opened the fridge.  It was stronger there but I couldn't put my finger on it.

 

I began tossing everything that looked suspicious.. Two days later, still no joy!  The smell got measurably worse, so I began tossing stuff that didn't look bad but might have been.  When that failed I probed under the fridge and the stove a foot away.  Kept getting worse.

 

This morning I pulled the fridge away from the wall and got up to unplug it (The outlet is above the fridge on the wall behind it.

 

On top of the fridge and near the back I found a once-frozen, now spoiled and burst open 1/2 pound bag of uncooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp.

 

I have spent about five out of the last eight hours cleaning it up.  It's better and I've used up 2 pounds of baking soda, a quart of white vinegar, a third of a bottle of Simple Green and a bout half that much Dawn, so far trying to get rid of  the stink. All the windows are open, I've apologized to my dog, and most of the smell is gone....but it looks like it will take a few more days.

 

Somewhere up in the here after my wife and mother are laughing and laughing....an LAUGHING!

 

See?  I've told you all again and again, "Pobody's nerfect!"

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Aw, shut up.  It could happen to anybody!

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

That reminded me:

 

After almost 40 years of marriage, a man dumped his wife for a younger woman. The house was in his name and he wanted to remain there with his new love so he asked the wife to move out and then he would buy her another place.

 

The wife agreed to this, but asked that she be given three days on her own there to pack up her things. On the first day she lovingly put her personal belongings into boxes and crates and suitcases.

 

On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things. On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their candlelit dining table, soft music playing in the background, and feasted on a kilogram of prawns and a bottle of Chardonnay.

 

When she had finished, she went into each room and deposited a few of the resulting prawn shells into the hollow of the curtain rods. She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.

 

The husband came back with his new girl and all was bliss for the first few days. Then it started; slowly but surely.

 

Clueless, the man could not explain why the place smelled so bad. They tried everything; cleaned, mopped and aired the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, carpets were steam cleaned, air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in, the carpets were replaced, and on it went.

 

People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. Even the maid quit. Finally they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move. A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house.

 

Word got out and eventually even the local realtors refused to return their calls. Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.

 

The ex-wife called the man and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely and said that she missed her old home terribly and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back.

 

Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was he agreed on a price that was about a tenth of what the house had been worth, but only if she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed and within the hour his lawyers delivered the paperwork.

 

A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home. They even took the curtain rods.

[Subdeacon Joe]

My version is one of a package of ground meat that I had set on top of the fridge while looking for something else in the  freezer.  Then had to dig out  more stuff than I put  on  the counter.  Got out what I was looking for,  then put everything from the counter back in.  By which time I had forgotten the ground meat on the top.

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

I know what you mean about rotten shrimp. Many, many years ago when I was a kid, my family was camping in northern California near Ft. Bragg . My Dad and I went salmon fishing and caught some really nice Kings. I went fishing on the rocks and caught some kelp fish and cabezon. I was using shrimp for bait. When I was done I guess I shoved the unused bait shrimp under the passenger seat of our truck. On the way home it got to stinking real bad and my Mother was going to make my Dad throw out the salmon which were frozen in an ice chest. We finally found the stinking shrimp and I caught hell. I took a week or more to get the smell out of the truck. Dad had to take out the seats and scrub the floor until it was gone.

[Rip Snorter]

I keep a couple of flyswatters on top of the fridge.  If something else got put up there, they would be moved out of position.  It would have to be a guest - we don't put anything on top.

[Alpo]

Many many many many  years ago my brother was an acolyte at a wedding. And he and his buddy John put some shrimp inside the happy couple's car's rear hubcaps.

 

It was a joke. Just a joke.

 

At least it was better than the time they put rice down the happy couple's carburetor.

[Rip Snorter]

The best Shrimp Trick I recall  https://traverseenterprises.com/the-prawn-the-ex-and-the-curtain-rod/

BTW in most cases, when you sell a house, you leave the window coverings and hardware.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

6 hours ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

I know what you mean about rotten shrimp. Many, many years ago when I was a kid, my family was camping in northern California near Ft. Bragg . My Dad and I went salmon fishing and caught some really nice Kings. I went fishing on the rocks and caught some kelp fish and cabezon. I was using shrimp for bait. When I was done I guess I shoved the unused bait shrimp under the passenger seat of our truck. On the way home it got to stinking real bad and my Mother was going to make my Dad throw out the salmon which were frozen in an ice chest. We finally found the stinking shrimp and I caught hell. I took a week or more to get the smell out of the truck. Dad had to take out the seats and scrub the floor until it was gone.

That kid is smaller than any of those fish.

Edited October 14 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

one of my 3 sisters

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

It's called being human.

I reckon most of us have done something at least vaguely similar.

We were only just newlyweds when I left a gallon of milk in the trunk of the car.

Wife still talks to me about that one.

After 28 years.

[Rip Snorter]

Once you are married, particularly long term, the past continues to Present itself on occasion.

[Eyesa Horg]

5 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

 About five days ago I started to smell something vile near my fridge.  It smelled like bad meat and it was just around the corner where my little dog sometimes has accidents.  (She's old and has trouble with her bladder sometimes.  I can't blame her nor punish her...I'm old, too.)

 

The floor where she pees was dry and had no detectable odor, so I went back around the corner and opened the fridge.  It was stronger there but I couldn't put my finger on it.

 

I began tossing everything that looked suspicious.. Two days later, still no joy!  The smell got measurably worse, so I began tossing stuff that didn't look bad but might have been.  When that failed I probed under the fridge and the stove a foot away.  Kept getting worse.

 

This morning I pulled the fridge away from the wall and got up to unplug it (The outlet is above the fridge on the wall behind it.

 

On top of the fridge and near the back I found a once-frozen, now spoiled and burst open 1/2 pound bag of uncooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp.

 

I have spent about five out of the last eight hours cleaning it up.  It's better and I've used up 2 pounds of baking soda, a quart of white vinegar, a third of a bottle of Simple Green and a bout half that much Dawn, so far trying to get rid of  the stink. All the windows are open, I've apologized to my dog, and most of the smell is gone....but it looks like it will take a few more days.

 

Somewhere up in the here after my wife and mother are laughing and laughing....an LAUGHING!

 

See?  I've told you all again and again, "Pobody's nerfect!"

.

.

.

.

.

.

Aw, shut up.  It could happen to anybody!

Of course it couldn't of just been a bag of frozen corn! Damn!

Edited October 14 by Eyesa Horg
Typo

[Rip Snorter]

The Kernel outranked the shrimp.

[Subdeacon Joe]

8 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

The Kernel outranked the shrimp.

 

Nope...the shrimp clearly out ranked the kernels!

[Rip Snorter]

Only short term!

[Pat Riot]

My wife has a cure for this, Forty. You put so much crap up there that there is no room for anything else. 

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

1 hour ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

It's called being human.

I reckon most of us have done something at least vaguely similar.

We were only just newlyweds when I left a gallon of milk in the trunk of the car.

Wife still talks to me about that one.

After 28 years.

Wait another 28 years ans you'll say the same thing.  Wives NEVER forget!  NEVER!

Edited October 14 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

My late Aunt Sharon used to tell a story from her early teenage years about a disaster brought about by dear ol' Grandpa.

 

Now, Grandpa loved fishing.  Not all fishing, mind you - CATfishing.  Nothing else.  And when I was a kid and  available, he loved to take me along.  I'd fish for bass, Grandpa for catfish.  Once in a while, he'd hook a non-discriminating bass and get grumpy - he wanted catfish.  Better eating, and b'sides... he had ME to clean 'em.  For what it's worth, that's where I learned to hate cleaning catfish.  Which is why I never fished for 'em.  And still don't.  But I digress again! 

 

The thing about catfish is you need a good, stinky bait.  Grandpa was convinced that the smellier, the better.  And he was always searching for the perfect conconcotion - and finally hit on what he projected to be the perfect recipe.  Chicken liver and limburger cheese!  A quick trip to the market, and home with a couple pounds of each.  He proceeded to put them through the grinder, mix thoroughly, then fill a couple of Mason jars, cap, and place on a shelf in the pantry.

 

As much as we all loved dear old Grandpa, no one could accuse him of being overly insightful.  And it never even crossed his mind that everything else in the pantry "canned" in Mason jars had been cooked.  And the jars sterilized.  Nope... it just seemed like a good idea to put up his newly-invented ultimate killer catfish bait to age and mellow.  And all was well for about a week. 

 

And then, one warm, summer night, well into the wee hours, the family was abruptly awakened by what sounded like a pistol shot, followed forthwith by a second BOOM!  The family tumbled from their beds in a panic - and began gasping as they were overcome by the ghastly fumes of over-ripened catfish bait.  It seemed that as the stuff aged, it fermented, and built up a tremendous pressure until the first jar burst most convincingly - likely triggering the failure of the second, adjacent jar.

 

All windows and doors were opened; sadly, my poor Aunt Sharon and Aunt Bea were tasked with the clean-up duty.  Which, as they told me many times over the years, was plumb awful.

 

Grandpa wondered how it would have worked for the catfish - but he was forbidden from ever again attempting to formulate any home-made fish baits.  

 

            

[watab kid]

i cannot imagine that smell , but what i can imagine is that is was bad , a friend had a freezer fail and everything spoil days before he realized it ,, we had to move that thing out of his apartment ill it got taken to the dump and the smell was worse than anything i had "imagined" 

[Dusty Devil Dale]

You might give Hydrogen Peroxide a try.  It does a pretty good job on some odors.  Just sponge it on a contaminated surface, wait a few minutes and wipe it clean.  It seems to either work the first time, or not work at all, but it is CHEAP!

[SHOOTIN FOX]

That’s why women make the best archeologists. They are good at digging up the past.

[Sedalia Dave]

When I was a teenager we fished for catfish in the tail water of Truman Dam.  One of the best baits was Gizzard Shad.  Well you never knew if there would be shad below the dam so we stocked up on them and divided the extras up into quart ziplock bags.

Had an medium sized freezer in a detached garage that we kept them in along with fur pelts and excess fish or other meet that wouldn't fit in the big freezer in the house.

 

Well the garage freezer went out and wasn't discovered for about a week. Dad went out to get something out of it and the stench was so bad when he opened the door that he threw up.  Aired out the garage with a big fan for the rest of the night and went out the next morning and proceeded to tape the door on that chest freezer shut with duct tape.  Dad used over a roll before he was satisfied.  Freezer was too heavy to pick up so we tied a big rope to it and proceeded to drag it out of the garage. Once outside we picked it up with the bale tote on the tractor and hauled it to the back of the farm and set it down out of the way. 

 

I figure there was about 6 to 8 gallons of those Gizzard Shad in the freezer at the time.   Even with the lid taped shut, that freezer must of stunk for the better part of 6 month.

 

 

Edited October 14 by Sedalia Dave

[Rip Snorter]

Not stinky, but similar.  My parents had a friend, a very wealthy Frenchman living and green carded, working in the U.S.  He was a skillful artist and also wood worker.  He built a wonderful wine cellar, wood work of millionaire quality.  Had all sorts of fancy wine in it, well over my paygrade.  He decided to make a Normandy Cider that he had as a boy in France and store it to age in the wine cellar.  Similarly, it blew its corks and damaged wood and wine labels.  The destruction was amazing, and the cleanup epic.  He was entirely undeterred and lived an interesting life, though not one I would choose, till he passed.  

[Grumpy Old Man]

Probably 30 years ago, I worked in the meat department of a grocery store. I saw the meat cutter pull a package from the case and put up on top of the case. It must have slipped behind one of the signs on top. In a couple of days, they started looking for the smell. It took over a week to find it. Finally, someone from the right angle spotted it. Problem solved.