When the wife brought youngest son's little Subaru home from the shop this evening, new wheel bearings in place, I naturally thought we'd jump in, pick up the SUV, and then haul our rears down the interstate to deliver the little red car to him in University City.

Nope.

She had to clean it, first.

The inside, that is. Not the outside. (When we delivered it, and then met him at the shopping mart for last minute supplies (a pot for Ramun noodles), he commented "The least you could have done is washed it." Uh, sorry. Nope.)

So, the wife removed several months of detritus from the inside of his car. And then moved back to the trunk. Where we found a missing glove, three (yes, three) window scrapers, and a package of illegal fireworks.

Confiscated the fireworks. Even though they're probably legal in the county where he is. Why have the temptation?

And we found this.

I'm pretty sure we do not want to hear the story of how this street equipment came to be in his trunk.

Suffice it to say, he only admitted that it came from Central City.

Me, I suggested he find a construction zone somewhere, anywhere, and drop it off. Him, he figures they'll have a hat tree in their dorm room.

Speaking of his dorm room... we didn't get there until 10 PM, so all I got to see of it was a glimpse of his roommate in his underwear, by the glow of the tiny TV. If you need to know, they're on the fourth floor, west side, second spruce tree from the south.

Hey, did I ever mention that one of the University's dorms is the tallest building in our state?

A whopping eight stories. But no, he's not in that one. But when the wife delivered him to college last weekend, he insisted they visit a friend in that dorm, on the sixth floor.

Using the stairs.

Anyway, the wife had called youngest son as we were parking the two vehicles, so we were still transferring a heeler, water bottles and cds from his car into the SUV when our tall redhead came striding up.

And gave a great, big hug to...

His car.

Really. Literally.

I think he missed it.

After our hellos, wife mentioned that his former boss had given the little red car a full service job, and replaced the air filter.

For free.

Provided he graduates.

Cool people we have in our town.