  The nature of the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) is highly constrained by the
combination of in situ heliospheric and line-of-sight data towards nearby
stars. We present a new interpretation of the LIC components of the absorption
line data towards epsilon CMa, based on recent atomic data that include new
rates for the Mg+ to Mg0 dielectronic recombination rate, and using in situ
measurements of the temperature and density of neutral helium inside of the
heliosphere. With these data we are able to place interesting limits on the gas
phase abundance of carbon in the LIC. If the C/S abundance ratio is solar, ~20,
then no simultaneous solution exists for the N(Mg I), N(Mg II), N(C II) and N(C
II*) data. The combined column density and in situ data favor an abundance
ratio A(C)/A(S) = 47 +22 -26.
  We find that the most probable gas phase C abundance is in the range 400 to
800 ppm with a lower limit of ~330. We speculate that such a supersolar
abundance could have come to be present in the LIC via destruction of decoupled
dust grains. Similar enhanced C/H ratios are seen in very low column density
material, N(H) < 10^19 cm^-2, towards several nearby stars.
