Today in My History

2000:  Stranded
2001:  At the Mercy of the Elements
2002:  Pissy Moods
2003:  I Think I can't, I think I can't
2004:  Rejected Again
2005:  The Google Game
2006:   Re-Peanut
2007: Sometimes I Feel Like a Sad Song
2008:  Munchkin Land
2009:  Come Rain or Come Shine
2010:  Camp Beaverbrook
2011:  Another Exercise in Self-Loathing
2012: Gooey, Cheesy stuff
2013: Blank Calendar
2014: A Serious Question
2015: Sunday Stealing
2016: A Hospital Day

Bitter Hack
Updated 4/30
"The Donner Party"

Books Read in 2017
 Updated:5/2
"The Rage of Plum Blossom"

Personal Home Page

Books Read in 2017
Books Read in 2016
Books Read in 2015
Books Read in 2014
Books Read in 2013
Books Read in 2012
Books Read in 2011
Books Read in 2010

Blogroll
updated 9/15

Cast
updated 7/16

Email
(you know how to fix it)

Some Background Links:
The Philosophy of Juice & Crackers
The story of Delicate Pooh
The story of the Piņata Group
Who IS this Gilbert person anyway?
Sold!

Swap Bot: 
My Day
Favorite Travel Photos
Things in My Life
Pocket Letters
7 Days of Meals

mail to Walt / mail to Bev  

BEING SCENTS-ABLE

3 May 2017

I just finished a novel called "The Rage of Plum Blossom."  Amazon gives its Prime members who have Kindles a free book at the start of each month.  This was the book I chose a couple of months ago and I finally got around to reading it.

It's the story of a man the police say committed suicide by jumping off the balcony of the high rise apartment he shared with his wife, for no apparent reason.  The wife is convinced that the evidence points to this being a murder rather than a suicide.  She sets out to prove that he was killed and along the way makes a trio of friends who help her prove that it was, indeed, murder.

The first person she encounters is a guy she meets at a perfume counter, where the two of them have come to buy the same special perfume (Apres l'Ondee, which Amazon lists as $113 for 3 oz).  It is, she says, her "signature scent."

There is much made about various scents at various points throughout the book, something I have a hard time relating to.  I don't have a scent, signature or otherwise.  I have not worn any sort of perfume or cologne in decades.

My mother's "signature scent" was White Shoulders, a cologne significantly less than $113 for 3 oz. ($3.64 per fluid ounce, according to Amazon).  I don't know when she stopped wearing it, but I remember that being the perfume she wore throughout my childhood.

I don't know anything about perfume except whether I like the smell or not.  For awhile I wore Channel #5 but I stopped more than 30 years ago.  What made me stop is that I was working for the Lamplighters and had made friends with a woman whose name I have long since forgotten

She was having lots of health problems and the doctors finally determined she was deathly (almost literally) allergic to scent.  In fact, she became almost housebound because of her .... uh ... scents-ativity.

I began to notice scents around me and while for me they were pleasant, I thought about people like my friend who could not go outside because of crippling scent allergy.

So I just stopped contributing to the problem.  I have scented soap and scented shampoo, but I no longer wear cologne or perfume.

That's not to say I don't appreciate scent on others.  And I enjoyed the two tours I had of perfume factories on trips to France.  But it's just something I feel strongly about for me.  (And heck--look how much money I have saved over the years!)

But wouldn't it be nice to have natural scents to wear?  Apres l'Ondee translates to "after the wave."  I wouldn't mind having the scent of real ocean waves wafting over me.  I can imagine walking through a crowd and people wondering where that slight scent of seaweed is coming from....

I could also go for an eau d'cafe, a bit of French Roast coffee behind each ear.  I'd inspire people to have craving for donuts each morning.

A wonderful scent to surround myself with would be puppy breath or newborn head.  Scents that are fleeting in real life and I always feel sad that they are so short-lived.

But I'm fairly certain no one is working on developing scents like that.

Ned and Marta spent last week in Oklahoma, visiting her family.  They were scheduled to fly home on Sunday but there was "Katrina-level" flooding all over the state.  They were to fly out of Joplin airport and weren't sure they could get to the airport.

They did finally get to the airport, and actually got on the plane and then sat for two hours on the tarmac before being returned to the airport since their flight was going to be delayed another 2 hours due to weather.

They had, of course had to discard their bottles of water at the TSA, and Joplin is a no services airport, which means the only place to buy anything is at a single vending machine--which was broken.  They only have two flights a day, apparently, so no call for vendors.

American Airlines finally took pity on the passengers and sent out for pizza for everyone and eventually they got back on the plane again and made it to Dallas, but missed their connecting flight so had to spend the night at a hotel in Dallas.

Monday morning they finally got home and had the day to relax, but on Tuesday Ned had to get back on a plane (we drove him to the airport) to fly to ... Dallas, where he is meeting his friend Greg so they can drive back to California together.

As always, Ned is "livin' the dream."

I saw that Trump can't understand the conflict between Palestine and Israel and thinks it could be easily settled.  Maybe he can get Andrew Jackson on that project....

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Sign on a house in Ned's neighborhood

I'd love it if you'd leave a comment!
Remember to sign your name in the "Name" box or else you will show up as "anonymous"
(unless you want to be anonymous, that is!)