You know how some smells, even if they're not particularly pleasant in themselves, have such good associations that you just feel good when you smell them?
Gasoline does that for me. I either grew up in a family business that made its money off getting insurance for burning houses down (not) or went waterskiing as a kid a lot (nod).
My office chair, a lovely oak relic from the 50s or so, squeaks. So I brought in some lube from home to lube it. And the lube I brought, because it's the lube I have at home, is teflon bicycle lube. Mmmm, my office smells like a newly lubed bike waiting to go out and play. And my chair wheels are so smooth now that I could push off from the floor in front of my computer desk and fly backwards across the room to hit the back wall, some 10 feet away, without any effort at all. We should have chair races in our hallway! The leany part still squeaks, though.
This weekend, I went for either a walk (my term) or a hike (my friends' term) with some friends in a local park. (What's the difference between a walk and hike?) We walked through the different sorts of woody areas, pines and hardwoods), and up to a firetower, which we climbed. We spent a while up there because the air was crisp and lovely, and we could see for a long ways, over little rolly hills with farmland and woodlots with trees in the stages of fall color. It was as perfect a walk or hike as one could hope for.
I like the smell of gasoline too. It reminds me of living in a flat in a city as a child.
ReplyDeleteDiesel exhaust + Mexican bakery = heavenly nostalgia for me. I became aware of the world may years ago in Mexico City....
ReplyDeleteI wonder how that would have affected Proust?
Cigarette smoke reminds me of my dear ol' dad (rest his soul). He was a sweet, loving man. Every time I pass by someone smoking, I get a whiff of him, and it doesn't bother me a bit. (Even though I know everything about the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke, etc.)
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