What smell?

Feb 16, 2010 by Naomi.

Ever wonder what it would be like if you had no sense of smell? It’s tough enough to wake up from an otherwise great night’s sleep with one sinus stuffed and the odor of fresh-brewed coffee drifting in the air but think of pleasure missed if one could not smell at all. Fresh baked bread and roasting ribs bring on happy thoughts with the aroma. Those alone make me glad I can smell. But necessary for survival?  Oh no. Still I might survive a fire because I got the first smell of smoke, or escape other dangers by recognizing gas vapor, or exhaust fumes. When I opened the door of my house after having been away for three weeks, the odor that rushed out to welcome me for an instant made me wish I couldn’t smell. The building was put together in 1945 of post WWII lumber and plywood that while aging as wood should, also exudes an unwholesome odor, not poisonous to be sure but unpleasant nonetheless.  Nothing I can do about it. Air freshener can not mask it. Nothing can be injected into the wood to erase it. I sleep in an unheated room with an open window and avoid it. But these first days of spring when all nature marches forward to procreate, the pollen from over sexed plants decides to reside in my nostrils and close off what little sense of smell I have on the best of days.

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