Tuesday, March 24, 2009

making scense of scents

Just a quick note about smell pollution. I'm not sure if my sense of smell is particularly heightened, or normal, whether I'm overly sensitive to smells, or not, but this morning I have an issue with smell pollution.
The couple that lives in the apartment below me are heavy smokers, and they smoke indoors and out. Times like this when the weather is mild enough to allow us relief from air conditioners, the smell of stale cigarette smoke wafts up to my windows. The young girls who live next door are cigarette smokers, and they smoke on the front porch (we never smoke in the house, they proudly state) and there's always a large ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts on the front porch. (Someone very dear to me once said, "Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray." I think of that every time I see that ashtray on the front porch).
This morning, the couple downstairs are doing laundry. The heavy, faux-floral dryer sheets are polluting the air, competing with the stale cigarette smoke. One of the girls next door is showering with a heavy fruity-scented cleaner that is filtered out of their bathroom window. A man walking by from the end of the street is puffing a pungent cigar, and his lady friend must've spilled her perfume on herself. The car in the lot next door emits heavy petroleum fumes, and the house its parked in front of must've missed the trash pick up this morning: rotting fish....pee - yew.
I never figured myself for such a scent-snob, but I guess I am. I spend a good deal of money on frangrance-free detergents and soaps and shampoos, and then still good money on scented candles (and only certain scents and certain qualities - any candle will certainly not do).
Right now, it's the dryer sheets. They're enough to make me puke. I can't even smell the fresh cup of coffee I'm drinking. Did you know that those dryer sheets leave a coating that eventually clogs the lint screen? If I thought I'd get any support, I'd start a campaign against scented dryer sheets. Blah.

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