Unseasonable Scent
Thursday April 24, 2025 8:45PM - Random Musing
I got home, it was early evening, the sun has set but still some twilight from the day remaining. Noticed the mundane, I forgot to bring down my trash cans put out for yesterday's pick-up. I still have mail to open from over a week, I know bills are paid so it seems like drudgery, although I think I may have an Easter card or two among the stack of envelopes in need of "processing." I'm probably the world's laziest implementer of David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (GTD) methodology. I barely apply it to my life and it still works wonders but if I get serious about it, I'm playing catch up and review for so long that my energy gets zapped from doing anything but anxieties from keeping some things in my head are also evaporated by the metaphorical sweat.
I stepped out of my vehicle, a familiar scent that seemed out of place filled my nose. I was trying to place it and memories hit me to give it a context. It's spring time, right but this is a remote memory of a summertime smell. A hint of warm rubber from tires that have traveled and warmed up to fill the air. That wasn't it though. It was perhaps a pollen, or a plant smell, certainly a grass note to it, cut grass, maybe. No, it was more rich and specific, but memories of old leaves heated by summertime sun, and that weed or tall grass smell that brought me back to my youth. A camping smell, a cottage smell in Crawford County. That smell you got upon first arrival, getting that clean country air filled with pollen and grasses, trees, a remote smell of far away in time and place. The heat from the asphalt. Was it unusually warm today, probably. It's been in the mid 80's at times this week and cool in the mornings. My mind wandered, would the conditions be right for the emergence of Morels this time of year. They emerge when the conditions are right, just after the coolness and moisture of April brings the 55 degree soil temperatures among certain trees to trigger their emergence. Coveted places by some in the know, kept secret so they can be harvested and enjoyed. Something I haven't done yet in my life. Perhaps in a couple days it will be nice and a good time to take a walk in some woods and see if my memory of tree identification will serve me well.
Work was not overly busy, but steady today, the season is shifting, the patient presentations are making their adjustments from overwhelming colds and viruses to other things, injuries from activities. Nothing specific, but you can tell the season is shortening spring and welcoming an early summer perhaps. The daffodils that emerged a month ago defiantly against the waning winter, have all but wilted away. A few clusters here and there where they were protected from the heat or the extremes of cold.
A peaceful smell, one of wonder and joy from my youth made me smile. I began to remember tinfoil wrapped corn, campfires, the smell of the "modern" plastics of my youth so long ago, 40 or more years ago.
It's a shame the day is over, the mundane of chores, some can be delayed abound. That food in the refrigerator, the recipe for my healthy meatballs can maybe wait another day. I need to capture the moment's smells and thoughts before they fleet away along with the soapy dish water in my sink that cleans my pallet. I chose to open a bottle of wine, the taste wasn't right for me at the moment, maybe another day.
It was a good day. Average, no better. I can't put my finger on exactly how or why. Nothing terribly stressful or bad, just a nice day, for a work day that's wonderful. A blessing really. Maybe I'll start some laundry and unwind. I enjoy playing some online games with my father and a friend's son, my friend. Three generations on a modern game, it's fun. Call of Duty, the camaraderie and child-like hide-go-seek cops/robbers, cowboys/Indians ritual of boys across generations in a modern accessible form that can be shared across distances and homes, and the banter that comes with it, defeat, victory, humiliation, and overall winning in life because of friendships that prevail.
Have a great day, enjoy the smells and memories of the past as you make the ones in this moment.
~S~