Neanderpundit

is in a bit of a rough spot today. A prayer or two wouldn’t go amiss. Nothing life threatening, but certainly difficult.

When I was young, when I started shaving, I never used any sort of aftershave, other than witch hazel. Dad the same, though he occasionally used Aqua Velva, because my mom liked it. Mostly, dad smelled like Alberto VO-5.

Scent is a powerful memory trigger. Trouble is, not all those memories are always pleasant. We have a lady at work who wears a lot of very expensive perfume. And it smells great on her. But once in a while she wears white diamonds, which I think smells like raid, not because it does but because my ex used to wear it, and with her body chemistry it was awful.

I also work with Asians, many of whom consider strong scents offensive. So I try to settle for being clean. Partially because I don’t like strong scents myself (I wear Drakkar at the wife’s request when we will be going to an event) at least part because I don’t desire to be affiliated with someone’s bad memory of someone who wore that scent in their past.

Still. There are scents I will always remember. The smell of fabric softener and bleach, the smells that remind me of the first woman I went out with after my first divorce. The smell of my first one and only new car that I ever owned. The smell of vanilla, the smell in the room where the Ogwife and I stayed on our wedding night. The salt smell of the ocean. it helps a lot to be able to soak in these smells when your own stink is not overpowering.

by way of 9/11, that hasn’t already been said.
People forgot the horror. People are good at forgetting. And now we’re going to welcome to our country, all the same assholes that cheered on 9/11/01.

I’m done. I never had any delusion that I could convince anyone of anything, and I don’t harbor any of those delusions now. I can’t reason with people who won’t reason, and that’s as far as I’m going to go. So I’m going to try to lead as good of a life as I can, and help the people I can help, and do the things I know are right, and try to teach my child to do the same.

And pray. Politics isn’t going to save us, because everyone is an idiot. And I may be their king. Prayer certainly can’t hurt. Maybe if enough of us do, the Lord will come back and drown all the assholes like he did last time.