That Time of Year

It's that time of year again, the time when the evening air is heavy with the scent of orange blossoms. I love the scent of orange blossoms and I'm prone to thinking that it is perhaps the perfect aroma. It seems that the aroma of orange blossoms never fails to make me feel a little better no matter what sort of bleak nonsense is going on in my life. Colon dying as a result of chemotherapy? Well, here, have some orange blossom. It helps.

It really does. There are certain scents that I really like. I used to be quite the Polo man, for example, in my twenties. I didn't wear Polo every day, but usually every Friday I'd splash some on, and I'm still quite fond of the smell. Later I decided that I liked Lagerfeld Photo more than Polo, but these days, I'm not so sure - they're both pretty nice, even though they're probably both quite passe. Mind you, I'm not the sort of man who has any business wearing Polo or Lagerfeld any more. I'm neither young nor vigorous, and these days I have more use for a good hand sanitizer than I do a good cologne.

Maybe if they made Polo-scented hand sanitizer I would be in business! As it is, you can tell when I'm close at hand by the scent of Purell on the breeze.

There are several women's perfumes that I like, but I'm really hopeless at remembering their names. I remember Chanel Number Five only because Channel Five used to be an independent TV station in Phoenix that aired, among other things, Action Theater, World Beyond, and The Wallace & Ladmo Show. Perry Ellis is one that I like, but I can't actually remember what it's called. It's "Perry Ellis's Something-Or-The-Other" but I can't remember what. Perry Ellis's Pancreas, I don't know. I also like Red, but I think it's Someone-Or-The-Other's Red, isn't it? I don't remember. Otto von Bismarck's Red, maybe.

But it's sad. As I sit here and think about colognes and perfumes, I can't remember how anything smells except for the weird metallic taste/smell that one of my chemo drugs gives me. I can't even remember what orange blossoms smell like. I just remember that I like it. Being sick is such fun sometimes!

But hey, at least I can't remember what burning rubber smells like either! It's not all bad!