I’ve been nearsighted since I was born. I’ve got no natural athletic ability. My wife says I’m hard of hearing. I’ve got fairly mundane taste in food and I’m tone deaf when it comes to music.
But what I lack in my other senses, I make up for with my highly sensitive sense of smell.
I love smelling things (no, not smelly things).
- The smell of baking cookings reminds me of my Aunt Essie.
- Charcoal grilling brings back memories of cookouts and picnics.
- The smell of woman’s hair will often make me think of high school.
- A waft of Club Man reminds me of my barber shop visits with my Uncle Bob.
If someone near me smokes, uses Dial soap, washes her hair with strawberry shampoo, eats garlic, needs a shower (or just had one), I smell it.
My favorite smells include fresh cool spring that’s sweet like sugar peas, ozone in the air after a hard summer rain, sun-baked skin after a day on the beach, and clean clothes after being line dried outside.
For me, scents are clearly tied to memories. They are visceral and powerful.
When I worked in Corporate America, my sense of smell was assaulted on a regular basis.
There was the lack of fresh air. Offices rarely had windows that opened to let in fresh air. Instead they recirculated dead air throughout the building under harsh fluorescent lights. I’d often open the blinds as wide as possible, turn out the lights and burn a candle just to bring some life into the environment.
There were the meeting rooms that were windowless tombs of poor ventilation. We’d cram 10 or 20 people around a long table for hours. The bad breath, the sweat, the coffee and the perfume would have me ready to gag long before I could escape.
Worst of all were the events. Trade shows, quarterly business reviews and conventions were a cacophony of competing, yet overpowering, smells from hundreds or thousands of bodies:
- Bathrooms that couldn’t handle the load (literally) filled with men who couldn’t aim.
- Coworkers who must have poured an entire bottle of cologne or perfume over their heads as they primped and primed for the days events.
- The inevitable hard partiers who reeked of booze from a late night.
- Coffee breath, garlic breath, onion breath and “you should see a dentist because something died in your mouth” breath
Yuck. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.
Working from home eliminated all of these issues. I only had to deal with them during road trips and occasional meetings at HQ.
Working for myself (and not working) is even better since I get to skip all of the events and time sucking meetings.
Even though my home office is also the site of my cat’s well used litter box, it’s 1000x times better here than in Corporate America.
Yet another benefit of early semi-retirement.
I hope you join me here before I have to smell you at the office.