Ceridwen’s Cauldron

Back when I was interning at CBC Winnipeg, one of the hosts gave me this tip — if you’re out doing a live show, and you’re describing the scene, try to get the sense of smell in there somewhere. If you’re at a garden and can smell freshly-mown grass, drop that detail, and it will make the scene come alive for your listeners.

I don’t remember if she told me, or if someone else did, that the sense of smell isn’t routed the way other memories are. It has less levels to go through, so it’s much easier to remember scent, and to evoke a memory of scent, than it is for any other sense.I have no idea if that’s true, but since then, I’ve noticed that very often old, familiar smells will trigger memories for me. It’s as if for an instant I’m in another time and place, the place most strongly associated with those smells.

This happened to me last week at the hospital. I walked past and open door and got a whiff of what I can only describe as “laboratory smell”. I don’t know if it’s formaldehyde, or some kind of disinfectant, or something else entirely, but it’s quite unpleasant. And it takes me directly back to being a small child, and visiting my mother at the university lab where she was working.

Today, while I was out walking, I passed a clump of wild rose bushes in full bloom. The scent was overpowering. Suddenly I was standing in my grandparent’s backyard, where my grandfather’s wild white rose bushes are even now sacrosanct. Then, in another flash, I was in Clayton Park where I first lived with Scott, where the largest avenue is lined with wild rose bushes that are a riot of colour and perfume this time of year.

And again, while I was at the market, I walked past a tank of lobster — and yet again, I’m a child, and visiting my grandfather’s fishing wharf. I don’t like lobster, and the smell is damp and fishy — and yet it’s associated with memories of home, and it took me there for a little bit.

The upshot of it all being that I’m now just a touch homesick. Good thing I’m going to visit very soon.

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I know I have a few friends out there whose children have Thomas the Tank Engine playsets. I don’t know if this recall applies to their toys, but I’m putting it up here because I want to make sure they know about it.

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SciFiction is shutting down completely as of June 15. Yeah, as of two days from now, the stories are coming down.

For those who don’t know what SciFiction is: for a while there SciFi.com, the online home of the SciFi channel, was posting short fiction every week, and paying more than three times the going fiction rate to authors.

Then, the site shut down, but the stories already published remained online.

And now, as of this Friday all of the stories are going to be removed. Apparently tracking the rights every year has gotten to be more trouble than it’s worth and there’s very little traffic to the site.

So if you want to read some great science fiction, and download it, and keep it for yourself, you should go over there and start saving the files.

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I just found a Mercedes-Benz in our price range.

I am greatly amused.

(hint: Our price range does not go as high as this factoid would seem to suggest.)

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Well, we didn’t win the lottery last night.

Sadly, this dashes my dream of walking into a car dealership, walking up to the helpful salesperson and saying “See that car? I want one just like it. IN BLUE.”

Now, whatever car we eventually buy may or may not be blue. In fact, blue is rather low down on my priority list, at the top of which are things like “reliable and affordable”, and “has air conditioning”. So it is not so much that I want a blue car (though I really like the colour blue, and given two otherwise absolutely equal cars, I might well take the blue) as it is that after several test drives, visits to dealerships, reading of car-buying guides and ratings of all sorts, not to mention research on pricing and options, the idea of buying a car based on colour is positively decadent.

We had a really neat experience last night while hopping a cab from one dealership to another. The car was a beautiful Nissan Altima, leather interior, the works. We told the driver the name of the dealership we wanted to go to, and he started to drive.

“You looking for a car?” He asked us.

“Yes.”

“Buy an Altima. They’re great cars. I just got this one a month ago,” (pause here while we admire the beautiful new car.)

“What kind of car did you have before this one?” I asked.

“An Altima,” he said. “Cab drivers are tough on cars. A lot of us have Altimas.”

Now, there’s a strong recommendation for a model — cab-driver approved. He also said that there are a lot of Toyota Camry taxis on the road; they’re very popular. They’re a larger model than we’d be looking at — we want something Corolla or Sentra-sized — but they are two of the brands that are top on our list, so it was nice to have the confirm.

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I desperately dislike having my mouth frozen for dental work. It’s not the feeling of the freezing so much (though that is unpleasant). It’s the waiting afterward for it to come un-frozen.

I had an appointment at 11:00 this morning, and I made sure to eat before I left the house because I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat for hours afterward.

But of course, it’s hours later, past lunchtime, and I’m hungry again, and my mouth is only just starting to unfreeze.

Woe.

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I have compiled a list of things we are looking for in a car.

I have labelled them “Want” and “DoNotWant”.

Because I can.

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Today as I was riding the metro, an older woman got on with a heavy suitcase and a pile of bags. A man who was getting on with her helped her lift the suitcase over the lip of the metro, and helped her settle into a seat as she was obviously overburdened.

When I got out at my metro stop, the woman was getting out also. She walked to the stairs and I reached out to help her lift the suitcase up the stairs. (Most metro stops predate equal access, and there are no ramps, sometimes not even escalators, only stairs). As I tried to help, two men took the suitcase by either end and carried it to the next level while I helped the woman with her other bags.

I’ve never seen quite so many people leap to help at once. It was nice.

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Scott and I are looking at getting a car, and that means we’ll need a good mechanic. Anyone have any recommendations for us? We’d appreciate it muchly.

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