branding

It is difficult to escape what is familiar. Travel is a well-known way of revealing basic differences in living. But that's a lot different than when something in your life changes and you can't identify why. How often do fundamental seams open up in your domestic life?

God that sounds serious. Let me be blunt. I began to smell different.

At the end of my workday, I had a different odor. At first, I thought that I might be treading into dreaded "old man smell" territory. Too early for that, I thought. Too much barbeque? Could it be the new shampoo?

Maybe my senses were reawakening after my long sad slumber. But only my sense of stink perception was improving so that was unlikely.

The paranoid in me began to consider odor as a diagnostic. If only Dr. House could sniff me for a minute, he'd be able to tell me what was wrong with me. When there is such a fundamental change like this, it's unnerving. After all, through periods of ferocious activity, sloth, all forms of human doings, my basic stank remained constant. Now, there was a subtle change.

The good news is that I would not have qualified to be an entire episode of House. After all, no other symptoms exist. I would have been one of those morons that he would have berated during his clinic duty. "It's because you accidently bought a different version of Tide detergent. Next moron, please!"

It's true. Instead of traditional Tide which I've used most of my years, I bought their "Spring Fairie" scent. Okay, I have no clue what it's called. But, toward the end of the day, my clothes we smelling different. Only when winter set in and I'd change into jammies at night did I realize it. There have been non-Tide times in my life. I'd tend to use less of the soap during washing: aim for no smell.

This was a disconcerting episode. What a subtle layer to go missing in my life. What a surprise that it caused termoil. Not so much missing the upfront perfume of traditional Tide but that as the alternative perfume wore down, it created a disturbing or just different scent.

On another smell front, I've had to reject the frozen minced garlic cubes from Trader Joe's. While massively convenient, they're wrong. Something happens to the sweetness of garlic when it's processed, whether frozen or in oil. You'd think I'd know that frozen garlic would not be the same as fresh, just because of what processing does in general. To me, it's like the TJ's version makes the garlic angry.

At what point can you make sense of subtle differences like Tide smell and frozen garlic? I know what my answer is and it is lacking.