Sunday afternoon - October 6, 2024

My nose has been full of stink for 3 days.

We just got home from a weekend at Pickwick Lake.  Business trip for The Husband.  In case you don't know, there's a paper mill in the neighborhood.  I don't know what its steam pipes are belching, but it stinks to high heaven.  Sulfur.  Rotten Eggs.  Whatever.  It smells the same way (with a hint of cleaner and such) inside the lodge.  When we got to our room, we opened the balcony door; the air outside smelled better.  Maybe it dissipates at certain times of the day.  I got a little nose-blind to it after we'd been there a while, but in the middle of the night Friday night, I woke up going, "GYAH!" and got up to open the balcony door to let some air in. IT WAS WORSE OUTSIDE.  I shut the door and smeared some perfume under my nose (didn't have any Vicks) and went back to bed. It did not work; I went nose blind to the perfume but not the funk.  

Saturday, while the meeting members were doing their business, I invited the footloose "plus ones" to go with me to an outdoor flea market up the road in a little town called "Crump."  It surprised me when three of them jumped at the chance.  We loaded up and went to Crump about 10:00.  The flea market is huge - both sides of the road.  We parked and made our way past the chickens and goats and such to the tables lined with STUFF.  One of the ladies is pushing 80, and she was wearing black pants and a pretty jacket.  I was trying to stick close to her to watch her.  When I found a rake handle that I wanted to buy and realized I was totally BROKE, I parked her on a bench under a tent by an ice-cream vendor, and I ran up the road to a quick stop to get some cash from the ATM.  When I got back, she was GONE. I found her inside the ice-cream shack, fanning under the air conditioner.  She'd almost fainted, and some thoughtful person had ushered her inside where it was cool.  I rounded up the other ladies and we got the fainter to the truck.  I wanted to drive her back to the lodge and then the other ladies and I were going to visit an indoor flea market.  The fainter revived and insisted that she was able to hang with us, and she did.  After we did the indoor market, we all went back to the lodge.  She was still doing fine at dinner that evening.  

This morning, the Husband and I high-tailed it out of there as early as we could.  

And came home to a grassy yard littered with limbs and sticks, courtesy of Helene, and a porch full of stinkbugs.  I went straight for the lawnmower as soon as I dumped my stuff in the house.  After showering off the yard dust and the sulfur smell, I came out to the porch and started vacuuming stinkbugs.  

And now my nose is full of stink again.