Burning Rubber

My past two posts have actually been working up to blogging about my cross country adventure. I'm still not ready to post about it, maybe the scars are too raw. I feel like with the passing of time, maybe I'll forget about the trip, a distant memory that only myself and the eight others involved will recall - in addition to those that I verbally told of course! Ok, it really wasn't that bad.

Yesterday, was just filled with small bits of humor, that in our fast paced lives, we sometimes forget to slow down and smell the roses. Of course at the time, it wasn't said out of humor, nor was it taken that way, initially that is.

JC came over last night around 7:30p.m. I had gotten home right about 7:00p.m. from taking my son over to his dad's. I had decided several hours earlier that I was going to use the great majority of my childless days this week (all but Tuesday due to visitation with his dad and his first overnight field trip!) to, paint. In my house, I have all but painted one wall which is shared between my living and dining room and my hallway. I'm approaching my decade anniversary of home ownership and it's about time I tackle the difficult areas laced with five windows and trim and a hallway full of seven entries and six doors! No small feat in and of itself.

After I decided I was going to paint, I took down the window valences, the drapes, five sets of blinds and I got to it. I sanded and cleaned all the window frames and floor board trim. Two buckets and four rags later, I washed the wall down from ceiling to floor. I spackled the nail holes. I even purchased the paint.

So when I got home, I used my newly purchased crappy 49 cent paper towel rolls from Menards and cleaned the windows and cleared out the dirt accumulated from the winter between the screen and the windows. I was just finishing up the last window when JC pulled in the driveway. I thought that he would just come in, so I assumed that he was on his cell phone. When I finished I went outside and found him just sitting in his Mustang.

He got out of the car and we hugged. He was leaning against the rear passenger side of the car. We were talking and he was holding me. And with my semi-keen sense of smell, I couldn't get past the smell.

So I did what I do best, I inquired. "Did you vacuum today?" Because, you see, what I smelled was the same smell of burning vacuum belt. Of course his response was, "NO. What???"

I went on to explain and he laughed at me. Not as much as he chuckled later on recalling the incident and my naivete. Again, our differences in our life, circumstances and communication. He went on to explain that the smell I smelled, was that of his burning tires of his Mustang. He apparently was driving pretty fast and was working out some "aggression" which he apparently was unsuccessful.

So the smell of burning rubber tires, to this complete car idiot equated to the smell of a burning vacuum belt. Hmmm....the smells we smell. The lives we lead...how our lives and experiences give us perceptions of completely different realities.