Friday, June 18, 2010

Freshening

I am finding myself in a bit of an ethical quandary. Helen (via her school) made a loving present for Hubs for Father's Day. It involved a drawing of a car, some other stuff, and the store-bought weenie at the present's heart: a car air freshener. We opened the gift last night since Hubs won't be here on the actual day (instead he'll be eating chocolates and cheese in Switzerland, boo-hoo for him) (it's a work trip) ("work" trip). She was so excited to give it to him. And she's so excited to display it--in, oddly, the car I usually drive. And--how shall I put this?--the scent of the air freshener makes me feel like I am getting a nasal root canal. Silas walked around the house with it last night before putting it in the car, and this morning the house still REEKED of the stuff. Not to mention the tide of scent washing into the laundry room from the garage.

"Mmm, it smells so nice!" Helen cried happily this morning, as we pushed our way against the scent into the car. "Don't you like it, Mom? What's your favorite smell?"

"I like...kind of um, natural smells."

"Like banana bread? I don't like banana bread, but I like how it smells!"

"Yes. Banana bread smells wonderful."

So right now I'm trying to figure out the right combination of lie and truth that will spare her feelings but get rid of the damn thing. My personal first choice is "Shoot, honey! I had the window open and it just blew right out onto the highway!" However, for various reasons of tactfulness and sentimentality (it's Hubs' father's day present), I'm leaning more toward needing to "preserve" it. By keeping it wrapped in three sealed bags in the trunk of the car with a blanket wrapped around that and maybe a box over it. After all, the smell of the thing is still nice and strong--if we parcel it out, it should last forever. Just like Helen's love for her dad. Sighhhh.

Happy Friday!

4 comments:

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Hmmm... yeah I suppose you need to preserve it. Let's just hope those noxious perfumes don't build up in the ziploc bag and explode!

Whenever we took our young daughter on vacation she would buy the cat a bumper sticker. (Huh?) Thankfully she never tried to stick 'em on his ass.

artemisia said...

Oy. Strong artificial smells make my nose hurt.

Maybe you could display it outside on the porch in the sun for a bit? Not long enough to fade the card, but maybe enough to fade the smell a bit.

Very sweet, though!

Jess said...

Oh, dear. Dear dear. I like Artemisia's suggestion. Beyond that, I'm stumped.

N said...

Perhaps, in the dead of night, you can take it out into a stinky parking lot somewhere - say, next to a McDonald's dumpster - and pour vinegar all over it. My bottle of vinegar has suggestions for all the helpful things it can do, like absorb noxious fumes after painting. If it can do that, it should be able to kick the ass of a little air freshner scent. Of course, then it will stink of vinegar, but I'll take vinegar over fake car airfreshner smell.