A Hair Issue and Other Oddities.

I had my hair cut today. Now, it is a fact that whenever I have my hair cut I become a little obsessed with it for a few hours. I look at it every time I pass a window if I’m outside, or in the mirror when I go to my bathroom or bedroom. I need to convince myself, you see, that I don’t look even more worthy of either pity or contempt than I did before.

But I just realised that I had it cut nine hours ago and haven’t looked at it yet. This must indicate something, but I haven’t yet worked out what it is. Maybe I just don’t care any more. That would be heartening.

Or maybe it's connected with smelling something that apparently isn’t there. I’ve mentioned it before on the blog, and it’s been a feature of my life since I was a boy. It used to be pipe tobacco then; these days it’s something unidentifiable but vaguely similar to jasmine flowers, only more metallic. This phenomenon has a name you know. It’s called phantosmia, and indicates that some vital screw in your brain has worked loose (cf. David Niven smelling fried onions in A Matter of Life and Death.)

So could this give some clue as to what was going on a couple of days ago? Twice I searched diligently for something that had been there but had disappeared, and twice it magically reappeared in the same spot. And then later, something was where it shouldn’t have been and then magically disappeared again. I think I might be in need of some kind of attention, but whatever it is will certainly be beyond my capacity to afford. Best just carry on and hope for redemption when the angels call to collect me.

But you now what? I received a reply to a comment I put on a YouTube video recently. It said ‘Beautifully put!’ Shucks. Seems not all is lost. And today I was working through a car mechanic’s invoices when I came across a part referred to as ‘front pipe for a cat.’ The mind withers as imagination goes into overdrive.