Olfactory Illusions

I've been worried a few days that my modem might be burning out.

I had connectivity problems several days back, and those seemed to coincide with a smell in my home office vaguely like frying components.

I checked all of my connections first, not wanting to lose my Geek Card. Then I got worried some dust might have gathered inside my PC.

So I got out my vacuum cleaner and opened my box up and made sure there were no motes of the dust variety.

Connectivity improved but the smell persisted.

I checked the power supply on my printer and my printer and my spike bar, looking for any spots dust might get to electricity.

Still--the smell. Would that I come up with an olfactory rival for tintinnabulation to describe the smell.

Finally I decided I'd just wait out the modem, which had no dust in it. Let it run its course, connect me to the world then upon its death be replaced.

Yesterday at work, an IT guy came over because my DVD drive would not open and he put in a new one.

To celebrate this morning, when my buddy Robert, the photographer extraordinaire, brought a binder of photos over I plopped one into the new DVD drive.

And I started smelling the smell.

Once I'd convinced myself it wasn't a brain tumor, I stuck my nose in the DVD drive. (I don’t really recommend it.) Dust sneaked in on the new drive, I decided.

And I proceeded to look at Robert's photos. And I smelled the smell some more.

Eventually I started to notice I smelled the smell when I opened the binder Robert had brought. It contained proof sheets and plastic CD sleeves.

Plastic CD sleeves share an uncanny resemblance to the smell of frying electronic components.

And so, I’ve discovered, does the plastic mat in my home office that I bought a few weeks ago.