Sleep, senses.

Two days ago, we drove an hour to Le Chine to look at some boats for hire. I was asleep for most of the way, in the front passenger seat, head nodding until Misty and Henry told me to recline the seat so I could rest my noggin while I napped. I find myself frequently napping during the day when I'm idling. It's been that way for the past year, ever since I began snoring.

Last month I saw Dr. DeMarco about what I thought was a sinus problem that was causing me to snore. He asked if I thought I had sleep apnea, which I didn't know the answer to. So he asked if I ever felt the inclination to sleep during the day.

I thought of myself at the Council Chamber, alertly taking notes and crafting my summary of the meetings that take place there. When I'm on Council duty, I do this day after day, for six hours at a time, for three or four weeks at a stretch. I do not miss one syllable when I'm doing that. I may not write down every syllable, but I hear them and my mind processes it, and distills their essence into a faithful description shorter than real life by about two-thirds.

"No," I told him.

Another reason I thought I had a sinus problem is because I know I have trouble smelling. Last night, at the movies, three black ladies squeezed past us into the seats next to Misty, and she had to switch to the empty seat across the aisle because the lady closest to her had pits that smelled. I hadn't smelled a thing.

When I went to get a facial at the spa the first time I met Carmen, she wanted to know whether I wanted patchouli or ylang ylang for my aromatherapy. She took down two vials of fragrance from among a dozen that sat in a row on her shelf above the little buddha statue, and unstoppered them. She covered the labels with her fingers so I wouldn't be able to see which was which. She ran them under my nose one at a time, waving each bottle in my face the way people do with smelling salts when someone has fainted. I couldn't smell very well, so I pretended I liked the ylang ylang and chose that fragrance. At the last minute, I changed my mind and told her I wanted the sandalwood instead, because I remembered that that's a smell that I like, conceptually. Even if I couldn't smell it, I liked knowing that I was to be surrounded by an essence that I find warm, strong and evoking nature.