Petroleum Products are BAD

My apartment has been a symphony of weird smells lately. I was blaming most of it on the brick work being done. They seem to be doing the replacement now.* This evening I've been smelling something that's totally giving me a headache. Smells a little like the mortar but different, too. Smells familiar, though. Like...like...oh, like when I walk by the oil spigot after the oil delivery. Then my phone rang and I picked up my new phone holster.** Quick sniff test proves that my new phone holster smells like oil. It's suffocatingly awful. Damn! I've got to leave it out on the windowsill overnight or something. That's just rank. I've always heard that buying petroleum products was bad but I didn't know why until now.

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*You can tell when you look at the building now which bricks are new and which are old. Um, should I be worried that a decent 70% of the visible bricks had to be replaced?

**I bought a new phone a year ago. It didn't come with a little clip on holster. Do you know that Verizon charges $20 for a cheapo plastic clip holster? I bought a $5 one on the street and it snapped within a couple of weeks. I drop stuff. I'm wandering the pseudo mall on Friday and I ask about the price of a holster. Little pleather phone wallet sort of thing, just like the ones the all the teenage girls on my bus wear. Prettier than plastic and $10 cash money. Sold!