stonepicnicking_okapi | Into the Void: down two senses edition

1. I have lost my sense of smell and taste. I was sick earlier in the week. Had a very rough night on Monday and dragged myself to the drugstore on Tuesday and stumbled out the doors $60 poorer with a bag of OTC cold & allergy stuff and proceeded to self-medicate. I don't know whether it is the illness or the meds or something else. It started (or maybe I noticed it?) AFTER I was getting better.

But it has done a number on me psychologically. It's weird. What's the point of eating besides sating hunger? I can taste salt and acid (like the acid of citrus fruit) but I can't tell the flavor of anything.

2. This led me to decide to DNF Salt. Fat. Acid. Heat. by Samin Nosrat. I thought as it is an unconventional cooking book it might teach me to appreciate cooking. Or to care about cooking or food. Or see it differently. It did not. And she uses the word 'should' too much. And now I can't even smell or taste anything! Crazy and pointless.

3. I am trying to psyche myself up to apply to work at the grocery store across the street. I am so afraid. Of even applying. I keep ignoring it. References. I haven't talked to another adult in 10 years and you want references. Yah! Maybe Wal-Mart, too? I think if I just do one application it won't seem so daunting, and I can do another.

4. Yesterday I forced Minisculus to go to his elementary school library night at our local library branch AND we got to go back and see how the returned books are sorted. It was fascinating. There is a complicated conveyor belt which checks the books in and then sorts them to the other five branches. Very cool. Libraries are so cool.

5. I have a nice free weekend before the soccer and track starts up next weekend. I am going to try to enjoy it. And get ahead and caught up on so many things.

6. Behind on my Sherlock Sunday, no collaging, under my word count for the month, I tried doing 75 hard and failed on the 7th day (another way to procrastinate actually filling out an application: drink a gallon of water and pee all day long), maybe saying it aloud will help reverse the trend.

7. My new favorite Youtube channels is this Korean guy who takes very elaborate camping trips with his small brown dog named Ryua.

Watch on YouTube

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The library trip sounds fascinating. Our library doesn't have any posh conveyer belt - just the librarians sorting the books.

The other branches in the system have that, too, but our branch is the largest and busiest and I've always wondered what happened to the book when I dropped them in the chute. Now I know! And it's very cool. They even have a system if the computers can't read it properly (e.g., two books land on the conveyor belt and one is on top of the other and they each go to a different branch) then it goes to a bin for human sorting. It's very sophisticated!

Colds, flu, sinus infections, and of course Covid can cause loss of smell/taste. If nasal rinses and OTC nasal steroid sprays don't work, you can try smell therapy (which sounds a little nuts, but I'm learning that nerve damage of any kind leads to some weird symptoms). This post has a suggested smell therapy regimen:

https://www.henryford.com/blog/2022/01/regaining-sense-of-smell-and-taste-after-covid

Also, stay hydrated! If you can't taste anything, you're more likely to get dehydrated. <3

Right, but a respiratory illness has never affected me like this before. And I am no longer congested at all. We'll see if the senses come back. I keep trying different foods to test it, but even water tastes different and flat.

I have been more hydrated the past week than I could ever possibly desire to be, but I understand the concern.

It's not about congestion. It's about damage to the nerve cells in your nose. It takes a while for the nerves to regenerate.

Glad you're feeling better!

Re: no.1. Have you got Covid? That takes away your senses of taste and smell. I had a really bad night the first night I had Covid, a banging headache and a sore throat. The only thing that helped me is paracetamol, I think it's called tylenol in America. Worked like magic, most people I know say the same. So it's worth getting some of that.

Re: no.3. Good luck, you can do it! I've been there, I had to talk on the phone to an employer, I hate the phone, I like writing. But he was okay, his assistant has a phobia of phones too so he understood. I hope you get on well with your application.

I'm feeling okay now. That's why it is strange. It's like I'm missing something.

Thank you!

Illnesses are weird. I often get a bug where I feel ill, then better, then ill again. No idea why.

> What's the point of eating besides sating hunger?

I personally don't find that there's anything else to it, but I do have a very bad relationship with food in general. It's nothing short of a miracle I managed to raise a kid without giving him any nutrient deficiency considering that at home I fed him pasta only for years.

Oh dear.

Well, this is new to me. It's a new way of looking (or not looking at?) food and eating. And since I'm not actively sick, it makes it weird and interesting.

But if it changes my relationship with food and helps me lose weight, maybe it will be a good thing in the end.

I wonder if one of my sons will grow up to be a gourmand or a chef as rebellion against my horrible cooking and menu choices! Good on them if they do!

All the best for the weekend, and I hope senses recover soon.

Thank you! I'm still in my pajamas but I am awake!

Yeah, I know, it's just...weird. I keep testing myself and I keep failing the test.

Into the Void: down two senses edition

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