This is kind of a “Sunday Story”, about Christmas, Covid, Dogs and the smell of pine.
Covid
Covid seems like old news. We have our “free tests”, but we haven’t used them in so long, that we need to check the expiration date. There’s dozens of masks, stashed in the top of the Grandfather clock, right behind the current Christmas tree. They definitely need to be dusted off before use. But I’ve kept up with the shots, (I had to go to the CVS app on my phone to count how many):
- Moderna 10/25/23, 12/27/22, 7/19/22
- Pfizer – 9/9/21, 3/10/21, 2/15/21.
I still substitute at the school, and I don’t want to bring Covid (or the flu) back home to Jenn.
Now, I know I had Covid in September of 2022. That’s because it was the most “inconvenient” time, right before I was supposed to have my shoulder surgically rebuilt. There was a week of a Covid “dampening” drug, testing, testing, testing, and worry about postponing the surgery. I didn’t feel that bad, and finally my surgeon’s office said the magic words – stop testing. They didn’t want to know, and didn’t want to upset their surgical schedule. But I tested negative anyway, two days before I went in.
Long Covid
And then there was the “stealth” Covid, the one I had but never knew about. It was sometime in January or February of 2022. Jenn and I both felt lousy, and both tested negative over and over again. But, sometime in March, I just stopped smelling – anything.
Long Covid is defined as:
“…(L)ong-term effects from their infection, known as Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions (PCC). Long COVID is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after acute COVID-19 infection(CDC).”
I wrote a whole essay on this way back in April of ’22 (What’s Missing). There are advantages to not smelling anything: picking up dog poop (we have five) is definitely one of them. But there are lots of things to miss: steak on the grill, black coffee before dawn, hickory smoke from the smoker (yep, I can open the smoker door, get “smoked” myself, and still not smell it). The smell of fall leaves on the ground, or hot grass in the fields of summer, or the few moments before the rain starts in the spring; I miss them.
Does our house smell like dogs? I’m definitely not the right one to ask about that. And in the rush to get dogs fed and to school before 7am, did I manage to put deodorant on? That needs to be a “conscious” action, one that I specifically remember. After the fact, there’s no way for me to tell.
Things to Miss
So it’s been a year and a half without smell – almost. There’s been some “phantom” wisps: a hint of spilled gasoline when filling the mowers, Jenn’s lit cigarette in the car (not when filling mowers), a glorious moment when I opened a hot pizza box, and, just for a second, caught a whiff of pepperoni. Sometimes I feel like the amputees who can still feel the toes of their missing leg: is my brain making it up, filling in blanks it knows are there?
But it’s happening more frequently. This morning I was making our first pot of coffee (we are on a three pot a day tear right now, there are dogs, not ours, lost everywhere – that’s a Christmas thing). And I caught a hint of Starbuck’s French Roast beans, before they hit the grinder.
You know all of those craft beer aficionados, who can take a sip and tell you the hops to wheat ratio, and find the hint of orange peel or cinnamon or cranberry in a Christmas ale? So that’s how my nose is right now, except all I get are the few “hints”, never the full body flavor of the draft. I think it’s coming back, slowly (it doesn’t help that this Long Covid left me with chronic stuffy nose anyway). Either that or my brain has decided it’s taking over, making up smells so I feel better.
Merry Christmas
All I want for Christmas – is a good whiff of our traditional beef tenderloin. And if I can detect the pine of the Christmas tree, so much the better. After all, it’s been since Christmas 2021. Much as we don’t think about – celebrating the holiday is about smelling it too. I’ve never smelled “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”, but there’s a smell in a song, right out in public. If my sense comes back, I guess I’ll have to try that.
Merry Christmas everyone – I know you expect a full legal exposition of the Supreme Court decision to dodge the Trump case, one more time. That will come soon enough. But for the next couple of days, enjoy Christmas, family, and friends; and all the “smells” that go with this season. And for Santa’s sake – hold onto your dogs. There’s far too many out already!!
The Sunday Story Series
- Riding the Dog – 1/24/21
- Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
- A Track Story – 2/7/21
- Ritual – 2/14/21
- Voyageur – 2/19/21
- A Dog Story – 2/25/21
- A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
- Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
- Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
- More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
- Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
- A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
- My Teachers – 5/9/21
- Old Friends – 5/23/21
- The Gift – 6/6/21
- Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
- Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
- Running Memories – 7/25/21
- Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
- Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
- The New Guy – 9/5/21
- Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
- The Interview – 9/26/21
- Night Moves – 10/3/21
- Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
- National Security – 10/24/21
- Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
- Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
- Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
- Watching Brian 12/12/21
- Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
- Team Trips – 12/26/21
- Uphill, Both Ways – 1/9/22
- Old Trophies – 1/30/22
- The Last Time – 2/7/22
- Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
- Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
- Track Weather – 4/3/22
- What’s Missing – 4/11/22
- A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
- Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
- Origin Stories – 5/22/22
- Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
- Back at State – 6/5/22
- Out in the Country – 6/19/22
- Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
- Car Stories I – 7/24/22
- Car Stories II – 7/31/22
- Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
- Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
- New to the Pack – 8/21/22
- Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
- A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
- Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
- Fair or Foul – 2/26/23
- Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
- Busy Season – 5/15/23
- Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
- A Pole Vault Story -6/11/23
- End of an Era – 6/25/23
- Paybacks – 7/2/23
- Graying in Pataskala – 7/17/23
- Being a Goat – 7/23/23
- Toy Truck – 8/20/23
- Medical Terms – 8/27/23
- Missing Margaritaville – 9/3/23
- The McGowan – 9/10/23
- Who’s Watching – 10/22/23
- The Saturday Before – 10/29/23
- A Tale of Turkey, and Dogs – 11/26/23
- Bruno’s Story – 12/3/23
- Out in the Country – 12/10/23
- Christmas Eve – 12/24/23
