Jon is bland

by Jon Sullivan - 2024-01-06 - Status

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A scary thought : What if I get long term Covid loss of smell/taste? If I can't taste food, then who the hell am I?

Regular readers will understand how important a place in my life good food occupies. One of the powerful values I was raised with, and have held close throughout my life is that you show love by feeding people delicious food. And in my photography I would say food photos have been some of my best work. A huge part of my identity, my happiness, my contribution to humanity (I'm kidding), is cooking delicious food. My favorite holiday is food based. If I can't taste it, I can't cook it. Covid, rather often, makes people lose their sense of taste. Who do I become if I can't cook wonderful tasting food any longer? I would die a little. Would people even like me anymore?

I was going to drink some milk this morning, and as one does, I took a sniff to see if it was still good. I didn't smell anything. But fresh supermarket milk doesn't really smell, so.... I smelled some other things, and the sniffer is fine. For now. But it was a scary moment. "Not like this. Please not like this."

This fucking virus. It's changing humanity. It's set us against each other. It's demonized rational thought. it's slaughtered good people. It's closed schools and businesses. It's pushed millions into poverty. It cost me a Belgium vacation. it closed my beloved Tiger! Tiger! tavern. Now it's potentially coming for my cooking? I know that's a selfish thought when so many have suffered worse. But it's personal.

I'm going to start making some cioppino for lunch. Maybe I'll ask someone to bring me some crab. Get a cheesesteak delivered? Enjoy enjoying food while I can? Or.... you know.... stop being so overly dramatic? With a mild case and all the vaccine shots I've gotten I'm honestly unlikely to have long Covid.

Irregardless, Covid sucks. And it now seems we're stuck with it. My first case of it is luckily pretty mild. Lesson learned. Get more booster shots.

Today's photo : I love this photo for so many reasons. To put things in context, I took this while standing in the dark on the edge of a cliff with a cold wind blowing off the sea. I was waiting/hoping for a good sunrise (which never happened) after sleeping the night in the back of my cold car. I wasn't in a great mood. Due to the dark this was a 30 second exposure. So the picture actually looks nothing at all like what the photo is of. And converted to black and white it's even more surreal and artistic. it's a great example of how hard it is to answer the question many ask when they see me with a tripod - "Get anything good?". I usually don't know. Very often the magic happens back home, not on the road.

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