Saltless days

A very strange side effect of not eating salt for a few days is that when I did, finally, eat salt again — or perhaps it was when my body know that it could seek salt again — my sense of smell became uncomfortably acute. Walking the boys to school yesterday morning, I was overwhelmed by the stench from the cars going by and the whiff from a sewer that had been cleaned yesterday…but by the same process, a tractor fitted with field-size mowing blades rolled past and suffused everything with the scent of fresh-cut hay. I could smell every late breakfast cooking in student housing, and all the buns and coffee at the cafe near Hugh’s nursery.

It didn’t last past lunchtime, but it was a remarkable sensory transition and an odd moment in the rituals to mourn a friend and relative, especially one who dearly loved a good feast.