One of the strange, unexpected, and most disconcerting consequences of the ear surgery I had about six weeks ago is that I seem to have lost my sense of taste in the food that I eat. Everything I put in my mouth tastes either bland, metallic, or bitter. Even my favorite foods seem to have little to no discernable taste anymore.

Enjoying delicious-tasting food is one of life’s little pleasures and it’s killing me that I don’t get much pleasure out of eating these days. I actually did a Google search using the phrase “lost sense of taste after ear surgery.” One of the articles I came across said:

“Taste change can occur after ear surgery due to a nerve of taste that runs under the eardrum and brings taste to the side of the tongue. Loss of taste on the side of the tongue can occur in up to 10% of ear procedures and may last for a few months.”

Great. I’m one of the lucky 10%. But maybe there is yet some hope that my good taste will return — probably right around the time that I have to go in for round two of ear surgery.

Living in a fishbowl

Our new home that has lots and lots of windows, which is a good thing because it’s open, airy, and bright. But it has no window treatments. No shades, no blinds, no curtains, no shutters, no drapes. Which is fine if you’re exhibitionists. But my wife and I are not.

So one of the first things we did after moving in last week was to meet with a local purveyor of windows treatments and order a bunch. But because they will be custom made for our various windows and sliding glass doors, it will take about four to five weeks for them to be delivered and installed.

Not wanting to be living in a fishbowl for the next month, I spent hours over the weekend putting up opaque window film on all of the street-facing windows in the house just so we can walk around inside our own home without our every move, particularly at night, being visible to any of our new neighbors walking by our house. After all, you only have one chance to make a first impression, right?