Because everyone deserves to know about my blocked sinuses

I'm noseless at the moment. Don't bother looking - it isn't obvious.
This isn't Futurama, and it hasn't been harvested as "human horn."

But the shrewd alliance of dry winter and a sinus infection all but stole my sense of smell.
There's a blockade posted, and only with the random clearing of the passage does relief arrive.

Actually, I can live with getting sick this time.

I was overdue, having gone nearly two years without a major cold (aside from a feverish day, bed-confined day in April 2006).

Plus, non-stop partying, eating and general merriment wore me out. Even since Thanksgiving, the volume of old friends coming into town has been relentless. Turn around, and some face from the past has arrived in Columbus. It's time for a little quiet - yes, even sickly quiet.

I needed downtime, so body and mind crossed the aisle to agree this time. I'll stop drinking while waiting for my body to heal.

My feet and shins, still tender from the late autumn running, get a little time off, though I seem to reinjure my right foot's outside edge every time I pass the one-mile marker.

So while the aches and plugged nostrils make soldiering through the day more difficult, at least I'm away from trouble.

Is that .... dare I say it ... a silver lining from Bill Melville? What a strange new year we live in.