Table Talk

While prepping for dinner tonight, I discovered that my wife's 94 yr old grandmother must've lost her sense of smell. I thought it was only something ER people did, but apparently it goes away with age. My wife's finally looking forward to something about growing old.

She has the most sensitive nose of anyone I've ever met. I really think she could sniff out drugs or explosives or other such dangerous stuff if she tried hard enough.

While we were sitting at the dinner table this evening, talk turned back to the family's discovery about great grandma. She had a necrotic possum carcass under her house.

It's July. In South Carolina.

She couldn't smell it.

Of course, since I spent 5 years in the ER, anything's fair game for dinner conversation. My wife is a long-time veteran of the ER. Her best friend ate lunch with her and some other nursing students once in college. She vowed to never repeat that mistake. ER people can talk about necrotic tissue, bodily discharges, blood, guts, wounds, death, dying, and all sorts of other otherwise taboo dinner conversation while eating - and enjoying the food, mind you.

Our youngest son didn't appreciate our discussion this evening. He ate about half his burger before suddenly becoming "full" - not normal. He had to point out to us that the dinner-table conversation really wasn't very appropriate.

Something tells me he'll never become a physician or a nurse.

His brother could care less.