This episode relates my trip to The Hive, a local restaurant a couple of towns over from where I live.

Recently I went to a more normal restaurant. I had a club sandwich, but instead of mayo, they put honey mustard sauce. I had plenty of time to mull it over as I got there early to meet someone. I thought about asking the waitress to substitute mayo for the honey mustard sauce. Then it occurred to me that whoever came up with this dish probably made that choice for a reason. I should probably go ahead and try it because it may just be better than the old standard.

This gives rise to some other thoughts about my existence. I always have thought I was different than most folks, and that’s true to a degree. But I see some stereotypical things happening to me as I get older. One is that I am more set in my thinking. I’m not as willing to change my mind about something.

Adapting and surviving is not the same thing. Adaptation is an internal change in order to account for an external change. If employers are no longer willing to pay me as much, I need to adjust my spending. If the climate gets colder, I need to find or make clothes to provide the warmth I need.
Survival is a very similar concept. We either survive or not. If the climate gets colder, I may survive, or I may not.

Only a hundred years ago, I would be statistically near the end of my life. Survival would depend on a lot of things out of my control. But the things I would control, I would have to manage based on what wisdom I had gained at that point in my life. Survival is a minute-by-minute, day-by-day concept.

I think it’s possible that as humans, our society and technology have changed so rapidly that our brains can’t keep up. And from generation to generation, our ability to change is also transforming as a species. So that even if we can’t keep up with our own technology, we progress mentally. Unlike the machines we invent, our intelligence does not increase exponentially.

So there is my theory on why I am becoming less adaptable as I age. I constantly see examples of this. But I think I’m learning to be adaptable. At least I am learning that a static mind leads to a declining body, and that means if I don’t adapt more, I will not live longer, which is one of my goals.

So much for the philosophy department. Medical department. I am clear of covid and casts. And back to working pretty much every day in the office. But I still have symptoms that lead me to believe that long covid is something I have to deal with. But it is hard to tell. Aches and pains could be caused by anything. I’ve recently been feeling pain in my left knee, which is the one I hurt after my first few episodes back in 2017. I suspect that old injury may have been aggravated by my accident in April, and I’m just feeling it now because of the wonderful prescription anti-inflammatories that I’ve been on the last few months and am now off. But nausea comes more often now, and that’s not a normal thing, I think. It defies an alternate explanation. I think it may be time to delve into long covid some more. But that will have to wait for another episode.