R. Photic Sneezes (m)

[juliette]

I was thrilled when I found out that mints make him sneeze ... and not long after I found out that he is an occasional photic sneezer too.

We had been spending a few quiet hours together in town on a Saturday morning, and had been in the library where it was quite dark compared to the bright sunlight outside, As we stepped out into the sun, we were passing between two cars in the car park, he was behind me and pretty much as soon as the sun hit his face he told me, "I'm going to sneeze," and to my chagrin he turned his back to me and sneezed his gorgeous double sneeze, "AHH-HUHSHOOO!" "HUH-UHHSHOOOOO!!!" (made my day!)

THEN he said, "Sorry ... allergic to the light," and I thought "OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (made my day again, the very thought) and said "Oh, the light?!" as though I'd never heard of photic sneezing before! I was hoping he'd continue the conversation but that was the end of it for then!

More recently he was driving me back to work from his house at lunch time, and the sun got in his eyes. He didn't seem to have time to warn me this time, just took his left hand off the steering wheel and sneezed two big, wet-sounding sneezes into it, "HA-ASHHOOO!" "HUHTISHOOOO!!!" "Bless you," I said and he replied "Excuse me," but he wasn't done ... after a wee pause he sneezed again, "HUH UHHHSHOOOO!" this time into his right hand.

"Bless you," I said again.

"Excuse me! That's the mint," said R.

"Is it?" I asked, because it had been about 1/2 an hour ago we'd had the mint!

"Delayed sneezing," said R, then added thoughtfully, "or it could be the sun."

More likely, I thought (although sometimes the minty sneezes do get delayed a while, odd that) ... but I was too goo-i-fied to talk by then so I just grabbed his hand to hold and think of all the sneeze-juice on it...

Frustratingly, it's only once in a while he sneezes from the sun, but I do enjoy watching for them and thinking about them every time! He took me by surprise with an indoor photic sneeze though (just a single to finish off the obs...) we were in bed and he was holding me and reached over to turn out the light but the brightness must have caught him by surprise because he sneezed a really sudden "ATCHIOOOO!", only just managing to catch it in his hand, sort of half-sneezing into my face (swoon!!!) ... of course I blessed him and then spent the rest of the night thinking about it!

Enough for now...!

cyberhugs,

Juliette

[Sneesee]

I love photic sneezers! That whole phrase "I'm allergic to sunlight" is just so much fun! I think that as long as they are coming out o fsomewhere semi-dark, and then the sunlight hits them just right, photic sneezers will sneeze. I know my husband has also experimented with getting a glare off of something shiny to make himself sneeze for me, too. it has to hit them just right for it to happen. But alas, it does not happen every single time, I guess.

Anyway, thanks for more R sneezes! Yummy!

[atchoum]

Nice to know that R is a photic sneezer too - he seems to have all the qualities !

Photic sneezing comes in greatly differing sensitivities. Some people do it pretty regularly, but they are very uncommon. Most people do it more occasionally, but there can be situations that favour the photic sneeze. I know two from personal experience. One is to have had lunch. Half of my photic sneezes are coming out into the sun after lunch. The other is when the sun is reflected off a brilliant surface, or a wet one or snow.

[vote_for_pedro]

I love these obs about R! Thank you for sharing all the time. I'm sorry he isn't more consistently photic. Now that I think about it, I don't think I know anyone who is. Like Atchoum said, there's varying degrees of light sensitivity. It usually only works on me if I already had to sneeze before there was bright light. I don't know why it seems so random when it works on other people. I guess I'm just happy that it works at all.