w o r d s

Like most sports, mountain biking has its risks. I’ve had a few accidents, falling off the bike, hitting low branches, etc, but so far (knock on wood) no serious injuries. I am pretty careful and I wear a very good helmet and eye protection. Last Sunday I was biking the single-track at Little River Park just North of Durham, when I came upon a branch of shrubs that had fallen into the path right at eye level. I was going at a pretty good clip, and I had my sunglasses on, so I just ducked a bit and crashed through it. As I moved through the tangle of twigs, I felt a twig poke me in my right ear and then a sharp pain. And I mean a SHARP F#%!N pain! So I stopped and checked to see if my brain was leaking out my ear. It was not. I just noticed a couple of drops of clear liquid. After a few Minutes the pain had mostly subsided, and I got back on  the bike and I continued my ride. There was really no obvious reason to stop, and I would have had to ride back anyway.

So after that incident, the hearing in my right ear was all screwed up, muffled, like a bad case of airplane ear. I began wondering if that damn twig had poked a hole in my ear drum. I figured a good test for that would be to see what happens if I pressurize my middle ear. Sure enough - I am able to blow air through my ear. It’s a pretty weird sensation, and it freaks people out to hear a whistling sound come from your ear! So I went to see my doctor on Tuesday. He took one look and said “Yep - you punctured your ear drum.” Then he sent me to a specialist across town. That’s where I went today. He also said “Oh yes - you punctured your ear drum.”

The doctor says that it’ll take about 6-8 weeks for the 2mm hole in my ear drum to heal up. From the location of the hole, near the malleus bone, I was lucky that I did not damage those little hearing bones in my ear. The doctor said that if you experience trauma  in your ear and then you get dizzy, that’s a sign that you damaged those bones. But he checked it out thoroughly, and there is no crap inside the middle ear, and so it should heal just fine. I hope so.  My hearing is all screwed up. And I can blow air through my f#%!n ear! What a stupid, weird thing to have happen.

German Vice-chancellor and foreign minister Steinmeier is in Togo for talks with Faure Gnassingbe. He appears to be following the new EU strategy of engagement with Gnassingbe, whereby they hope to win concessions on the development of a more functional democracy in Togo. Good luck with that.

Also, I cannot stand these idiotic descriptions of Togo that use the words “sliver” or “wedged” or “tiny.” Yeah - Togo is relatively small, but so are Bhutan, Dubai, Liechtenstein and many more perfectly respectable nations. The only “tiny” thing that is “wedged” is some reporter’s … uh … vocabulary.

Congratulations to the team from Egypt for defending the title in the Cup of African Nations against the team from Cameroon (1-0). The host Ghana came in third place on Saturday, defeating Ivory Coast 0-1.