Tuesday 21 November 2000

Pic of the day: Eeww! It's an ugly human ear with a two-headed zit! The coloring is a bit off because the flash is so near, but boy does it look ugly! (With skin like that, no wonder I'm still single...)

Earzitis

Today I bought an MP3 player. I do not need it, since there is MP3 program in my pocket computer, and I can barely afford it. (It set me back 1500 kr, or a bit over $150.) But I had ordered it weeks ago, and the folks at Audio & Video had gone to great lengths to get it, so it was the decent thing to do. (We're seeing a battle of honor here - the guy at the shop originally sold me a demonstration player at reduced price, and then when he could not find the cables for it, he got a new one for the same price. Again, the honorable thing to do. Even if it took a month, and in the meantime I no longer needed or wanted it.)

***

I certainly can't use the ear plugs. For the last several days I have had a fat zit (acne) in the opening of my right ear. It is just barely visible in the mirror. I probably got this after my last use of ear plugs, late last week. I think I first noticed it on Friday. It has been growing worse since. Even a padded earphone ticks it off so much that the entire ear grows flaming red, and the skin around the actual zit grows purple. An ugly sight. I personally haven't heard of anyone who died from an ear zit, though I would not be surprised if some reader could correct that ignorance. It seems that when I say "I've never heard of anyone who died from ..." someone has a story. Oh well.

***

What I have heard about people dying from is cancer, and lots of them. So I can hardly wait to get to the dermatologist tomorrow morning and have him take a long hard look at some of those projections from my skin. Particularly the two big ones on my back. Sitting safely between my shoulder blades, it is impossible for me to study. It could be a huge colony of warts, or it could be a melanoma, or something inbetween. I'm only too happy to get this resolved now. Particularly given my family history. (Speaking of which, in all honesty my grandfather was much plagued by warts too.)

Of course, none of this matters if I'm killed by a giant ugly two-headed ear zit. Though the statistics may be against it, I'll certainly say my prayers before sleeping as I do every night: "If I die before I wake, pray the Lord my soul may take." Actually I doubt that the Lord would just let souls float around unattended to even if they hadn't prayed, but sleeping in the night generally scares me. There is a reason for that, of course. I had thought to save that for another entry, but ... here goes.

When I was a small child, I got asthmatic bronchitis. I had been a fat and healthy baby and toddler, when I got this at age two and a half or so. Suddenly I would get these attacks where I had to struggle for every breath. It changed my life in so many ways that I won't count them here. But it bears noticing that the attacks usually came either after active play or in the night, towards morning, while I was sleeping. I woke up gasping for air. And so, long before I had any grasp of logic, I was conditioned in the strongest way to fear two things in particular: Physical activity and going to bed. To this day I try to avoid them both, not to mention any combination thereof.

And though that particular affliction left me somewhere around the age of twelve, I still go through life imagining myself as a weak and sickly person that could die any day. Of course, sooner or later I'll be right ... and this cheerful outlook probably doesn't help much. On the bright side, I am often happy to wake up alive in the morning.

***

In other news, the weather has lightened up here on Norway's south coast today. There was even a glimpse of sun. But the rivers are still swollen, and the east country has suffered flooding and several mud slides. No one has died, as far as I know, but mud slides have put three main railroads out of action, and dozens of people are evacuated from their homes.

This month has been the wettest November on record, and it's not even over. According to some guy on the bus, the rain so far corresponds to 17 meters of snow. I suspect he is right. Now that is a scary thought! I guess a little thanksgiving is in place, then, amid all the peevish prayer for delivery from zits.

(And if you people don't think prayer works, you should have been with me on a grassy meadow in May more than twenty years ago, where we were playing football (soccer) in the manner of young boys. It started to rain, and we were about to be soaked. One of the guys - a coarse heathen - raised both his arms above his head and prayed loudly that the rain may cease. A few minutes later it had turned into heavy snow. Be careful what you pray for - you may just get it!)