Killing time with Homicide

"Only a man with no woman in his life eats extra onion for lunch."
- J.H. Brodie

I've been really congested over the past few days. I never had congestion, without my nose being blocked up, until about two years ago. Who knew you could be congested and still breathe normally?

Anyhow, a couple of years ago, while in Ghana, I got this pain in my right ear. After various conjectures as to what might cause it, I've come to realize that I am congested when I get that pain.

I really dislike that pain, and this week it has been pretty bad. I think I'm noticing it more this time around, because I'm not doing much else this week. In Ghana, we were walking around and trying to get by, so I would only notice the pain during the down times. The few other times I've had this pain, I've been teaching and going to class so, again, I only noticed the pain during down times.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work and I like to have a few days before the Fall starts, to just do nothing. With this downtime, I've been noticing the pain in my ear, constantly.

I went running this morning, in the hopes that it would make me feel better. I'd been avoiding running, because putting earplugs into my right ear really hurts. I toughed it out today, and I did feel better after running (and the earplug didn't cause much pain after it was in place).

With this down time, I've watched four episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, in the last 3 days. I've actually gotten as far as season 5 of the series, since sometime in May.

Homicide takes place (and was filmed) in Baltimore. The series started when I was in high school, in Baltimore, and continued it's run until sometime when I was in Michigan.

Many people's view of Baltimore comes from the HBO series The Wire. While I think The Wire is a fantastic series, I don't feel like it does a good job of showing Baltimore in it's true light. It shows one face of Baltimore, and that has always bothered me about The Wire. Homicide, while it deals with murder, does show other sides of the city. You see the cops at home, you see murders that happen in the richer parts of the city, cops spend time in Fells Point, and there is just a wider view of the city on display.

Why I'm rambling on about this, I don't know, I guess I'm trying to do other things, to avoid thinking about my ear.

BTW, the quote above is from one of the episodes I watched today. The crime videographer says the line after one of the detectives (who's been divorced 3 times) orders a sandwich with extra onions.