The Dizzy Juggler

            It was already 12:20 on Saturday when I got home from the food bank with my groceries. I had ten minutes to put everything away and then I had to leave to meet my friend Brian at Sneaky Dees. The place was packed and all I could get was a booth in the noisy and dark part of the restaurant. After a few minutes though I saw a group pack up and leave that had been occupying a table by the window. I asked the waitress if I could move and she told me, “No problem!”

Brian was about ten minutes late because there’d been an “injury at track level” while he was on the subway train.

I told Brian that lunch and beer were on me and explained that I’d had a bit of a windfall this autumn because of receiving a retroactive payment from the Toronto Housing Allowance Program.

            We shared a pitcher of a nice pilsner and after a glass each we ordered lunch. I had the Texas Egg, which consisted of a tortilla bowl filled with chilli, cheese and a fried egg. It was good but the chilli fries that Brian ordered looked very good too and a lot more substantial.

            Brian told me that he’d had a problem with severe dizziness for a couple of weeks recently and he figured out that it was otoconia, which are loose crystals in the inner ear. The condition is called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. It happens when carbon crystals fall out of the inner ear organ and then down the canal to block it and disrupt the flow of fluid. It tends to go away by itself but certain head movements can help it along. I assume that the yoga that I do every day, which includes head turning exercises and tilting forward and backwards, helps to keep that condition at bay.

            Brian also shared that he had taken up juggling and playing the dulcimer.

            I told Brian that I might be having a 25^th anniversary celebration of the Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy next year. He kind of hinted that he might be interested in reuniting Christian and the Lions for that event.