Electrocution

I was helping our landlord take out the fan above the kitchen stove. He was struggling with disconnecting the electricity from the fan, teaching me many new “Spanish” words in the process, when he finally got to a point where he grabbed a wire cutters and said, “I can fix this…”.
I stuttered “Do you think I should shut off the…” and then there was a crack, a brilliant flash of light, and 220 volts of electricity flowing through the air.

I am not exactly sure what happened next but I was a step back and he was off the ladder muttering, “no big deal. Nothing happened.”
When I flipped the breaker back on I swore to remember an important lesson, always let someone else deal with the electricity in your home…and know the number for emergency services.

3 Days on the Camino

I just bought my credentials for the Camino Santiago. I thought this would be a good time to rehearse some of the packing and traveling tips that I’ve heard along the way.

Pack for the best, buy yourself out of the worst. (Abraham Lincoln)

You can be cold, wet, tired, and miserable. Or, you can be cold, wet, and tired. (Jeff Phillips)

Metal detectors can even pick up pocket knives hidden in umbrella handles. Who knew! (Josh Halloran)

There are two types of people in this world: those who pack light, and those who wish they did. (Forrest)

Pack like a Jr. higher headed to summer camp…then forget your backpack in the bus and enjoy the week! You didn’t need it anyway. (Benjamin Franklin)

Baseball cap. Check. Extra pair of socks. Check. Bible. Check (Liberty Baptist Teen Guys on the Manathons and retreats).

The more you pack – the heavier your load – the more you hurt – the longer you take – the more you need. (Ancient Pirate Proverb)

Take only enough clothes so that, if you were soaking wet and wearing all of your clothes and pedalling, you would remain just about warm enough. If it gets any colder than that you can always head for a cafe or a train station! (Alastair Humphreys)

 

 

Ok. Some of them I paraphrased a little.

 

I need to stop

A few weeks back I posted, “Never, and I repeat, never, take a swig of something that a farmer in the market says is ‘homemade.’ There is a story there that I am not yet fit to recount.”IMG_8226

Here is the story from my journal…

I have this bad habit of taking whatever is given to me and putting it in my mouth.
Playing on that weakness, I was just bamboozled into drinking a swig of grape vinegar.

We were walking through the market on Saturday morning as is our normal habit. Crystal began a conversation with another vendor, a kind lady who has a garden outside the city. While they were engaged in a conversation the wind blew down part of the canopy covering her produce. I began a juggling act of replacing the fallen canopy and keeping our daughter from taking bites of the various fruits and vegetables. In this shuffle I hear Crystal comment on an interesting product and see the lady reach out a bottle cap of liquid toward me. With one hand holding up the plastic and the other gripping a fallen aluminum rod, I bend over and slurp the liquid from the bottle cap.
*Commence gagging and spluttering
I drop what is in my hand and spit all over the pavement. I am gagging so hard I am almost crying. Crystal is crying because she is laughing so hard.
The dear lady offers me some cherries to eat in order to get the grape vinegar taste out of my mouth. It didn’t help.
Later that evening I licked my lips, again reliving that little bit of “excitement” in my normal life. I need to stop.