Feb. 2002

Today I discovered that when I touched some of the equipment on my desk, I felt a small "buzz" on my finger. The electrical system here is ungrounded and I'm working barefoot on a tile floor. I ran a ground wire from the shield of the cell phone antenna, which is grounded at the mast outside, to everything on the desk, including my computer and now everything seems fine. I guess I'm still a little touchy after the rabbit incident a couple of days ago.

The family here keeps a pair of pet rabbits in the sunken area next to the shower/toilets just off the kitchen. The little critters didn't venture up into the kitchen very often. Since they didn't get in my way and were toilet trained, I refrained from commenting (believe me, this is nothing compared to what they keep in large clay jars just outside the kitchen door, but that's another story). I keep the electric hot water pot, which I use to make tea and coffee, on the steps that lead down from the living area to the kitchen.

The other night the hot water pot didn't light up when I plugged it into the wall, so I fiddled with the connector on the back of the pot thinking that it must be loose and making poor contact, and...the Thais may have heard some English words they don't hear on television when I got a jolt of the 220 VAC. When I calmed down and came back for a look, I saw that one of the rabbits had gnawed the insulation off of one of the wires on the power cord. The next day, at my suggestion, a rabbit pen was hastily built and the rodents that nearly killed me were exiled to the front yard. Where the dogs look longingly and hungrily upon them, I might add .

Back to Postcards page



Contents ©2002 Richard Cappels All Rights Reserved. http://cappels.org/