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 .
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