I just got back from walking down to the University
of Glasgow where I checked my e-mail on Lea's computer. Just as I
was going to leave Susan blasted me an e-mail letting me know that dad
was involved in an accident while driving by the downtown Redding Burger
King. Susan told me he dislocated his shoulder and possibly has a
bone chip from his elbow, but he's ok. I'm sure he is, he's a tough
guy. So I blasted an obnoxious e-mail message back to tell Susan
that I hoped he was OK and that he'd better learn how to jack off with
his other hand. I'll try to give them a call a little later on tonight
or tomorrow. Tonight we are heading to some little party for this
Russian guy who is looking for some new friends I guess. I've really
gone off track here from my original regiment of regular journal entries
almost every day. I was hoping that I'd be caught up by now, but
hopefully I'll pull a late nighter and catch up.
Other work days included bringing up food items from the lift at the
base of Zonca into camp. This was generally pretty easy except for
the steep ascent into camp, so I'd be rolling with sweat before I was done.
We'd do other odds and ends around the camp like make benches and tables
for preparing food and eating. Time off was typically late at night, after
dinner or on the weekends. It seemed like most people would go to
bed early at 10:00pm or 11:00pm. Usually after dinner we would do
a round where we discussed the day's events or if we had an issue.
The round was always very tame, people normally just talked about the day's
work, sometimes offering suggestions or advice. Afterwards people
would begin to filter out and quite often it was just Kuba and I sitting
next to the fire talking away, hanging out and having a good time.
Quite often we'd be up until at least midnight, but usually until 1:00
or 2:00am. Usually we'd be talking about things that happened that
day or just goofing off making jokes and building the fire up. One
night after everyone went to sleep, Kuba and I had a joke night.
I think Kuba remembers more jokes than I do, he had some really good jokes!
One of the best was the joke about the poor bastard trying to get across
the desert on a camel who had to be jacked off every 50km. Eventually
the guy can't perform his job because his hands are numb and blistered
so the camel makes a sort of smacking noise with his lips. I was
rolling. Anyway we only told a few people this joke but pretty much
everyone saw us doing the punch line. The kids were really good at
doing the camel, funny.
One day were were in town and were buying a variety of things, including
some film for Hilde. We had told Hilde the joke so when I gave her
the film I let her know that Kuba was to be consulted for the payment and
then I gave her the camel punch line, she took it pretty well with a "noooooo."
Kuba had another really good joke about these two speech impediment guys
going to race to buy a pack of cigarettes. I also told him my "tough
woman" joke which went over pretty well. Kuba was hilarious with
this joke, we'd be working on the wall, I would be manning the hoist and
Kuba would be on the top of the wall, catch my attention and act like he
was cracking open a bottle, silly bastard. One day I came back to
the hay loft, Kuba was on all fours, simulating the tough woman.
Kuba has a very strong understanding of English, especially jokes.
Some of the things that get by him are slang. I taught him stuff
like jail bait and pissed off and maybe some other random slang.