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.