Jimbo did some wiring in the basement of chez Jimbo’s girlfriend, earlier this summer. We needed an additional electrical outlet, so we bought a plastic electrical box, a duplex receptacle and twenty-five feet of 14/2 Romex. I nailed the box on one of the ceiling joists, stripped the end of the wire and connected it to the duplex receptacle, which I fastened inside the box. I ran the wire upstairs to a hexagonal box where two hot wires were connected with wire nuts and I spliced into the connection. Of course, we flipped off the breaker before doing the connection. Remarkably, it all worked when we were done. At dinner last night, my girlfriend asked me how I knew how to do wiring. I explained that my father did a lot of wiring when I was young and I watched him and helped him and eventually got to the place that I could do most minor wiring jobs. I’ve owned several old houses and when doing any upgrading, the first thing I did was all of the electrical work. It’s not rocket science—its just one of those things that requires some knowledge and experience. As a disclaimer, however, it is important to point out that one has to work safely and not try wiring jobs unless they understand what they are doing.
I remember, through the haze of many decades, the first electrical project my father and I ever did together. For Christmas one year I received a short wave radio kit and dad and I built it. The exotic name of the brand of the radio was “space spanner.” When we were finished I could sit in my room and listen in to broadcasts from all over the world. I heard a number of broadcasts over the years in languages I couldn’t begin to understand, but I remember the one station that came in the loudest and clearest was from Quito, Ecuador. I listened to their broadcasts for hours, with no idea what they were saying, except every fifteen minutes or so they would identify themselves, so I knew from whence the broadcast was coming. From a hemisphere and thousands of miles away, they were making contact with the middle of America.
I sort of lost track of Quito until recently, when I read that legislators from Ecuador have been kicked out of that body for trashing a hotel in Peru earlier this summer (or winter, down there). I guess those South American lawmakers can party and party and party.
Here in the United States, we rely on our rock stars to do the partying. You may recall Joe Walsh’s song Life’s Been Good, where he makes the following statement:
I live in hotels, tear out the walls
I have accountants pay for it all
Anyway, these Ecuadorian lawmakers turned lawbreakers were attending trade talks in Lima and the party just sort of got out of hand. One female legislator even accused one of the other legislators of trying to rape her. I would recommend to her that next time she goes on a bender with these guys that she put that little spray can of mace in her purse. It sounds like these guys are real party animals and you have to be prepared to correct them when they get out of hand. According to what I read, the legislators damaged their room, the hotel lobby and assaulted a bellboy and a receptionist. Because of the shenanigans, these lawmakers are history and good riddance to them. However, if they were United States legislators, they would have been discreet about it and it probably wouldn’t have cost them their jobs. They would have put a different spin on it and it would have come out sounding better at the end.
U.S. legislators would have had their offices release stories saying that in attending the trade talks it was necessary to share alcoholic beverages with the people with whom they were negotiating, as is the local custom. They would further elaborate that, in negotiating with them, it was necessary to be very firm and it was unfortunate that while doing so some minor damage was done. They would tell us they had to let these foreigners know we mean business. If some peripheral damage were done, they’d apologize, saying their actions were necessary to keep America safe and free, and would apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced.
And, if anyone in the media spun the story differently, the charge of liberal media bias would ring from the halls of congress to the editorials on The Fox “News” Network. Sometimes these stories get spinning so much they can make one dizzy.
Excuse me. Let me regain my balance. Thank you.
The truth of the matter is that we all are subject to an occasional faux pas, especially when we abuse alcohol, whether we are the front man for a rock group, an Ecuadorian solon or that guy catching some sleep next to the trash dumpster in that alley downtown. I suggest that if you have a problem with the bottle, try to stay out of the public sector or try to find a good spin-doctor. Or, at least, try to sleep it off with raising some kind of ruckus.
At least that’s the way we feel in Jimbo’s world.
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