Last night there was an amazing lightening storm over the city of Cochabamba. There was a sort of “Modern Day Prometheus” feeling going on. Any way while I was in my Mary Shelly mood I started thinking of one of Tammy’s family legends where her uncle Ziff was working on an oil rig somewhere in Oklahoma. Apparently Uncle Ziff was hit by two lightening bolts in the head all in one instance!. It knocked his shoes off, burned holes into his heels, and left him with a mighty erection for 24 hours. All this made him the talk of the emergency room for months after this as they could not find a sheet large enough to cover his body and his rod at the same time. They finally had to just use a tent that one of the nurses just happened to have in the trunk of her car, so the story goes. Man! If I were to get hit by lightening I would want to have my pants blown off (especially if I going to have an erection) so I could keep my high heels for the ER. This all sort of reminds me of the movie “Stand and Deliver”. You know where that Bolivian math teacher teaches all those inner city kids and Lou Diamond Philips math and they all go on to win the mathematician contest. Actually the plot has nothing to do with Uncle Ziff. The relation would be fond more in the title of the movie.
I went down to the Cancha today, the Cochabambino open air market. I really hate it down there. I call it “Heart of Darkness”. But I went looking for a rat trap big enough to get those friggin’ gerbils in my back yard. While I was sampling some of the traps one of them slammed down on my fingers. The only thing I could think of when this happened was the fact that I was making fun of a friend yesterday for shooting herself in the hand with a hot glue gun. Damn! Poetic justice blows!
So the responses that came in were in the order that follows:
Sofa said:” Serves you right!
Uncle Ziff AKA Lightning Rod sounds like a dude.”
Rusty responded: “You know I was trying to keep your identity a secret on this one but you are way to easy to flush out yo!”
Tammy said: “You know, Rusty, it´s never a good idea to mention gerbils and having your pants down in the same blog . . .”
LeMel said: “Animals and falling clothing aside, there is something electrifying about family legend, shopping, and happiness in general all being combined in the same story.”
Gym said: “Dude!
One of my all-time favorite books. (responding to quotes sent to him form “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”) Nominee for best book about the 60s. Hilarious shit. Almost as funny as Uncle Ziff. What's his full name? Zifforelli? Ziffowitz? Ziffadeedoodah?”
Rusty responded: “Ziffapopodopolis”