About a year ago, I was talking to a fellow expat at a local bar. He and his wife had moved down from Canada, and had quite an experience adapting themselves to this living.
Out of all the things he mentioned that shocked him the most, the one that I remember clearly, because I found it somewhat funny, is that he thought people down here had a love affair with suicide showers.
When he said this, I did ask for clarification; Only to find out the heating element built into the shower head was his biggest critique of "things are done down here".
I had never considered the possibility of getting shocked by one, since I've seen them in people's bathrooms since I was a little kid, but knowing that I know about electricity, I wondered why it just never clicked.
As a matter of fact, my own shower has one those, and even though It stopped working long ago, I did not bother fixing it or dumping it in the bin altogether.
Until two days ago....
A friend who is taming our young horse came across a million ticks. You know, the tiny ones that a 40something can't see with the naked eye. He asked me if he could jump into my shower quickly to avoid a miserable drive home, and of course I agreed.
A good twenty minutes went by and I began to worry a bit. It doesn't really take that long to wash off some ticks. I walked back to the house, to find him bleeding and breathing heavy.
What in the hell happened?
Yes, he got shocked by my shower. Fell in the tub, cut himself in the back with a sharp corner, and was attempting to relax after his brushing with death.
As you can imagine, I chucked the thing in the garbage, and I apologized to my friend for this. He knows it was not a trap set by anyone, but a timebomb that he happened to catch.
All I can say... is wow....
My friend is healthy, fit and young. I don't think I would have survived that....
F..kin crazy!
MenO