a cautionary tale

to answer the question i posed last post, one the mighty boosh might refer to as a "juicy dangler," i am in méxico ostensibly as a wwoofer. wwoof is a wonderful organization that allows interested parties to travel the world, volunteering at various organic farms, each with their own story, projects, mission, etc. (check it out at http://www.wwoof.org)
in the fall of 2007, after a cross-country trip of the US with a dear friend who, for legal purposes, i'll refer to as... catfish-face jenny, i took a bus from LA to the state of michoacan, where i stayed 2 weeks at one farm, then over to morelos for 4 weeks at another, and finally back towards the pacific coast to a small town in jalisco. things went well during my 2 week stay at this last farm and the dueña, DD, gave me an open invitation to return some future summer, when she would take her annual trip to visit her mother. so, 2 years later, i accepted the offer and agreed to look after her farm for about 5 weeks. this blog is intended to keep friends and family and the random passerby updated on the happenings of this journey, as well as any subsequent life activities i might continue to write about.
anyway, there are all sorts of fun things that come up around here. daily tasks, like watering new papaya trees, feeding the cat, negrita, and the fish... i haven't named them yet, but they are three in number. always good for naming. the daily tasks usually pass without incident. but recently i noticed something that had become a growing problem over the past couple of days. that problem, lads and lasses, is wasps. white, anglo-saxon, pro-- nah i'm kidding. the insect, of course. they were amassing in larger and larger quantities and beginning to build nest under the rafters above the patio dining table. now i'm not generally violent towards animals. i don't take pleasure in it and frown upon it when others do it. like this: meeuuuh, big frowny face. but i was told that a simple way to get rid of stinging pests that congregate in one key area is to throw boiling water at the desired target and voilá, they're gone. the keen reader will already see where this is going. fast-forward to me, with a pot of extremely hot water in my gloved hands, wearing nothing else but shorts and flip-flops, standing on a plastic chair and 1,2,3, hurling the water at the ceiling. yup, i'm an idiot. the water nailed the so-called 'desired target,' but also splashed off a rafter, rebounding back and falling squarely upon my head, one of many, 'undesired targets.'
needless to say, but i'll say it anyway, i went running around screaming like a lunatic and feeling my scalp to see if it was in fact, still attached. luckily, it was, and still is, but i've had to spend the day with as many different forms of icy coldness as i could find. 12 hours after the fact, i can look back and laugh.. or at least smile and shake my head as i write this down. apparently, you can also just throw some soap on the hive and that will work too. jeez.
anyway, as long as my head doesn't blister apart during the night, i'll be back tomorrow. even if my skull did dissolve into mush, i might want to keep things a little more upbeat, given my original decree of avoiding lameness, hypochondria, etc. however, i am pretty sure that this really happened, and that i am still wearing ice in my hat for a real reason.
i ask not for your sympathy - only for your attention. consider this merely some friendly advice, summed up thusly: don't try to juggle boiling water. 'tis foole-ish.