two unlucky faces of the day

It’s not a bad day, all in all, but two things about it are.

*The water from the bathroom sink gave me a bad electrical shock this morning. It seems to be connected with a short circuit in the water heater, which will obviously need to be fixed. But I have to move out until then. If I had taken a shower before shaving, the story might be much worse than a stinging right index finger, which is all I have by way of injury. These things aren’t to be joked with. Apparently a number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq were electrocuted by a poorly wired shower at their base, in a single grisly incident.

*In Cairo now it’s not just sandstorm, but a previously unknown phenomenon: Wintery Sandstorm. It’s the same sandstorm nonsense I was complaining about yesterday, but now with a temperature about as close to freezing as Cairo ever gets. At today’s meeting with the President (where about 30 of us sit around a big table) teeth were chattering and the incoming Provost was wearing an overcoat. This campus is designed to be comfortable in hot temperatures; inner hallways are usually open to the outside world in some way. The design is clever, but it backfires under anything approaching wintery conditions.