It makes no difference to me what you leave behind

Today I was approached by a man who wanted to wash the windows on my car for a dollar. I told him no. Then, he asked if he could have a dollar so that he could buy some water. I just kept walking because I'm a bastard and have no regard for humanity. When I got to my car, my friend and I got into a conversation about other ways the guy could get water for free. My suggestion was that he go to a public building and use the water fountain. My friend said that if he wasn't too proud to approach people and ask them for money, then he shouldn't be too proud to try and fill up a cup from a sprinklerhead or something.

I know I drank from a garden hose as a kid, and I'm sure almost everyone has, but as my friend and I were talking about it I had to concede that it might not be the smartest thing to do in case the water wasn't treated and you ended up catching something.

Friend: There aren't a lot of cattle where I come from, so we didn't have to worry about getting Giardia.
Me: It doesn't have to be cattle. I think it can be any mammal. I think beavers are the worst.
Friend: Yeah, well we didn't have a lot of beavers either.
Me: Fine, maybe you could have gotten it from armadillos. You can't guarantee that no armadillo got into your well.
Friend: In that case, I would have caught leprosy.
Me: Really? You can get leprosy just from touching an armadillo?
Friend: I don't think you can get it just from touching them. I'm not sure exactly how it's transferred.
Me: My guess is sexually. So, you probably don't want to have sex with an armadillo.
Friend: Thanks. I'll try to keep that in mind.

Exploding egos in the night

Yesterday I went back to hang out with the nasty little parasites in Arizona. Oh, and two lovely ladies too.

We got a later start than we initially planned, in part because one of the ladies had never been to Hoover Dam and wanted to stop there, but also because the other had lost some stuff that morning and had to go back to retrieve it before it disappeared for good. We were successful on both of our respective missions.

This time, when we got to the Colorado River I did swim, and let me just say it was FREAKING COLD. I knew that the second I waded in, but since I'd already decided I was going to do it (and to prove that I'm a MAN), I dove in and swam for a short while. My feet were numb when I came back out. It was refreshing though.

After my swim, there was another short delay in getting to the hot springs because I couldn't remember the last part of the trail. After running around on the rocks for a while looking for it I finally decided that the best thing to do would be to follow the arrows that were painted on the rocks. Shortly after that, we made it to the hot springs, and this time there were no fat naked European men sitting in the pool (which I may have omitted from the story last time), so that was a plus. We hung out for a short while and then decided it was time to head back to the car.

Unfortunately, it was actually past time to head back to the car, because it got dark on the most technical part of the trail. I had forgotten about all the scrambling we'd done the last time I went. Normally it wouldn't have been a problem for me, but normally I'm not trying to scramble with a 75 pound Rottweiler either. The dog was amazing, but there were a few parts where we weren't sure how we were going to be able to get her across certain parts of the trail. At one point, I was trying to scale a waterfall with her, and lost my balance. I couldn't grab onto anything without dropping the dog, so both of us fell about six feet. I landed right on top of the dog, but stuck my arm out so as not to crush her with all my weight. It worked because I didn't break any of her ribs or anything, but I didn't think about how easily I could have broken my arm doing that until afterward. Luckily the only thing that came of it was a few scrapes.

By the time we scrambled over our last rock wall it was completely dark. We had two headlamps, and plenty of water, so we weren't too worried about survival (at least I wasn't - I can't really speak for the ladies), but we did lose the trail a few times. The good thing about hiking in the desert is that you can almost always see where you need to be. We could have made it back to the car even if we hadn't found the trail again, but that wasn't completely necessary. Just necessary enough to angle our way to where our path intersected the trail.

It was quite the adventure, and what better to go with the end of an adventure than a nice meal at a Mexican restaurant? Even with that, I'm pretty sure that at least one of the ladies is never going to leave her house with me again.

Take a look at where you are it's pretty scary

I decided I'd spent enough time sitting around the house watching movies in Spanish, so yesterday I went to Arizona Hot Springs along the Colorado River with a group of people from work.


It's about a three mile hike through a canyon to the River. I hesitate to call it a slot canyon as it's not quite narrow enough, but it's pretty close, and you do have to worry about flash flooding. Well, at least you would if it ever rained in this part of the country. It didn't take us long to get there, but it's good that I went with some people who had already been there. It turns out that these hot springs have a particularly nasty little parasite that kills almost everyone it infects. The good thing is that you can only contract this parasite through your sinuses, so as long as you don't submerge your mouth and/or nose in the hot spring you'll be safe. I probably wouldn't have done that anyway, but it's still good to know.



I know what you're thinking. Surely there must be signs to warn people about this fact. Oh, there's a sign, I just don't know how much warning it gives.

I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like it might be time for an upgrade.

Anyway, I didn't put my face in the water, and I haven't noticed my brain swelling up yet, so I should be ok.

I can't wait to go back, but next time, I'm totally swimming in the Colorado River first.