Shocking...

The room where we have the workshop is a nice room in the new theological studies building on campus. It’s in essence a lecture room, with wooden chairs and big tables. It’s nice as we can plug in our laptops into outlets that are underneath the surface of the table, so they’re open in front of us all day. As I brought my outlet converter thingy with me, I’ve been doing exactly that.

Before getting too far, let me start off this next paragraph by saying, “I am ok.” Really, I’m fine…just an idiot.
So before lunch, I reached under the table to unplug my laptop, but my computer plug starts coming out of the outlet converter…my thumb brushed the contact on my plug before it was fully out and…ZAP. A very strange, tingly, painful sensation went up my left arm, into my chest and my head. Fortunately, I felt it quickly and let go very rapidly…but it was odd. And scary. The guy next to me gave me a funny look and asked, “Did you zap yourself?” “Yes,” I said.

Ok…I don’t know if I have ever shocked myself like that before…it scared the crap out of me to be honest. It was quick and left no damage, but man…not something that I was looking to do, and not something I’m proud of. Particularly at a conference…Remember what I said about Kepler having gone to school here? He’d have laughed at me and called me an idiot.
So, I walked down and grabbed a quick lunch to take back to the conference room as I had the first talk after lunch. I got a slice of pizza and a butterbretzel…a baked pretzel, sliced in half, with butter spread throughout. Not too bad. Along the way, I made sure I could move all my extremeties and that I could remember how to talk and my vital information (name, wife’s name, child’s name, home town, etc.) I concluded there was no damage from the electric shock and was relieved.

The rest of the day? Not as exciting. I gave my talk and it went well…then we had a reception with the mayor of Tubingen, where he gave us German wine and more pretzels.

That’s about it. Now I’m typing this blog and have some work I need to do. That’s about it. I’m hoping to walk around a bit tomorrow morning and take some pictures and to check on how to leave this place come Saturday—you know so that if I have any questions I can get answers before risking being late for my flight come Saturday morning. We also have an afternoon excursion and reception in the evening…so that should be enjoyable.