Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014<\/p>\n
What were they thinking? They are young \u00e2\u20ac\u201d probably pre-pubescent \u00e2\u20ac\u201d boys who almost caused my workout partner to reduce Las Vegas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 population by three.<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
Always one to believe the pedestrian has rights and drivers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t automatically conferred their own rights by virtue of having lots of horses under the hood, I try to be accommodating to pedestrians. Anyone on foot, crossing to Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Restaurant \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and most of them jaywalk \u00e2\u20ac\u201d gets the no-problem-go-ahead gesture from many motorists on that slow-moving street.<\/p>\n
Wednesday was different. As we headed west on Mills, I noticed the three boys walking from a trailer park on the north side of Mills toward the lot across the street. The driver didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t snap that there were three \u00e2\u20ac\u201d suddenly appearing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d potential fatalities waiting, as they sallied across the four lanes. We came perilously close to running over all of them. A shocking, heart-pounding part of the episode was the boys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 obvious lack of concern for their own safety.<\/p>\n
The driver, Diana Chavez, a member of my Wilson Complex exercise group, honked her horn to alert the boys that her large vehicle was coming from the east. The toot of the horn, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m convinced, emboldened them instead. Almost as if on cue, they slowed their pace. And what amazed me even more was their confidence (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tempted to use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153arrogance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cockiness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) that showed they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about to hurry for anyone.<\/p>\n
So they sauntered across two more lanes of traffic as if they owned the street and as if crosswalks had never been invented.<\/p>\n
None of the three ever even looked our way. Of course, drivers coming from the other direction needed to pay attention as well. Four busy traffic lanes make it difficult to see around other vehicles.<\/p>\n
The boys may think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve won a moral victory, teaching \u00e2\u20ac\u201d on principle \u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not to be pushed around. Their over-stuffed ego is not my concern. But I do wonder about the unmitigated temerity these young machos exhibited.<\/p>\n
Friends might give the boys a high-five as praise for demonstrating such bravado. But in my old-fashioned way, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better to remain alive than to hold the honor of being a super macho while lying in a coffin.<\/p>\n
Any such act in my youth would have earned us a whipping, deprivation of privileges and possibly months of grounding.<\/p>\n
Apparently things are different today, and my heart races at the thought of the effrontery these youths displayed on a street where traffic moves fast. True, most motorists do anything to avoid hitting a pedestrian, even when the person on foot is wrong, or if the pedestrian ignores the crosswalks and exhibits that now-common I-dare-you attitude.<\/p>\n
Still, we need to wonder: What if . . . what if Diana had lacked the quick reflexes that permitted her to stop in time? Would we be attending multiple funerals today?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
My former Railroad barrio neighbor, Lawrence Sandoval, having read about the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oremos\u00e2\u20ac\u009d custom in the recent \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tradiciones\u00e2\u20ac\u009d supplement of the Optic, said it brought back memories.<\/p>\n
Lawrence, the youngest of several Sandoval siblings, said he used to participate in that ritual, each Christmas morning.<\/p>\n
To review: Oremos, whichmans \u00e2\u20ac\u0153let us pray,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a practice of going door to door on that holiday and chanting verses in Spanish. Accordingly, the person being visited provides treats: nuts, candy, an orange or an apple. They exchange greetings, wish one another a joyous new year, and part with a cheerful wave.<\/p>\n
I never went door to door. Rather, I hosted lots of doorbell ringers, providing the customary treats and greetings.<\/p>\n
Apparently some of my memories of Oremos-ing lay dormant until Lawrence gave his take on the purpose of the yuletide custom.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some people said to us, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re begging,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lawrence said. But \u00e2\u20ac\u0153begging\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the farthest thing from the visitors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 minds.<\/p>\n
Rather, the visit was social, a way of greeting neighbors and wishing them a good year. Lawrence said it puzzled him when a resident referred to the visit as begging.<\/p>\n
Seeking oremos \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the same as going out trick-or-treating \u00e2\u20ac\u201d most definitely is not a means of seeking subsistence so we can last one more day. Rather, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an age-old custom (out of fashion these days) that reacquaints neighbors on those festive occasions.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
An iPod is an electronic gadget that stores voice and music. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the size of one of those Andes candies restaurants provide at the checkout.<\/p>\n
Once, leaving an IHop in Albuquerque, I noticed the manager staring. He asked me why I was carrying three iPods on my lanyard. I explained, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for my German lessons; one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for French lessons, and one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for music.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I added that since the three are of a similar color, I often take potluck; when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on a treadmill at the city rec center, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the menu.<\/p>\n
The trouble with these tiny gadgets is that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re usually losable. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gone through several of them, after their spring clip weakens. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure many an iPod has ended up inside a vacuum cleaner.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been missing one of the iPods. Last week I took my car to Pino\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Quick Lube Center on north Grand for an oil change and as I was leaving, I saw the lost iPod carefully placed on the front seat.<\/p>\n
Andy Montoya, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done the oil-change honors, apparently spotted the item before the powerful vacuum swallowed it.<\/p>\n
They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re expensive. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losable.<\/p>\n
An item that small would have been easy to slip into one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pocket. But Andy made sure to place it where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d find it. I applaud his honesty. And I hope that the next time you visit Pino\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Quick Lube Center you mention this to him.<\/p>\n
And feel free to leave him and the crew a generous tip.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
We gassed up in Santa Fe Monday, where some stations charge $2.08 a gallon, compared to the $2.49 going rate in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
If we torture people enough, can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we get them to confess to anything? Well, Shakespeare, in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Merchant of Venice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said it so much better: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I fear you speak upon the rack \/ Where men enforced do speak anything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Memorize that, Dick Cheney!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 What were they thinking? They are young \u00e2\u20ac\u201d probably pre-pubescent \u00e2\u20ac\u201d boys who almost caused my workout partner to reduce Las Vegas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 population by three. Let me explain: Always one to believe the pedestrian has rights and drivers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t automatically conferred their own rights by virtue of having lots of horses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1308,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/1308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}