My Story

 My story. Tony Bender wrote a story about his encounter in a parking lot at the grocery store, so I thought I better tell my tale about my parking lot experience today. Winky insisted I do my own laundry at the laundromat since Cliff's washer got hit by lightening. As we walked into the washing emporium we encountered the strangest machine one could imagine. It looked like an ATM, but it was for buying bitcoins. A coin was $54,000. Not sure how it worked. Anyway we loaded up the laundry and now we had time on our hands. I like a clean windshield so why not clean the windshield while the toxic underwear has the nuclear waste removed. Winky will not touch my underwear, so that is why I have now been relegated to taking care of it. 

As I cleaned the windshield a guy in the laundromat indicated I should clean his windshield. I told him the charge was 39 cents. With nothing to do I did clean as much of his windshield as I could from the ground, but to clean it all I would need to stand inside his truck to be higher. It occurred to me it would be very dangerous deep in Trump country to just open the door of someones truck. A bullet to the back of my head did not seem comfortable.  Soon the man's wife came out to get something out of the truck. I told her my dilemma and at last I managed to get his windshield clean. Sitting outside the laundry on a bench with the cleaning stuff in my hand an old dirty jeep type vehicle pulled up with a young Latino looking guy. I told him his windshield was very dirty and I would clean it. As a walked toward his vehicle he pulled out four dollars and insisted I take it. We went back and forth and I finally convinced him I had way more money than he did and was he really stupid enough to give me money. I told him I was a millionaire and was he so stupid he would give a millionaire money?

Soon we were engaged in a conversation and he told me all about erecting the wind towers over in New Mexico.  As an old professional safety director I gave him a fairly long safety lecture about the dangerous work he was doing. Winky had already told me about my insane behavior of encountering people. However, inside she also engaged the young guy and we ended up talking like old friends. He showed us a picture of his wife and little girl.  They were back home in Iowa while he was camper here working until February.  In a short time we learned a lot about wind tower construction. 

Leaving the laundromat Winky noted what a nice guy we had just met. Also while there we met another old couple that participated in the four wheeler rally going on in Springerville. It turned out they were part of the 47 four wheelers that went by us in the dark last night. They had driven from California to participate. 

Now, for the moral of the story. We could have just ended up with clean clothes, but we didn't. We ended up with what felt like new friends. We all exchanged some knowledge and found out how good people can be. The world is what you make it. If you chose to see people as thieves and rapist coming into your country to steal you job I feel sorry for you. On the other hand if you see a young guy trying to make a good living climbing up a dangerous tower in the freezing cold so you can have environmentally safe electricity, the bless you. 

That guy who is working seven days a week on those towers came from a family of people who moved to this country to do slaugher house work. Work Americans will not do. Now their son that Mexican guy is building the wind towers more work a lot of Americans will not do.  So grill your steak and turn on your porch light. Both things are happening because someone crossed the Rio Grande and almost drowned.