In Like a Dog, Out Like a Dog

An amazing day, really, January 1^st 2009……..the best part of that morning was the rotty mix just wanting to be calmed and petted in the backyard.

She was awfully sweet and so grateful for those caresses and “good girl’s” I gave her. It seems like dogs, not unlike us, will take that affection as long as you keep it coming.

And, to be frankly honest, I was pretty relieved she wasn’t attacking me because when we arrived she was pretty disconcerted.

I was, after all, a uniformed stranger in her backyard.

Doggy petting wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing at six in the morning on New Year’s Day but, hey, that was my job. It was different every time…….

That little interlude of doggy love kind of belied the dead guy just past the Jacuzzi face down in his vomit. The air was cold; he was purple and stiff with rigor mortis and I was relieved that I didn’t have to work him.

We started the routine, notified dispatch to respond Sherriff’s Officers so they could paperwork another death and then we could leave it all in our rearview mirror and head back to our station.

Selfish or pragmatic, who knows…… Besides, I was still half asleep and I had just started the coffee at the station and hadn’t even had a cup, damn it…… habits.

A long night of calls and very little sleep meant I wasn’t awake enough to register or even care much about the woman twisting away on the floor of her kitchen, frantically shrieking in horror and denial about her new reality. I was just tired.

Understandably she just could not believe what was happening.

 Well, what had already happened and that was only the beginning for her.

There wasn’t any undoing this one.

I am pretty sure this was not what she expected when she fell asleep on the couch late New Year’s Eve while her old man was out drinking in the backyard.

Another exciting New Year’s……. one that surely won’t ever blend into the others gone by.

Of course, then I fully woke up and found my compassion.

After so many years on the job I’d have to remind myself, on occasion, that these were real people with real, normal people, feelings.

My captain was really having a hard time with this lady. Of course, he had never been married nor had he ever had kids. It had always been difficult for him to connect with distressed women and kids and at times like this he was often at a loss.

So, I went in, held her hands and lifted her up off the floor and gave her a hug….. She really needed one. That’s when she told me her little girl was upstairs.

Boy, did that little announcement completely changed the tone of the call for me.

She asked me to go a couple of doors up the street and tell her neighbors she needed them to come take care of her little girl. Of course I volunteered……frankly I just wanted out of there for a few minutes to regroup.

A minute later I was knocking on this neighbor’s door, hoping he wasn’t going to be armed. A man who looked like he’d been up late bringing in the New Year finally answered his door with a “what the hell are you doing here” look on his face and I said to him, “Look, I’m sorry to disturb you but your neighbor two doors down needs you and your wife to come down and take care of her little girl. Her husband is dead and she is losing it and she needs your help now.”

He was like, “WHAT!???! (Whatever the hell his name was) is dead!!!?????” That was when he started to flip out a little. Immediately I said, “Yeah, hey uh, she and I don’t have time for you to lose it right now. I know this is going to be a bad morning but she, her kid and I need you to get it together and get down there now and handle this. She’s losing it and can’t take care of her kid. Are you gonna be able to pull it together and get over there”?

He was waking up quickly and he gathered his emotions, assuring me he would be there shortly so I split back to the death house.

As I made my way back I could see the mom was in the front yard and the neighbors were starting to pile up.  Everybody comes out for fire trucks and tragedy. She was grieving heavily and my boss and I exchanged a look acknowledging that this was starting to really go sideways.

I asked him if anybody had seen or talked to the little girl upstairs yet.

He said no and I asked him if he wanted me to go do that.

He asked, “Do you mind”?

 “Is that what you want me to do?”

 “Yeah, would you?”

“Sure, no problem”…………like it’s bringing in the paper or something…… but it isn’t……

I’ve got a wife and kids and I love them like I can’t believe and if anything happened to them I’d be that hysterical person in the front yard…. But that New Year’s I was not, thank god.

I knew talking to this little girl was not going to be fun at best and could go really sideways at worst. My heart started to fracture and bleed a bit but I kept all that on the inside.

I headed up the staircase, all the way thinking to myself how much some parts of my job just suck, rounded a corner and walked into a bedroom.  And there, sitting motionless on the bed was a sweet little girl about 7 years old in her pee-soaked jammies.

I sat down next to her and put my arm around her. She started to cry and tears started to work their way down my face….. It’s hard to see a little girl scared like that……….

In a minute, once I knew I could speak to her without my voice breaking, I told her who I was and I asked her if she knew what was going on. She shook her head no so I asked her if she was scared and she just quaked….this tiny, now fatherless, child breathing fast and shallow with fear and tears just pouring out of her…… I kept my arm around this little girl in her pee-soaked jammies while my heart broke for her and I just stared out the window as she cried.

Once I got a handle on myself again I asked her what her name was. She wouldn’t say. I asked how old she was and she was just not talking.

It was too big….

So I thought to ask her about books and school, playing, her friends, things my little girl loved, and she opened up and we talked about nothing at all but we talked.

I was dreading the thought that I was going to have to tell her that her dad was dead. Christ, I didn’t want to but if she asked I wasn’t going to lie. It seemed pretty certain that she already knew on some level but who was I to do that?

As I felt this little child’s fear, confusion and grief and tried somehow to relieve it just a little I thought about going home in a few hours to see my own family and how I would look at them just a little different for a while.

Until you live it you just don’t know…..

Finally her mom came up grief stricken but somewhat composed. I watched her suck it up and  tell this little girl, her daughter, that her daddy is very sick and we have to take him…..that she has to go to the neighbors for a while……

I gave her a hug and we left.

Rolling With It

Day 4 

(the afternoon)

Well, it wasn’t too long after my little interlude at the bargaining table before the hills began to get steeper and steeper and the road signs were showing kilometers to Tepic and San Blas.

My plan was to turn towards San Blas to avoid the steep grades and twisty roads south of Tepic while towing my heavily loaded boat and instead drive the steep grades and twisty roads south of San Blas. I am not sure why this was a good plan but somebody told me it was so I went with it. At least I would be paralleling the coast with amazing scenery to finish my journey with.

Everything was going amazingly well and I figured that was just and fair after all the delays that I had experienced and the universe’s axis was truly tilted my way.

Well, teach me to think…….. As I was heading down a long grade I hit a small dip and I felt my boat trailer really bounce. This motion was uncharacteristic and it caused me a little concern but everything thing looked and felt fine after that.

The next dip I hit everything really bounced………and kept bouncing! 

My first thought (this, I realized, is called denial) was that the road, like many others here in Mexico, was just really poorly constructed and bouncy.

My second thought was “hmmm, I smell rubber burning”. I hopefully looked all around for smoke from trash burning somewhere nearby and didn’t see any. Damn it!

At that point I knew it would be prudent to pull over and take a look at my boat trailer. 

What I saw was, well, I wasn't really sure what I saw! It appeared to me that my load had shifted somehow and caused the right side of my trailer to sag a bit and the fender was rubbing on the tire. I couldn’t figure out how since everything looked fine but the evidence was in directly in front of me. I grabbed some tools, loosened up the fender a bit and raised it where it was rubbing and all was right (wrong) in the world again.

I traveled on a bit and had just cleared the last of the toll booths I was going to need to stop at so to be prudent I decided to pull over again to take a look at my situation.

The fender had shifted even more and the tire had a huge groove in the sidewall! There was melted rubber from what had been my brand new trailer tire all over the side of my boat! What the heck was going on?!?

The strange part was I just couldn’t see the shift in the fender but the melted rubber and gouge in my tire’s sidewall clearly indicated that it had shifted!

I knew at that point I had to completely remove the fender to prevent further issues and to change the tire so I wouldn’t have a blowout.

I knew in my heart that this would be an easy fix and I would be on the road in 20 minutes.

I popped the fender off and then, as I was placing the jack, that was when I noticed half of my leaf spring on the right side was gone!Completely! Nothing but........ air....... ugh.....

Ok…… so, the fender never shifted…… the whole damn thing was just broken and sagging on that side and held up by what amounted to less than half a leaf spring! Ohhhhh……. Not good at all…..

Damn! I had inspected them thinking I might replace them before I left San Diego but they looked fine at the time. 

Oh, man, I was a little (a lot) sick to my stomach.
This was one of those “Oh, shit, I am seriously screwed”, moments.

I felt my heart rate increase and my sense of well-being dissipate in a fraction of a second. 

I was nowhere. 

No town nearby, nothing visible but jungle for as far as I could see……… 

I thought of every southern engineering trick I could up to and including ratchet strapping around the frame and boat to try to keep things together so I could find a mechanic. I knew it would be many kilometers before that would happen and I was feeling hot and more than a little desperate.

I also had the completely irrational and barely realistic hope that a Green Angel (paid mechanics that patrol the toll-roads in Mexico to keep you safe) would magically appear and help me out.

This, in fact, did not occur and I drove many kilometers very slowly and finally turned off towards the coast and San Blas.

It was at that point I saw in my rear-view mirror the very Green Angel I had prayed for (I think that is what is referred to as bargaining with God) under the trees exactly where I had just exited the toll-road. There was no way to back track the many kilometers to the next on and off ramp to see if he would still be there to help me when I passed by again. I couldn’t believe it and figured the Road-Gods were having a nice laugh at my expense. I attribute this to what I call "Divine Ambivalence".

So, I just kept going. I knew there was a town ahead somewhere and every town has a mechanic, right?

In short order I rolled into a town that looked like it had twenty or so dwellings in it and, sure enough, a yard, as evidenced by all the auto parts scattered everywhere, that had to be a mechanics. I pulled into his yard and we chatted a bit while I showed him my dilemma.

He told me in the town of Santiago was a man who built muelles(leaf springs) and that all I had to do was go about 400 meters, turn right, go another 17 kilometers, turn right again and then another 12 or so and I’d be in Santiago and the guy could set me straight. Easy peasy, right? 

Alrighty then………. Well, seeing as I had about zero choices I turned right at 400 meters and after about 10 kilometers saw what was clearly another mechanic’s house that was significantly more orderly than the previous mechanic's and I promptly pulled in to his yard. There was no way I was by-passing any potential help!

No one was outside but the door was open so I knocked, said “hola” and promptly interrupted the mechanic and his family having lunch.

Apologizing for doing so I explained my problem with hope in my heart and a smile on my face.

They were all quite gracious and he came out and assessed my situation. He told me that, yes, I could go to Santiago but since I wanted to make it to San Pancho there was a much closer solution.

He said at the crucero, which was another 7 kilometers, turn left and I would see a mechanic on the right and that he could fix my issue! I was very excited by this prospect and, at this point, I was only about an hour behind my schedule!

So right at 7 kilometers I saw the crucero and turned left. I saw a mechanic immediately on the right and it was a big shop with lots of trucks sitting around in it. I was quite happy to see this right where the last mechanic had said it would be. I pulled my truck in, parked and found the mechanic who proceeded to tell me he couldn’t take care of my issue. 

I was much less happy at this point. Actually, I was desperate and I was working on a non-existent Plan-B. I am certain all this was clearly evident on my face.

All I could think of was that I was either going to have to tempt fate trying to make it to San Blas or backtrack to Santiago.

He looked at me, told me to wait and said he needed to make a phone call. He came out with his phone in hand, told me to get in my Rodeo and follow him.

We proceeded, fortunately southward again, and he stops in front of a sign that states “MUELLES”.

Yeah!

He told me to go in and talk to the guy there. I offered to buy him a beer or soda and he smiled, said no, gracias and waved goodbye.

Besides the barking dogs and chickens and naked kids running around the yard I was very happy to see two men working on the leaf springs of a truck! Woohoo! I could not have been happier. I was now only two hours behind schedule and I had plenty of daylight to make it into San Pancho!

My Plan-B had been that I was going to have to pay somebody to let me store my boat and its contents in their yard but now here was a real spring mechanic right in front of me!

My heart-rate decreased, my sense of well-being returned and I knew all would be right in the world again.

Well, after about 45 minutes they finished the truck in front of me and we chatted about my issue and they got to work. During this time I had the privilege of hearing the story of how the grandpa had gone to Los Angeles because he was nearly blind and used another man’s name, ID and insurance to have an $8000.00 dollar corrective surgery and now, gracias a dios, he could see perfectly! 

I was duly impressed at his resourcefulness, especially since he was working and welding on my trailer!

It was really quite amazing to see these two men cut my leaf springs off, fabricate completely out of other springs by dismantling two brand new ones and then install leaf springs that fit my boat trailer exactly. 

They fabricated new mounting bolts and brackets all while using equipment that was powered by one of them holding two wires into an outlet when they needed power for their saws, presses and welders. 

To have been more grateful to these guys when they were finally done would not have been possible, at least outside of prison, and I was only 4 hours behind my schedule!

The moment of payment was another interesting cultural exchange.

In a country where bargaining is a mainstay I knew this was going to be a process and I really wanted to just hit the road.

When the work was all done, my trailer hooked back up and my thirst at a maximum I asked how much I owed them.

It was at this point that I got to hear how bad the economy was(I knew this) business had been very slow(clearly) he has a new baby(also evident) and times are just plain tough.
I got it.

He lit a cigarette and we talked about kids and dogs and having a cold beer at the end of the day and work and he smoked that thing about half-way down and, finally, paused.

I knew it was coming and I couldn't have been more relieved! 

He looked me straight in the eye and then told me in a questioning voice “2500 pesos”?  Clearly he was ready to bargain and the questioning in his voice told me he felt his price was high.

I did some quick math in my head and figured somewhere close to $200USD was what he was asking.

This man and his dad had just saved my bacon. They completely fabricated brand new leaf-springs for me, made new brackets and installed them and they wanted $200. I know I could have bargained them down easily.

I paused and looked around, looked in my wallet (where a mere 3000 pesos resided at the time) and handed him what he wanted with a mil gracias senores to top it off.

I knew I was running low on fuel and asked where a Pemex and an ATM was. They told me both were on the way to San Pancho so I took a leap of faith and headed south again.

Their instructions to me were to just keep going straight and I would run into both the Pemex and ATM.  As I came to a fork in the road I realized, clearly, they had no idea what they were talking about…… so, I took the fork that looked straightest (I was trying to apply logic outside of my own to this dilemma) and ended up finding both the Pemex and ATM. Their directions were impeccable.

This 4 hour detour had taken me well north of my original route so I had time to make up. It was 45 minutes later that I found the Pemex and, fortunately, and ATM right next door.

Money in hand and fuel in the tank I headed out with the knowledge that I had a lot of time to make up and not a whole lot of sunlight to do it in.

In somewhat of a bit of poetic irony, immediately after I got fuel and pesos, I went through a very long town north of San Blas and there were very professional looking shops everywhere that had signs for “meulles”. I must have passed ten leaf spring shops! 

I probably could have gotten the work done for half of what I paid previously and probably more quickly. 

I laughed out loud as I passed through the town with every mechanical service available that I might have ever needed. It occurred to me that there must be something about road conditions here that create a great need for leaf springs!

I was looking at this experience (which someday I’ll refer to as an adventure) in kind of a divine intervention way, though. 

That family was clearly in need and I filled it and I felt fine about it.

New baby, other hungry kids running around and they looked the kind of poor you can't fake.

My troubles were a perfect solution for all of us.

After that my travels were completely uneventful and I ticked off the landmarks. San Blas, the crocodile sanctuaries north of Matachen Bay, Las Varas and, then, lifting my spirits mightily, La Penita and then Lo de Marcos which meant in 10 minutes I would be entering San Pancho!

I pulled up to my house right as the sun set, let Seamus happily out of the Rodeo and proceeded to unload our belongings and get them stowed so I could pick my family up from the airport the next day.

Just like I planned……….

Rolling with it

Day 4 

(the morning)

Day 4…….. What can I say…… well, it was anything but boring!

Stressful, yes, but not boring in any fashion.

I woke up early and walked Seamus, refuse bag in hand, over to the OXXO around the corner where I bought coffee and time for Seamus to do what he needed to so he could be ready for the last day of our trip.

I happily emptied my hotel room, loaded up the car, hooked the boat back up and proceeded with all my pre-trip inspections.

As I was checking the oil I heard somebody yelling out my name telling me to “look up here”. 

The father of the family that bought me dinner the night before was leaning over the balcony of the top floor of my hotel inviting me up for breakfast and coffee!  

I would have enjoyed that thoroughly and I was warmed by the generosity and kindness of my new countrymen but I was really itching to get home so I gave them my thanks, waved goodbye and started my journey out of Mazatlán towards home.

Driving southbound out of Mazatlán was an interesting journey in and of itself. The construction on Carretera 15 forces you to take many confusing and not so obvious detours out of the city. To actually get to the Carretera again and driving in the proper direction takes a certain sense of direction coupled with faith. Accurate signage and directions for less knowledgeable drivers like myself may have been in place at one time but at the time of my journey they were not apparent.

My first trip driving southbound through Mazatlán I got lost to the point that I actually ended up northbound for quite some time before I could get properly turned around and moving south again!

That, of course, meant making another drive of discovery through the city and adding an additional hour to my day and I wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake this time!

I crossed my fingers hoping that with my sense of direction coupled with a little luck that I could remember the general directions of the twists and turns of exiting the city and headed out!

It was going to be a good day. The sun was shining, the car was running good and the boat was securely loaded and towing great.

I made a quick stop for fuel, put some Maná on the radio, cranked it up and with Seamus already drooling over my shoulder I was in fine spirits for the last leg of my journey.

I had the time to truly enjoy the change of scenery as the land around me became more and more tropical. Having grown up in the artificial greenery of Southern California driving through the tropics amazed me. It was a beautiful day and the road was clear with only infrequent toll stops to interrupt my forward progress.

With plenty of time to enjoy my drive and arrive easily in San Pancho sometime around 1 in the afternoon I couldn’t have timed this better!

I knew there was a checkpoint coming up about two hours or so south of Mazatlán and I was hoping it was just going to be a routine “donde va, donde viene” type stop. These are usually very routine stops and they just want to know where I am going and where I’ve been. Occasionally I have been asked to see my identification papers but that has been a rare occurrence. Since I had everything thing I needed to be completely legal and then some so I knew I had nothing to worry about.

The approach to this checkpoint is kind of odd.  It really appears to be in the middle of nowhere.  Clearly there must be a town nearby as there are many stands with what seem to be very attractive and nicely dressed women selling camarón seco, which is dried shrimp, at bargain basement prices. My cynical ex-firefighter side was wondering if it were really the shrimp that were for sale.

As I pulled up to this checkpoint I could see that my car and boat were generating considerable interest for the well-armed officers there.

The last time I had passed this checkpoint there had been only one officer, no official vehicles and he had somewhat lazily and indecisively waved me over for inspection. That time I slowed down, put a puzzled look on my face, smiled and waved and just kept on moving! He expressionlessly waved back and I could see him settle back into his chair while I watched him in my rear view mirror.

This time there were plenty of vehicles and personnel and they looked as if they were ready for business. They had lanes blocked and were inspecting everyone.  As two heavily armed officers approached my vehicle I waited patiently for them to ask me whatever they wanted since I was completely legal and prepared. They asked me the usual questions and also asked to see my car papers since I now had a sticker on the car clearly indicating it was a vehicle that was being imported.

Their questioning then became more and more interesting by the minute. They first asked for my ID and the officer who was taking the lead asked me if I was a police officer in the USA. I told him that no, I was a retired firefighter.

He proceeded to explain to me how much he disliked Police and especially people who worked in immigration in the USA.

He went on to explain to me that he had lived in the state of Washington for over 20 years working in the lumber industry. He had also been a volunteer firefighter, had a wife and child there and he ended up being deported some 8 months prior to our interaction for not having proper immigration status when he had the misfortune to be pulled over for a traffic infraction.

He worked on his indignation (which very well may have been justified) for quite some time while the taller of the two officers just hung back close enough to listen and watch the entire exchange. At times I could see him suppress a smile as I just kept politely nodding and offering commiseration for this story I was listening to.  For all I knew it could have been true and I felt like I had an obligation to listen with genuine interest as it was a very compelling story.

At some point he seemed to be waiting for feedback from me that was more extensive than “wow, really” or “man, that sucks” so I told him I was certain he missed his wife and child very much as did I, my family, and that I hoped he would get to see them soon.  I knew that was unlikely, though, as he had already emphatically told me that his wife not only was afraid of Mexico but did not care for it either.

 
I also told him that I really needed to get going, too, as I needed to pick my wife and kids up at the airport in Puerto Vallarta the next day.

It was at that point that he said he would really hate to make me unload my boat. At that moment we just held each other’s gaze for about what seemed like a long time but, in reality, was probably only about 15 seconds while we both sighed a bit with serious looks on our faces.

Clearly, it was show time and, clearly, I had made a mistake telling him I needed to get going!

Lordy, I was wondering how much he was going to want to gouge me for and how long it was going to take to get him to a reasonable point of agreement.  He knew I wanted to go, I had stated that clearly! Oh, the things we learn……

Well, it was my thought that the poker game was on, the cards were all drawn and now it was time to play.

At that point I told him that I, too, would hate for him to make me unload my boat (which was spectacularly loaded, by the way). Really, there was no need for it and the day was nice and I was all legal so it was completely unnecessary.

Apparently he wasn’t convinced of that as he stated a little more vociferously that he would hate for me to unload the boat! I noticed that this time he didn’t say “make” me unload the boat.

I told him I totally understood and I would also hate for that to occur and that “wasn’t it nice to be in agreement on this issue”!

I think he was missing my point because then he said, again, that he would hate for my boat to be unloaded.  Well, he clearly was not paying as close of attention to his words as I was…. I waved my Aduana importation list and receipt towards him while making sure he could see the stamp and told him everything was listed right there and he could easily read it for himself instead of doing all the hard work of unloading it and re-loading it. Since I had already unloaded it for Aduana it would, clearly, be completely unnecessary to replicate that process again.

I am not sure why but he just wasn’t following my rationale. I felt that I was being perfectly reasonable and clear but he, again, brought up unloading my boat!

Well, I had no intention of unloading my boat so I felt like that was a good time for me to tell him I, too, would hate for him to have to unload my boat as the sun was strong, the day was warm and there was no need to risk a sore back just so he could unload my boat to only realize that everything on the list from Aduana was already in there!
And then to try and put it all in the way it was would be next to impossible!

Honestly, I don’t think he had ever had an exchange like this from some middle-aged gringo driving solo with his drooling dog this far into Mexico!

It was at that point where we again held each other’s gaze for what seemed forever (probably another 15 seconds), the observing officer actually laughed out loud and we both sighed a few times.

I was timing this and I knew we had reached the staring and sighing limit so was at this point that I asked him how long he had been working. He said for days and his first day off would be that very afternoon! I smelled opportunity like Seamus smells, well, anything…. He is a Labrador, after all.

But, no sidebars!

I immediately told him he looked like he could really use a beer or two and that I couldn’t wait to have one later that day at home!

It was clear he had no idea what to say to this and he started to play his indignant role again.

I knew that if I didn’t nip this in the bud rapidly I would be having this circuitous dialog for hours….. after all, I was now in the land of manana.  And manana doesn’t mean tomorrow, it just means not today.

So, I nipped it in the bud.

Immediately I told him that as a newly retired firefighter and him being a firefighting brother, after all, and a dad that I was going to buy him a beer for when he got off work! I am a giver! I opened my wallet, pulled out 40 pesos and handed it to him, smiled and said “here, this will get you a couple of ballenas tonight”. He took the money while just staring at me so I waved, put the car in gear and said thank you, it was nice chatting, suerte con tu familia and adios!

The other officer was laughing out loud at this point while trying to distance himself rapidly from this scene and from who knows who might be taking a picture of me handing his partner money. I regret to this day that I did not video this with my phone…..

I was pulling away very slowly to see if my antagonist was going to shoot me or just stand there looking astounded.

He held the astounded look so I put some pedal to the petrol and rolled out of there while holding my breath for a little bit.

I watched him in my rear-view mirror and he stood there for a bit watching me pull away and then he walked back to his shaded chair so I figured I was solid.

I have never paid a mordida in my life nor was I about to begin. I was, though, very happy that I could slake my old firefighter brother’s thirst a bit that afternoon and it made me warm in my heart that I could do something for him.

 It’s always good to help a brother out.......