Denny and I ran over to Los Algodones in Mexico today. It's just a few miles west and south of Yuma and you can park on the US side and walk across the border for a quick shopping trip. I was shopping for a specific purse I had seen last year and passed on, but this year only one shop had them and they were twice as high as last year. So we wandered the stalls and finally ducked into a liquor store to search for Triple Sec and Cream of Coconut to make Chi-chis, a drink we were introduced to on a cruise around Hawai'i several years ago. Major yum. We discovered 16 ounce bottles of pure vanilla for $1.31 and prices on tequila were terrific. We just didn't bring a lot of cash because we're kind of cautious that way so we'll have to come back sometime and take advantage of good prices. We did buy some fresh asparagus from a vendor and indulged in pescados and camarone (fish and shrimp) tacos for lunch. Mmmm. Returning to the border we discovered a long line of about 150 people waiting to cross back into the US. The day was pleasant so the wait wasn't bad until we got to the corner and made the turn towards the border patrol station. There was a second lane on the sidewalk at the turn for handicapped people to line up and as Denny and I arrived at the corner a lady wearing an oxygen tank walked up the handicapped lane with her husband and attempted to merge into our line. That's when we heard the Ugly American woman ahead of us begin to harangue the lady with the oxygen tank for using the handicapped lane when she wasn't handicapped. There was a lot of back and forth conversation that I won't repeat, but the U.A. claimed that she had had a heart attack yet would never have thought to use the handicapped lane and that as long as the lady with the oxygen tank could walk she had no business using the handicapped lane either. Arrrggghhh. I was so tempted to ask the woman if the doctors removed her heart after her heart attack but I figured it would go over her head. In the end the U.A. pushed back in front of the woman with the oxygen tank so she was happy again. So she got through the border crossing 15 seconds in front of the other lady. Good for her.
Denny and I are fortunate to enjoy excellent health and we no longer are in a hurry to get anywhere because we have all the time in the world. If a handicapped person wanted to get in line in front of us, well, more power to them. They have a much harder road than we have and I hope that if something would happen to Denny or I that someone would be kind enough to allow us to merge ahead of the line. It was a matter of seconds, not minutes or hours.
Don't we all have the time, really?
1 comment:
My dad was on home oxygen for the last 10 years of his life. The thought of this woman not recognizing this as a handicap has me shuddering.
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