Live and Learn
Mordida in the morning, this would be lesson #3, welcome to your new home.
Now, it's a fairly common occurrence for newbees to have the "bite" put on them by the local traffic cops, sort of an initiation to your new home sort of thing. But I went early. I had crossed though customs, paid my tax, wasn't 2 miles over the border and was so excited I got all that done that when a guy said he'd "help me" to the car permit place I said sure, hop in. So, he actually did help as it was further than I expected with some twists and turns. But, only a few block out of the shut and two traffic cops on foot wave us down and they don't speak English and you know the rest, so they're yammering at the guy and I waiting for a translation which was: "they're giving me a ticket because he didn't have his seat belt on". So, there's lots of conversation and of course they never reached for their ticket books and the guy saw me reach in my pocket and the cop gracefully stepped away from my window long enough for me to say $10? - to which the guy said yes. So, I had it folded in my hand where the cop could see it and of course he looked directly at my hand and we transacted retribution for my heinous crime, basically, I bought them breakfast and we moved on down the line.
When I had to go back to Laredo to get a temp registration and then retrace the same route I DIDN"T need a helper, I knew the way - and it was cheaper the second time around.
More tomorrow, but this afternoon I caught myself yawning and realized it was the relaxation after the adrenaline flow of these past days, I can actually take a chance and semi relax for a moment.
Now, it's a fairly common occurrence for newbees to have the "bite" put on them by the local traffic cops, sort of an initiation to your new home sort of thing. But I went early. I had crossed though customs, paid my tax, wasn't 2 miles over the border and was so excited I got all that done that when a guy said he'd "help me" to the car permit place I said sure, hop in. So, he actually did help as it was further than I expected with some twists and turns. But, only a few block out of the shut and two traffic cops on foot wave us down and they don't speak English and you know the rest, so they're yammering at the guy and I waiting for a translation which was: "they're giving me a ticket because he didn't have his seat belt on". So, there's lots of conversation and of course they never reached for their ticket books and the guy saw me reach in my pocket and the cop gracefully stepped away from my window long enough for me to say $10? - to which the guy said yes. So, I had it folded in my hand where the cop could see it and of course he looked directly at my hand and we transacted retribution for my heinous crime, basically, I bought them breakfast and we moved on down the line.
When I had to go back to Laredo to get a temp registration and then retrace the same route I DIDN"T need a helper, I knew the way - and it was cheaper the second time around.
More tomorrow, but this afternoon I caught myself yawning and realized it was the relaxation after the adrenaline flow of these past days, I can actually take a chance and semi relax for a moment.
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