|
Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
Up Close and Personal
By Clint Hyde
America’s favorite caustic on 60 Minutes every Sunday evening, Andy Rooney, denies he ever enunciated this question on TV, but he does make you wonder why things are the way they are. He can question the value of self-help books, the simple umbrella, electronic gadgets; nothing is safe. I kept one of his books in my car for a while for those times when I got stuck on the freeway during some lockdown for an accident ahead. It was very entertaining and made waiting for the traffic to clear much easier. Rooney loves to take on design and muses often that “we are making things look better than they really are.” Life in Mammoth is full of wonder as well. A lot of things cause me to shake my head in wonder.
I wondered recently why people panicked at the storm warnings and ran to Vons to wrestle with other locals for supplies they thought they needed. I had plenty of beer and wine in the house, so why would I rush through the snow for more? Of course, I am not much for emergency preparedness. Remember the Y2K non-event? My plan was to wait until all the power went out. There were warnings that all the computers at the power plants would lock up and we would be in the dark for ages? I figured the Safeway three blocks from my house would be giving away all the frozen meat and fish that was thawing out. I had plenty of gas in my grill so I planned to barbecue it all up and overeat in the beginning of the projected famine. Whatever I couldn’t eat immediately I was going to stick in the snow in my back yard. I was a little disappointed it never happened.
Did you ever wonder why people, who can drive 45,000 miles a year, spending months on the freeway system in Southern California without an accident, can’t seem to imagine that our streets with snow and ice on them will be slick? I have an old Jeep that I can throw in and out of four-wheel drive “on the fly.” If I am driving six miles an hour or 60, it is just a pull of a lever next to my gear shift. Late December I came up to the stoplight at Main and Minaret and found myself stuck behind a pickup truck that was wiggling back and forth, but not moving forward. It was an older model, the kind with the hub switches for four-wheel drive. The driver must have started out the same time I did and it was snowing hard. We got more than two feet of fresh that day. He had to get out of the cab into the weather at a slick intersection since he forgot what mode he was in when he first got into the vehicle that morning. With no extra weight in the back and snow falling hard, I would have put the truck in all-wheel drive before I started the motor. Maybe he was a local, which makes you wonder even more what he was thinking.
Did you ever wonder why the coyotes around here don’t hibernate like the bears? Some really large ones make the rounds to the dumpsters in my neighborhood every day. They must get something on the long weekends, but it is a little cheeky of them to walk all around the building and up the street. Last year I even saw one running across Coyote Run, which drops down from McCoy Station. Maybe they find something to eat around there.
Did you ever wonder why you can’t find things like your car keys, the combination to your locker, or the cell phone you just laid on the table for a second? Or do you have trouble figuring out your taxes, finding time to relax or even to enjoy some loving time with your best friend? I wonder if it isn’t the altitude. I am willing to bet that studies would show we are moving through a fog as if we were extremely tired or even intoxicated. You have probably read about the inattentiveness of drivers who are on the phone or very tired and how that is the equivalent of being drunk. Of course, there are some among us who insist on doing all three while driving in Mammoth at 2 a.m. That’s a guaranteed overnight stay in Bridgeport. I wonder how cold it is in the winter in the county jail? It can’t be real nice even though a newer one was built since our Mono County courthouse was built there in the 1880s. I am not so curious that I am going to try the deadly three activities at 8,000 feet.
Did you ever wonder why some of our visitors will pay a lot of money to spend time in Mammoth and buy a lift ticket, only to sit around on the good snow? I am so happy I can go out on the slower days and not experience this break down. I wish they would sit on the side of the run where the snow may not be so inviting. Do they learn to do that from their instructors? I have not run into anyone yet, but I have come close to taking out someone’s kidney.
Did you ever wonder why some of our older Town Council members don’t remember the economic swings of our town and how that affects the budget? While business owners were meeting with them to explain how a slowdown in visitation, collection of TOT and DIF would ultimately cause the town to be short of funds, our council members were consulting “staff.” The big head of development called around to find someone who could predict some economic model, but every time he was directed to someone who has an economics degree and experience, he blew her off as “just a realtor.” Some people are their own worst enemy. How do they get their job, if they don’t even know how to gather free advice?
Did you ever wonder why?
Clint Hyde left home at an early age and lived in Europe before traveling the rest of the world, working in international marketing. He moved to Mammoth in 2002 to pursue mountain biking, snowboarding, backcountry and cross-country skiing, hiking and backpacking. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent policies and opinions of the staff or owners of the Mammoth Times. Reader response is encouraged.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 08 February 2008 )
|
