People in Bien Hoa will meticulously correct my Vietnamese, no matter how subtle or insignificant the correction seems to me. But folks won't say a word -- in fact they'll look away -- when someone rides their motorbike or car insanely fast down our very narrow street where small children often play. These idiots -- men, women and teens -- will lay on their horns, and ride dangerously close to children or other pedestrians as they go on their merry way. I've almost been hit three or four times by the bass-moles, and I've had enough. Some clown came down our street last week easily exceeding 100 kilometers an hour, so I stepped into his path and politely suggested with my hand he slow down. He didn't slow down, even though I gave him a 100-yard warning space. He swerved around me and almost hit a parked car. I screamed at the clown as he raced away. Good news is that I haven't seen that guy on our street again. And other folks have been taking it easier since the White Monkey started beating his chest and flashing his bright red buttocks at speeding motorists. The bad news: All the neighbors want to do is laugh at me for screaming at the idiots, then look away and not say a word. I wonder if they'll act that way when someone in their family is run over and killed or maimed by one of these clowns. I've been told these guys may be gangsters and I shouldn't confront them. When it comes to my wife and children, I'll confront Mike Tyson or El Chapo and worry about the consequences later. That's the blessing and the curse of having a bad temper. I hope my daughter Joanna doesn't inherit this trait, although she seems pretty strong-headed at times.
Tet holiday lasted a whole week, which meant 90 percent of the businesses here were closed for the whole week, and traffic was considerably lighter. So it was safer to go somewhere, but there was nowhere to go. Even supermarkets and pharmacies were closed for much of the week. Only massage parlors and most of the coffee shops opened the day after Tet. Since a lot of people aren't working around the Tet holiday, you'd think businesses would open and rake in money. In the days leading up to Tet, there's a run on cash at the ATMs. The lines and line cutting at the ATMs were outrageous. Maybe the folks were snapping up cash for "lucky money", which is something like Christmas cards with cash inside. Everybody loves money, whether it's lucky or not. (The ATMs rejected my card until after Tet.) I asked my wife why businesses and restaurants don't stay open around Tet, and she basically said that all the workers go on holiday, so there's no one available to do the work. That wouldn't fly in the U.S., but neither would Muslims if Trump has his way. But I digress. In the U.S. when I was a young boy a long time ago, almost everything was closed on Sundays and major holidays. Sometimes it was a big inconvenience, but you knew that's how it was. It almost forced families to spend time together. Maybe that's a good thing. Families are super important in Peru. They're super important in Vietnam. In the U.S., of course families are important but it just doesn't feel the same as in countries overseas ... in my opinion.
There was a double homicide in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in January, relatively close to my house there. Sadly, I knew one of the victims, Skip Brown. He was a wonderful guy. I didn't know him really well, but we were Facebook friends and sometimes we would have a few beers together with a very good friend of mine when I returned for my yearly visits. I wish I knew him better because he always had a smile and kind words when I saw him, and he always "liked" my Facebook photos of family and students. Skip always joked about my dad, who lived to be 98. Skip would say I was the guy with the 150-year-old father. Skip had a positive energy that's becoming more rare these days. He'll be missed.
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