Lovely meets ugly

From mid-October to May or so, evenings in the Imperial Valley often are magnificent. The day’s warmth slides into a balmy atmospheric bath while the sun sets in purple and orange smears in the western sky.

Those stunning Valley sunsets mostly had escaped me in recent years. I’d allowed myself to get lured into watching the evening argument shows on CNN, MSNBC and Faux News.

Then, two months ago, we got a puppy who needed daily vigorous exercise. Early evenings, at least during this cooler part of the year, turned out to be the ideal time to go to the nearby dog park. We could let him exhaust himself by playing with other dogs so he, and we, could sleep, at night.

So almost every evening we have been taking the jaunt of several blocks to Woof Town, the city of Imperial’s wonderful dog park. A problem has surfaced, though. As we’ve tried to cross at Morning Glory Trail’s intersection with hectic Aten Road, some drivers have let us know about their unhappiness, even fury, at a man and his uncommonly adorable puppy trying to cross the street.

This despite the fact that it’s a four-way stop at that corner with clearly defined crosswalks. This despite the fact that I make sure to not begin to cross until the drivers have come to a complete stop at the stop sign.

Drivers have honked at us, made obscene gestures at us, even bluffed that they’re going to hit us with their cars. And I am not a slow walker, particularly not when being dragged by a rapidly growing puppy.

As we crossed a residential side street nearer the dog park last week, a woman in an SUV, in Valley Spanglish perfection, “Get out of the f-ing street, (stupid),” as she took a quick, violent right onto the street which we had already started crossing … except the woman didn’t exactly say “f-ing.” Her daughter, who appeared to be about 11, looked at me sheepishly as mom sped off.

I realize this problem is partly my fault. We’re crossing streets at an hour when many people are trying to get home to make dinner, to eat dinner, to see their kids, to watch their favorite shows, to nap on their favorite couches.

I also realize, after all my years in the Valley, that many people here think almost exclusively of themselves and their circles of loved ones and don’t give a rip about some old dude crossing the street with his puppy.

These are the same folks who will sit in with their cars running for up to five minutes to get that slightly closer parking spot at Costco, not caring in the least that they’re backing up traffic in the parking lot all the way into the street.

Despite the treacherous crossing, once we reach the dog park, it’s all fun. Our puppy wrestles with and chases other dogs, and the dog lovers in the park talk to each other about many things, but mostly about their beloved canine companions. Then, after about an hour of fun, we head home.

It’s later in the evening as we do, but many drivers are no more patient. The evening before I wrote this column, we were crossing Aten at Morning Glory and the westbound drivers politely stopped for us.

As we reached the halfway point of the intersection, a young eastbound male driver gunned his car into the intersection and missed me by about four feet.

He missed the puppy by about three feet.

Sadly enough, I wasn’t surprised. As is so often the situation in the Imperial Valley, it was another case of the lovely clashing with the ugly.

Bret Kofford teaches writing at San Diego State University-Imperial Valley campus. His opinions don’t necessarily reflect those of SDSU or its employees. Kofford can be reached at Kofford@roadrunner.com