..::uncle sam and a mexican cow ::..

I finished figuring up my taxes today, and just as I feared, I have to fork out more money to old uncle Sam again this year. It seems as though he robs me blind every two weeks throughout the year dipping his grubby little hands into my paycheck before I ever even see it, but apparently ol' Sam still doesn't think he has gotten his fair share, and wants me to send him more money still.

It is depressing, however, last October I promised myself that I would no longer get too worked up over our "high taxes" here in the good ol' US of A. You see last Oct. I had the opportunity to go down to LaPaz Mexico in Baja California Sur to do some deep sea fishing with my boss, who owns a condo on the beach down there. The trip was amazing, and the resort and marina where my boss lives is beautiful, but the public highway between Cabo (where my plane landed) and LaPaz, (where my boss' condo is located), was a complete NIGHTMARE!

This major highway was nothing more than a tiny, two-lane, pothole-ridden, little roll-a-coaster track through a free-range cattle field where 500+ pound cattle would wander out onto the road without warning and whenever they pleased. Along the way I passed several construction zones which my boss later told me had been "under construction for as long as he had had his vacation condo down there which has been several years now.

The three hour drive from Cabo to LaPaz was the scariest part of the entire trip. There were spots where road work was being done where the construction crew didn't have any signs posted in English or Spanish and the road would transition from two-lane to one-way in an instant and you would have no idea until you found yourself playing a game of automotive-chicken with some beat-up old truck being driven by a angry little Mexican dude with his middle finger in the air.

Another 'memorable spot' was an over-pass style bridge that was being built, but was not yet connected in the middle- picture the climactic scene in the movie "Speed" where Keanu and Sandra Bullick jump the missing space on the freeway over pass with their 50 foot buss - that's kind of what this unfinished bridge was like, on a slightly smaller scale. The bad part was, all that marked this crater of death was one tiny - almost invisible little sign written in Spanish telling you to turn off the road onto a little dirt detour - that was it! No no flashing lights... no bold-letter 'Caution-Sign' warning you that if you keep going straight you will plunge 50 feet to your inevitable death... just one tiny little detour sign in neutral monotone colors telling you to exit onto a dirt road. Miss that and it's 'Sayonara' for good.

Fortunately by the grace of God I did see the puny little detour sign and didn't have to pull out my Keanu stunt-moves. And thank God - all free range Mexican cattle must have been too busy chewing their cud that day to wander out onto the highway in front of my car, (although I saw several that looked as if they had done just that at some point earlier in the day).

But anyway, to make a long story short, my Mexico experience gave me a new appreciation for our "tax dollars at work" here in the good ol' USA and I promised myself that I would not be so quick to anger toward old uncle Sam in the future.