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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 27, 2020)
6 Wednesday, May 27, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon In the PINES By T. Lee Brown Plank Dude & the Aggro Pass One Friday morning eight years ago I gave an Aggro Pass to a stranger. <Aggro= is short for aggressive, aggra- vated4you know, being a thoughtless jerk. Little did I know that soon I would need many a pass myself, from friends, family, and strangers. My husband biked off to work that morning, turning figure-8s in the road while our toddler son waved out the window, just like every week- day. Toddlers love things that repeat in predictable patterns. He and I had a Friday rit- ual: our weekly bus ride to the diner, a journey chock full of satisfying samenesses. We9d walk down Taylor Street. He9d holler <City bus!= when it roared up to our stop. At the coin box, my son always relished the metallic sliding sound each quarter made on its way down. The servers at the diner knew our names. They knew we9d order eggs and bacon, scones and jam. My son and I would reliably fight over the packets of butter in their brassy, printed foil; he wanted to stack them up and let them melt over his hands and scones and clothes. I pre- ferred alternative activities, such as hiding the packets under a napkin and hustling them onto someone else9s table. After breakfast, we9d stroll by the apartment build- ing with all the motorcycles, and whether or not any were parked outside that day, my son would note sagely, <Motorcycle.= Eventually the bus would come and we9d head home. On that Friday we set out on our usual journey. Our smooth pattern was inter- rupted on Taylor Street, where a house was being remodeled. As we walked by, two construction workers 4 one thin, one stocky, like in an old vaudeville routine 4 stood on the porch. The big, pink-faced, bald-headed one held a substantial plank of wood about 12 feet long. The thin, pale, hippie-looking guy watched languidly on. Beefy guy paused, watch- ing us. Suddenly he chucked the giant plank toward the street just beyond us. The board crashed to the side- walk, narrowly missing me and my toddler companion. <Whoooah!= I heard the Now Open on a limited basis. CALL WITH QUESTIONS! Trevor Frideres, D . M . D . Greg Everson, D . M . D . 541-549-2011 491 E. Main Ave. • Sisters www.sistersdental.com Hours: Mon., 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tues.-Thurs., 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri., 7 a.m.-3 p.m. We’re In This Together Want to talk to or pray with someone or need a delivery or other help? Call Wendy at 541-389-6859. Need an encouraging word every day? www.sisterschurch.com Looking for a spiritual activity for kids of all ages? www.sisterschurch.com/what-we-do/ministries SISTERS COMMUNITY CHURCH Committed to serving Sisters in word and deed thin worker gasp. I also heard myself muttering, <What the %^%$##!?= over an inner hum of shock that rapidly gave way to fury. I began to turn, to march up the porch steps and confront this jerk. It would not be the first time my son had witnessed his mama confronting an enti- tled guy on the street who9d overstepped his bounds. But this situation was different from those. Plank-heaving jerk dude might be seriously off the rails, for one thing. A con- frontation could be dangerous for me and stressful for my son. For another, my adorable child9s safety was my reason for getting so steamed, and he was unharmed. And so 4 as I had done before, as many a woman has done in many a situation 4 I walked on, without saying anything. The skinny construction worker apologized after us, then hollered to his larger col- league, <Man, what is wrong with you?!= The question struck me with great resonance. What is wrong with him? Why, it could be anything. This guy9s wife could be at home dying of cancer. His dad could9ve just died. He could be kicking meth or fighting a migraine. <Just keep walking,= I told myself. <Give the guy an Aggro Pass.= An image popped into my mind: a mid- dle-school hall pass meeting a Get Out of Jail Free card from a Monopoly game. Pass holders get to cut you off in traffic now and then, or use the Express Line when they should be in the regu- lar line. Maybe even heave a plank. You don9t have to freak out about every iota of Aggro Jerkery you encoun- ter, I told myself. You get to choose when to mentally hand out passes from your internal cache. The concept cheered me. The theory wasn9t rock-solid 4 would everyone give most of their passes to the same handful of aggressive types, who would then keep acting like jerks? 4 but I appreci- ated its simplicity. I felt sorry for the guy, actually. Whatever my issues 4 and there were plenty 4 I had accomplished what he could not. I9d subdued my inner jerk-with-a-plank, at least for one morning. By the time we boarded the city bus, coins clinking, my blood had cooled. Toddlers sure love repeti- tion. They love vehicles, too: trains, buses, cars. They also love music. On the bus, we belted out a classic tune as the sights rolled by. <The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round,= we sang in a trifecta of toddler bliss, probably driv- ing the other passengers nuts. No one confronted us. Maybe in their minds, they just handed us an Annoying Kiddie Song pass and let it slide. As we continue on to the diner, will our Friday routine be interrupted? Perhaps by something greater than The Plank Incident? Tune in next week for more. Year-round FIREWOOD SALES — Kindling — — — SISTERS FOREST PRODUCTS 541-410-4509 SistersForestProducts.com Serving Sisters Since 1976 Formerly Bigfoot Wellness YOUR HEALTH & WELLNESS ARE UP TO YOU. STA R T H E R E www.blackbutte chiropractic.com 541-389-9183 392 E. Main Ave., Sisters g on n i o g t e g Need to jects? 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