The Rule of 3's



The Three-Dog Minimum: Soon after we settled in Tucson, I started to notice the frequency in which things appeared in 3's.  I'd be driving around our neighborhood streets or any street for that matter and see someone walking a dog.  What was amazing is no one ever seemed to be walking just one dog.  It was always three dogs!  Not three dogs that all belonged to the same breed, but three totally different dogs.  It might be a Pit Bull, a Chihuahua, and a Dachshund.  The three dogs are always these outrageous combinations of large, small, long-haired and short haired.  You might see someone walking a Greyhound or Doberman along with a Beagle and a Husky. Great Danes are very popular, too.  You will see lots of mixed breed dogs, too.  No matter what the socioeconomic strata, everyone abides by the three-dog minimum in Tucson.

I ask people why they have three dogs, and they may tell me that they used to have five, but one died and the other one went back to live with one of their kids.  People in Tucson do a lot of dog rescue, and horse rescue, too.  A Tucson evening T.V. news broadcast is not complete without a story about some knucklehead living out in the desert and keeping 10, 20, 30 or more dogs or other animals found to be starved and abused.  The next day, the follow-up broadcast will inform you that all the animals have found new homes.  Amazing!  In New Jersey, the animal shelters have to do all sorts of marketing and promotions to get people to adopt their backlog of orphaned pets. 

I also began to notice that for every chiropractor's office I see, there are three veterinarian practices nearby.  I don't know if there is some sort of cause or an affect going on here. 

Three-hub cap cars: Whenever I pull up to a traffic light at an intersection, I start counting how many cars traveling through that intersection are cruising around town with a missing hub cap or two.  No matter the age or condition of the vehicle, I find there is an unusually high number of them sporting fewer than the standard four.  The Tucson standard seems to be three hub cabs.  I haven't been able to figure out why, but I have my suspicions. It could be the fact that Tucson still has a lot of dirt roads and long private driveways that are unpaved and potholed.  You hit a bump and off goes a hub cap.  Who would be stupid enough to stop and go searching in the desert cacti to recover their hub cap?  What's the point of buying a new or used one to match the other three?  You will only lose another one very shortly.  Maybe there is a rash of hub cap thefts in this town.  It could be the car gets parked downtown in a not so secure and family-friendly neighborhood on a regular basis. Could it be an artistic affectation to sport only three hub caps?

The Three-job minimum:  Tucson is a city of just over 1 million people, but doesn't have the kind of businesses or industries you might expect in a city of that size. The highest-paying jobs are found 100 miles north in Phoenix.  In Tucson, your best choices are Raytheon Missile Systems, the University of Arizona, and the Government - city or county.

Tucson is a mecca for retirees, aging hippies and assorted artist-wannabes.  Healthcare, education, hotel and restaurant services are the other job options.  Real estate sales and it's associated legal services, banking and construction were big until the economy tanked.  Many people work three part-time jobs for the equivalent of a 40-hour work week.  Jim or I would ask the most obvious question; why not focus on one full-time job that you can do really well rather than running all over town working three poorly paid jobs. The answer is always the same: "I prefer to work part-time because I like my freedom."  What freedom is there in working a crazy schedule of part-time jobs with no benefits, and driving all over town to get to and from each one?  It's a lifestyle is all we can figure out.


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