Drove to work for the first time last week. Was surprised to see what appeared to be the whole police force standing at major intersections. To expedite morning and afternoon/evening rush hour, each busy intersection gets one cop, who waves traffic on even when the light is red, if it makes sense. Where the U.S. uses computers to reset and reroute rush-hour traffic, Juarez does it by hand -- ha ha ha.

Though temperatures at night are still deceptively cool, it is getting hot during the day. In a parking lot yesterday afternoon, our car's computer said that the outside temperature was 100 degrees F. Strangely, it seemed cooler than the day last week that the computer read 95 degrees.

In fact, the temperature in our house -- I should say temperatureS -- are weird. Our house boasts three temperatures: one downstairs, another upstairs, and yet a third in the master bedroom. It isn't a good thing. The fact that the downstairs has a tiled floor and is mostly blocked from the sun by the 15-foot wall means that it feels 5 to 10 degrees cooler than upstairs. And requires you to wear a sweater and socks. The master bedroom, because it faces south and west, feels 5 to 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the upstairs. And requires you to take off your sweater if you're coming from downstairs.

The biggest problem is when we turn on the air conditioning at night to cool off the bedroom before going to sleep. (our landlord was too cheap to put in dual-thermostat system) You freeze downstairs while waiting for the bedroom to cool off upstairs.

The dry air in the area also means that your daytime driving outfit (t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops) is way too skimpy once the sun goes down, even if the daytime high was in the upper 80s, as it was yesterday. You need a sweater, too, to sit outside at night. Not that anyone in Juarez does, though. That would require rubbing off the day's dust, a chore few people want to do at least twice every day...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Summer is upon us, and we're having trouble grilling outdoors. For 2 weeks after we set up our electric grill, we waited a long time each time -- and in vain -- for it to get hot enough. We didn't seem to have enough power in the outlet outside to cook our steaks. The last 2 weeks, however, the grill is getting too hot and is burning the meat.

Whether the steak is cooked correctly or not, we couldn't eat it outside anyway. The weather might be great, but it's way too dusty. You might not mind wiping down your porch table each time you want to sit outside, but forget about keeping the chairs clean. As of right now, we don't even have room to store chairs anywhere else. (inside is too small; garage is open on 2 sides) All our American friends here agree that many porches here are a waste...

p.s. The local ice cream plays the song, "Home of the Brave," as it rides around the neighborhood. Even harder to understand is why the song makes some dogs nearby howl...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

MSN Money yesterday reported that Juarez is "the largest center for maquila production" in Mexico, and the second-largest in the world. Let's hope that it all doesn't blow away. Yesterday's big wind storm continues today, at speeds of 50 m.p.h. When you live next to a junkyard and drive an SUV, however, it seems worse than that. This is going to be one of those stay-home-if-you-can days.

The wind has brought more trash into the yard than usual. This morning, in addition to the usual candy wrappers from neighborhood kids, we have a styrofoam tray that used to hold meat, wrapping paper, and tape. In El Paso, realtors are having trouble selling new houses because the porches keep filling up with tumbleweeds and the yards with debris.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Though the vast majority of Mexicans consider themselves Catholic, the long Easter weekend isn't a religious time. Rather, Mexicans head for the beach, Disney World, anywhere out of town. Or out of the house: driving along the main park Easter Sunday afternoon, I saw what looked like half of Juarez picnicking. Even though the park was packed. Even though some people had to take spots on the busy road. I guess that two national holidays -- Holy Thursday and Holy Friday -- are too tempting to spend at home.

One strange thing about Easter here, though: kids were out of school the week before, the week after, and there are still some playing in the neighborhood during the weekday...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/