Lost another round of jalapenos to the dogs. We've been growing them in pots on the back patio. Since when do dogs eat hot peppers?!

There's a great Mexican saying about the importance of peppers: "Without chile, food tastes of nothing." They also say that about lime here.

How can we cook like real Mexicans if the dogs pop the jalapenos as fast as they grow?

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

I didn't know that illegal immigrants die crossing desert near here:

"Immigrant dies while crossing desert

Associated Press

Article Launched: 06/22/2007 05:21:49 AM MDT

DEMING, N.M. - A 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico died while trying to cross the southern New Mexico desert, Border Patrol agents say.

Agents recovered the body of Ismael Serrano-Mendez of Leon, Guanajuato on Wednesday. It appeared that he succumbed to heat exhaustion, but an autopsy will be done by the state Office of the Medical Investigator to determine the cause of death.

Seventeen illegal immigrants have died since Oct. 1 in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector, which includes parts of Texas and all of New Mexico, said sector spokesman Patrick Berry. Six of those deaths occurred in the Deming area, he said.

The latest victim was traveling with two other men when he died, Berry said. The two men were picked up but they didn't immediately tell the agents about Serrano-Mendez. One later told an agent, Berry said.

---

Information from: Albuquerque Journal, www.abqjournal.co

I shouldn't be surprised, though. In the 1.5 hours it takes to drive from the nearest city in New Mexico to Deming, you pass little human habitation and not a single tree.

Another U.S. article about dental tourism in Juarez:

From washingtonpost.com
"Discount Dentistry, South of The Border"
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Judy Salvador, a retired American Airlines ticket agent, recently typed two words into Google's search engine: "cheap dentists."
To view the entire article, go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061701297.html?referrer=emailarticle
© 2002 - 2006 The Washington Post Company

I have learned one thing about dentists here: if you go to one locateed on a dirt road, you get what you pay for ...
© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Now I know another reason why it's so hard to grow food in a desert: wiiiiiiiiiiiiind. We had gusts up to 50 or 60 (again) the other day.

We've had three 100-degree days so far, and yesterday it hit 102. K's car said it was 111 in his parking lot at work at 5:30 pm.

So far, because the humidity remains very low, it's pretty easy to handle. You can't go hiking unless you leave extremely early (to allow for 1 hour to cross the border), though, and it's best not to run errands in the afternoon. Up to 95 degrees is easy, but your face turns bright red from the heat when it's 100 and over. Only 3-4 more months of summer to go!

I actually spent 5 or 6 hours in bed the first weekend of June from not drinking enough water. I ran errands in the car Friday and Saturday afternoon. I think it was 95 one day and higher the next. Since then, I don't drive anywhere without a can of water in the cupholder.

On the plus side, the dogs are a lot quieter during the day these days...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Ooh, we had a big wind and rain storm last night. Mucho flooding. So what happens when certain neighborhoods get too much precipitation? The water goes out in the houses, of course!

Traffic jams in some parts of the city were biblical this morning. Driving to work, I came across a puddle that was more than 5 lanes wide. It covered an entire intersection. At a 4.5-lane-wider, a bus driving by threw water high enough to cover a small car.

Hail-damaged cars are still on sale at dealerships in El Paso from the last hailstorm. Some colonias got a little more last night, too.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Our Spanish teacher told us that the border agents who are meanest towards non-Americans entering the country are Hispanic Americans. Go figure.

He said that when he crests the top of a bridge leading to a multiple-lane "port" of entry, and sees what agent is working his lane, he's relieved if it's someone Caucasian. Otherwise, he cusses.

He pretends that he doesn't speak English well when he gets a Hispanic agent, though he speaks it very well, and listens to what they say about him. He's been called a monkey, and worse.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

If children are Mexico's greatest treasure, why do no Mexican parents supervise their kids -- riding their bikes on the road, playing with sticks, climbing on the playground equipment -- while they're running around our compound?

Here's something else they should be looking out for: peeing! A notice went out to all the compound families, which said that kids both large and small had been observed peeing in the park: in the grass and in the sandbox. The letter urged parents to watch their kids, as "we do not want to have to send pictures [of the perpetrators] with this kind of communication." (i.e. a community-wide bulletin)

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Uh, oh -- it was still 90 degrees at 9 o'clock tonight. I think summer has arrived....

Last night, a family in our compound hired a four-man mariachi band to play for a dinner party of theirs. A party of 10 people.

Sometimes I think we might be on the poor end of the compound families, and not just because we don't dust our car regularly. But now I know.

But here's something low-rent that some neighbors here do and we don't: let their dogs bark on and on. We live next to a super-wealthy family that has a large Labrador. They never take it out of their tiny yard to run and play with other dogs, so sometimes it barks and barks when it's outside. She's probably begging other dogs to come and spring her from prison. The neighbors say they never expected her to grow so big. Whatever.

When their dog gets to barking next door, it sets ours off. As does the outdoor toy poodle at #13 and the 3 outdoor dogs across the park. Imagine how fun it must be for 3 dogs to live in a yard that's about 7' by 40' -- they never ever go out either -- and you can guess how much they bark. Off and on all day and night. I was up at 3 a.m. once, and that gang of 3 were yelling away. How the neighbors on either side of them can stand it, I can't figure out.

So when these 5 dogs go to DEFCON 5, we can't get ours to shut up. Sadly, this now goes on in our house day and night. Hope we get to move on before it's too late.

You can't blame the dogs, though. The ones in our neighborhood must be bored and lonely. The 3 across the park from us live surrounded by a 2-story townhouse, a 20' wall and a 15' wall, and only have a 3' view on the world, through an iron fence. The two that can see over the bottom of the fence have a view of the world, that is. The shortest one can see nada.

Some of the owners in the neighborhood around the corner, the one that has a big park along one end, just let their dogs loose. That park is nice, but has broken glass in it and the area is more urban than suburban. And the owners don't supervise their dogs. So what's to prevent those dogs from being hit by cars, stepping on glass, getting bit or pregnant by others (because few spay and neuter here) running loose? Nada.

There is a pair of Great Danes in a house in that neighborhood. When they come out, (to leave giant poops in the park, of course) you can see they have sores on their elbows and knees, as if they live on concrete or tile most of the time. When a new batch of big, loose males came over to investigate our females one day, we stopped taking them around the corner for exercise. It was always depressing, anyway.

Now we drive 30 minutes each way once a week to a big park in El Paso, where there is no broken glass but no longer any dog runs, either. We can only speed-walk them there on the leash. No more off-leash freedom. They're both getting a little fat from the Juarez lifestyle.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/