Saturday morning. Almost live. "Border-ness."

Ahhh.....Saturday morning. Coffee on the patio...
Minutiae, courtesy of cell-phone photo:



(think of it as an 'ad,' trying to convince our friends to come visit Tucson in January/February, rather than just a gratuitous use of cell-phone-camera capabilities...Venez nous voir! Vengan!)
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My wife works, several Fridays a month, at the hospital down in Nogales, on the border.
The border-ness of it gets reconfirmed each time, in little ways.

For example,
well, first of all--my wife speaks in Spanish to almost all of the patients.
Even the Chinese nurse speaks Spanish.
Virgen de Guadalupe images abound. (It's a Catholic Hospital.)
Ladies come around to sell home-made tortillas, and even 'sheescake.'
A co-worker has told her about acquaintances and family-of-friends who have been victim to the increasing drug-cartel-related violence on the Mexican side.
The older female patients call my wife, not 'Miss' or even 'Señorita,' but rather "mija." ('mija' is a shortened form of 'mi hija,' Spanish for 'my daughter.')

And that's it for this Saturday morning, typing here--the first time I've sat
on the patio with the laptop...