2004-03-02-1938Z


I've actually gotten over $10 in contributions, plus an exercise suit, from people over the last few days. I don't mean I was panhandling, either! People just walk up to me and hand me money. It happened yesterday evening as I was sitting across the street from the Deming McDonald's, where on the median I found a large prickly pear plant, and was cleaning the thorns off one of the lobes. A guy and his wife, probably Mexican-American, parked a few feet away; the guy got out, I assumed to check out the restaurant behind me, and then came up to me and handed me a $5 bill! I shook my head, and he said "aren't you hungry?", I answered "no, I've got this", and lifted the nopal node so he could see it. He shook his head and put the $5 in my hand. I asked "are you sure?", and he said yes. So there you go. The other experiences were similar. People in Deming are nice. The ones that aren't, obviously, become criminals or cops.

To be concise - something I'm not very good at, I know - my buyer paid me; he had had some problem with tying PayPal to his bank account - I finished up my business there, left my bike locked to a lightpole at Wal-Mart (don't really expect it to still be there when I get back, but there's a chance), and caught the 6PM bus to LA, $45 from El Paso (or Deming) to their terminal at 6th and Wall in Los Angeles. Just down the block is the Azteca de Oro line, which took me into San Ysidro in around 3 hours for $13, so I was in Tijuana by 9-something. Caught the taxi on Madero to Rosarito Beach for $1.10, and here I am in the internet cafe for a grand total of $59.10. Bought a Cuban cigar in Tijuana to celebrate the experience in NM and the fact that it was over for now and I was back in a warmer clime. Nasty shit, paid $10 for it. Something I had to do. Now to find you-know-who.

Back to blog or home page

last updated 2013-01-10 20:15:06. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com