I'd thought I was done until a company picnic served super-frozen icecream cones and a perfectly good false tooth--a bridge anchored in a natural root with a post--gave way under pressure. So now I have to have it replaced with an implant which will be more bulletproof, so to speak. I tried one of those coyote buses once, promised to take you right over the border in comfort for $5 a head. They got stuck in the border traffic like everyone else, and I eventually bailed out and crossed on foot.

The thing that chaps me is that they don't have a separate line for US Citizens. It doesn't matter what kind of id you have, unless you qualify for and buy a SENTRI card--they get a separate faster line, but it is only worth it if you cross frequently.   

There was once a certain feeling of freedom about being able to traipse into Mexico and come back again, but the channels have become so unwieldy and constrained it seems more like a mild prison sentence.