elisabeth

Thanks to your and others' recommendations, I've been 8n touch with Ron who has been wonderfully responsive.

I'm a retired academic librarian with an interest in the international retirement migration literature, would love to meet you.

Sent you a p.m. Thank you! I want to find out about the salt option too.

Thanks to all for great responses! I just love that everything was on topic and not snarky. I wish we didn't love the house and location, but we do! We've looked at everything in our price range in San Antonio or Riberas that seems remotely suitable my husband needs a painting studio) and this house it he only one that ticks all the boxes for him. So, pool or not, this is THE house if I think we can afford the pool expenses, which I didn't foresee. I checked into water aerobics costs and at most it would be about half the cost of the house's recent electric bills (I realize there's no way to separate out pool pump costs). The options I see are: wet suit while we try to get the casita and pool metered separately from the house (but the wetsuit won't affect the cost of running the pump) See if separate meter for the casita will hold costs down I think only if we can put either the pool or the laundry on the casita bill) Solar just for the pool, both heater and pump Whole house solar Again, many thanks to all. Elisabeth

We're looking at buying a house with a.pool. I've never had a pool so had.no idea what you have to do to maintain it. When I saw past electric bills I almost backed out straight away since.running the pool pump shoots the house.into high usage. Our realtor says you have to run the pump 4-5 hours per day and his bills are similar. Water aerobics has been great for my health but i pool membership would be much less. Other than installing whole house solar, are there ways to keep electric costs down? Have people had sucess metering the pool separately? I'm told.we.can ask but I can't see any reason why the electric company would agree. Any advice appreciated.

As a person with hearing loss, I am glad I read this. If you've followed the comments here, you know that many people can't afford the kind of hearing aids that will really help them, and the cheap ones just amplify sound and won't help at all while having lunch out, since the background noises will increase also and your voice won't be more distinct. Even expensive ones (like mine) don't help that much in these situations. I think it would be helpful to your friends to ask them what you can do to help them hear you better. - if you are willing to be part of the solution. I have told my husband many times that he needs to speak more distinctly, a little more slowly, and a little louder. For some reason it's hard for him to do this. He also persists in speaking to me when he's facing away and over loud background noises, without raising his voice. Five years after he first pointed out my hearing loss, he has finally realized that he uses an extra soft voice when talking to me, when he needs to use the same voice and way of speaking that he would use in a group or when making a presentation - because I can hear him fine if he does that. It can be hard to raise your voice without sounding like you're shouting, but it can be done with some practice. Your comments (and you're hardly alone or atypical) made me think about our expectations of people with different abilities. I don't expect friends in wheelchairs to meet me in places with lots of stairs - we choose places that are accessible. That's an adaptation I make to have them as friends. But with the hearing impaired, there seems to be lot of anger on both sides It's hard to talk about, but it can be done.

Thanks everyone!

Prefer better roads to twisting through the mountains with crazy drivers - advice? We live in Chapala. This question has been asked before but would.like.advice based on recent experience. Thanks.

Yes, Manix is advertising a buffet. We went at TG, fantastic!

It seems to depend on your carrier. With many cell phones, the lists of substitute area codes works, but not for us. Have put $ into a Skype account though haven't used it yet.

Oh dear, I was going to look into Too Corp because they have the only uninsured motorist coverage I know about.

Wow I haven't seen the fare on the direct Atlanta flight that liwsunce the spring. We've had to pay closer to $800. Or we could make an 18 hour trek using Frontier, which I am not willing to do. Wondering why Atlanta fare rise so much - others have gone up, but not like that!

However if you have to cancel a purchase for any reason ( like in my case an uncommunicative seller who didn't sendd didn't respond), you only get your money returned if you have a Mexican bank account. Otherwise they just apply it was credit to your net purchase.

I heard it. I think, more cohetes, earlier than usual because this is last day of the fiesta.

Tai Chi in Cristiania Park starts next Tuesday, October 10, at 1:00 in Cristiania Park. Cost is 100 pesos, payable to the teacher. The park also charges admission which I am told is under 10 pesos. Please come early and have small change for admission - we want to avoid everyone showing up at once needing change. I just set this up because I didn't want to go to Ajijic for Tai Chi. I can answer questions but will be in the US for a funeral over the weekend, and not monitoring constantly.