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kimanjome

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Everything posted by kimanjome

  1. Debate here in our household. Can a friend visiting me on a Tourist Visa drive my Mexican plated car? I know in the US my British friends could drive my US car. We were told some years ago by a Real Estate agent that if our car is plated Mexico only we registered, insured members--myself and my spouse--can drive the vehicle. No friends, no Mexicans, no visitors from other countries on Tourist visas.
  2. SAT report: starting 10 days ago my down speeds have increased from (barely) 1 Mbs up to 9 or 10, and last night, 21 Mbs!!! Uploads have also increased substantially, from an average of .08 (yes, that is correct) to anywhere between 3 and 7 Mbs. I am on the Telmex $389 plan and these speeds are comparable to what I was getting in upscale Sarasota, Florida on Verizon FiOS for lots more money. There is a recent study Uni of Georgia I believe, 390,000 homes, that showed although customers were promised and paying for 25 or 50 Mbs they were only averaging about 10. Some loophole law in the US allows for promising higher speeds than actually delivered. I would love higher speeds but what I have now is perfectly acceptable.
  3. What I don't understand is why this particular issue remains ongoing in this part of Mexico. In other places where there is a large expat population, or one of middle-class Mexicans, the new noise ordinances are being enforced. What is it about Chapala municipality that makes it so hard for the officials (and some of the public) to understand the rationale behind implementing reasonable noise limits? Even the local Mexicans with whom I speak don't like the excessively loud noise. Why does law enforcement prefer to side with the minority making all the ruckus? Personally, I have given up. I've installed solar panels for cheaper electricity, mini split a/c units to ensure decent sleep, internal shutters over windows and doors to buffer the sound, as needed. Come to think of it, pretty much the same way of life I had in the US, insulated away from the disturbances of the outside world.
  4. Absolutely! We travel to Africa frequently and it is amazing how many Chinese corporations are creating / subsidizing / implementing businesses that are China-owned. The Chinese are also buying huge swaths of land. Chinese university students are being groomed to look forward to the future....in Africa. I am speechless about how much of this is going on and in the meantime we in the US are distracted with petty matters. As much as I dislike a certain US president at the moment, he made an excellent point about our US military maintaining safety in the Strait of Hormuz, for the benefits of the Chinese oil-tankers. When we were kids back in the 1960's I remember my parents re-using the big, brown paper grocery bags for trash. We would put one in the kitchen garbage bin and when it was full we would take it outside to the metal trash can. Of course we had to be careful about putting "wet stuff" in the brown paper bag.
  5. Just a caution about the skylights--whoever you have install them, do NOT get the big sheet of tinted, thick glass that is cemented into the roof. When I bought our house (in the winter) I had no idea exactly how much those pieces of glass would act like magnifying glasses and increase the heat in our home. My first hot season in the house I measured 110F on the floor in the area directly beneath the glass skylights, and 103F in a circle around that area. Incredibly uncomfortable, and our internal house temp was in the high 90sF. I had all 7 of the 1 meter square sheets of glass removed, and, in place I had "casitas" installed. They look like concrete boxes turned upside-down with glass blocks on all 4 sides, east-west-north-south. That reduced the internal temp of my home down to about 83F. Then when I had the roof repainted white my internal daytime temps average about 77F in May and June.
  6. Thanks, everyone. I ended up using Ruly, he is very punctual, honest, thorough, and has a 7 -year warranty. He went to university in Guad to become an arcitecto and his specialty is dealing with water and moisture; he also designs and constructs French drains. He does the entire package, with cleaning the old base off, then prepping, laying a torch (tar) coating, then a membrane that is basically a big roll of asphalt shingle like we have up north, sealing the abutting seams of that, and then covering with top quality impermeabilizante--3 coats of white on mine. I specifically requested white because it reflects the rays of the sun and keeps the house about 7 degrees cooler than when a I had a red-brick color roof. Our entire job took 4 weeks straight, no rain days, workers here at 8:30 every morning until about 5 every day. Our roof is large at over 4200 sq feet plus a cupola and solar panels (removal and replace) . It cost 123,000 pesos in total. Much better deal than paying out the annual 18,000 or so pesos and worrying about leaks at the start of every season. BTW we discovered, while looking over the photos on Ruly's phone, that the roof had never been done correctly, in the 50+ years this house had been standing, and despite numerous owners who had done some intensive and expensive renovations. Just an annual cleaning and roll on of impermeabilizante. Makes you wonder.....
  7. I checked LCS and could find nothing. Is there a local group that gets together and discusses investment options, tips on where and how to invest, new trends in investment, tracking software, even to the point of having a competition in building a fictitious portfolio etc? Would like to join.
  8. Tips: At 24-ish we are in Ajijic, and on the right is the SuperGrisa (now Farmacia Guadalajara, etc,) At 26-ish we are in La Floresta, note the white tree trunks, still the same. at 27:20 we see the brick Coca-Cola surcasal on our right, this is SAT. What struck me the most was how much garbage there was on the side of the road. I know we think our area is dirty now, but in comparison to then it is much improved.
  9. We pay our housekeeper 56 pesos an hour, plus bus fare (14 pesos each day she comes) toal 59 pesos an hour. Vacation, 2 week Christmas bonus as stipulated by law. Also she requests paid time off for medical appointments, etc. She is not the best but she is not the worst, either. She is very proprietary and takes charge of things like gas and water deliveries, gives the guys a hard time to make sure they don't cheat us. I read recently that the upcoming changes to the domestic law (where we, the employers, are now going to be responsible for a written contract, social security, IMSS, maternity leave, and medical appointments [not sure what that entails]) will have to now include the gardener!!!!! There will be a minimum daily wage of 103 pesos for a 9-hour workshift. Currently the average national wage for a f/t maid is 28 pesos an hour, including meals. To put this in a frame of reference, a f/t (40+ hours, I would imagine) barista at Starbucks in Guad is paid approximately 5800 pesos each month. That works out to an hourly wage of 33.7 pesos/hour, based on 40 hour work week. Of course, they have IMSS included. The politicians voted for this unanimously, although they were cautioned by the economists and 'bean counters' that this would have a seriously detrimental effect on the workers, because their hours will, more than likely, be cut by their employers. I talked with our housekeeper about these changes. She was all for them--at first. Now she is against them. She foresees that she will probably have to work for a cleaning agency, one that will handle the bookkeeping. She thinks this is a step backwards, because that is what she was doing 5 years ago, before she became independent. She said she was paid a fair wage, but she had to pay back a percentage (cut) to the agency, so in the end she was making less. She told me some of her housekeeper friends are already talking about working under the table. Curious times ahead.
  10. "Illegal" i too strong a word, but using "against the federal hygiene law" takes too much space. I went to WalMart today to buy a bra. I grabbed a few hangers and went to try them on. The woman at the changing room pointed to a sign that basically said in Spanish "no trying on undergarments allowed". I took this to mean, no panties, like in the USA. She said no, cannot even try on bras. I asked: okay, how about over my tee shirt? She said, no, you can't take it off the hanger to try it on. I asked her, how do Mexican women buy bras? She said they go by the size on the tag. I explained that each style and size vary by manufacturer and fit. So that means a lot of Mexican women must have a lot of money to buy lots of bras that may or may not fit. [Obviously she didn't see the irony of what I was saying]. Is this true? Can Sonia or someone else attest to this? If it isn't true, where can I try on bras? BTW as I write this I do remember trying on sports bras one time in Liverpool.....
  11. Another question: why do the roofers here not do the same thing that they do in SMA, where they put a layer of crushed tufa (which is incredibly light) over the brick, then the membrane, then the impermiabalazante? It seems like here they are skipping a step. Thanks RV I am going to make sure the next job includes the membrane. And I called Rully.
  12. It's that time of year again, when we discover all the leaks in our roof! For the past 2 years I've used the same person, he has rolled the impermeabilizante over the roof annually. The product is supposed to have a 5 year warranty, ha, it doesn't last a year. I think we need a new membrane, maybe? Also it is white, so it should be reflecting heat and therefore not drying out and deteriorating so quickly. Any suggestions? I searched the forum but I can find only one referral (made last year) while the other are at least 4,5 years old.
  13. No, our Mexico closing. We need someone to authenticate/validate the signatures of witnesses on our US wills.
  14. No longer. Now, even if there are two (2) witnesses, the signatures of the those witnesses can be challenged in court. Both witnesses may be required to appear and testify that yes, those are their signatures. Very difficult to do if one of the witnesses has died or cannot be located. Then you can have a long, drawn out probate battle in which the only winners are the lawyers. [My spouse is retired lawyer and geez, do I hear some stories]. Most states--I think Ohio and Louisaina? are the exceptions, maybe Nevada or something, too?--want either 2 or 3 witnesses AND the Notarized signature of those witnesses on a separate piece of paper called a Self-Proving Affidavit. The Self-Proving Affidavit makes the will impossible to challenge in court. Or so they say. Actually, we used him for our closing so yes, good idea.
  15. We have our expat wills for the US prepared. We need to sign them in the company of 2 other persons (witnesses) and then have all 3 signatures (2 witnesses, 1 Testator) "officially" validated. In the US a notary would do this. I'm thinking the Notario has significant authority (more than a US notary) per international treaty, the witnessing of the signatures can be done by a Notary, correct? I mean, it's only to verify the signatures, it's not for a court-filed document.
  16. I want to reiterate what ComputerGuy said. Several years ago I noticed my cell phone was gobbling gigabytes, and after some research I realized my phone was updating on a daily basis--and when it was updating it didn't update the update, but updated as if from scratch, starting at 0. For several updates that could be a GB a day! Based on what I read I set my phone to manual update (instead of automatic) and I do it periodically when I am on wifi. Problem solved.
  17. Thank you, INCREDIBLY HELPFUL. Because I received an email from the consulate on Friday which directs me to a page that says, due to daily changes in the Dollar>Peso rate, I MUST have the correct conversion rate as of the day of the Consul (Rep's) visit to LCS/American Legion. If the visit is Wednesday, then I must have Wednesday's rate. A check prepared on Monday or Tuesday, with a different conversion rate, is not valid. I think the consulate should update their site. But since I missed it today I'm thinking of heading over to the Notario's office, I am sure they can witness and stamp an affidavit to attest to my signature. It's for a US will, and actually, a notary stamp isn't required,. (Another post)
  18. I am in lower SAT and my cell phone still has the useless H or H+symbol--- used to be 4G. So, not working for me.
  19. That is not the info I received from the Consulate this morning. They sent me an e-mail stating that the conversion rate changes daily and I can only get the bank check for the correct amount on the actual day of their visit. I think maybe the Guadalajara option is the best choice.
  20. The US consulate rep comes to Lakeside on Wednesdays. When I wrote to the consulate I asked how much the Banamex bank check should be. I received a reply saying that I need to check on the same day (Wednesday) as the consulate rep visits. How do I: drive to Chapala, stand in line at the American Legion to meet with the consulate rep in Chapala to determine the amount of the check, then head over to Banamex to get the check, then drive to LCS by 10 am to put my name on the list to meet with the consulate rep there? Am I missing something?
  21. My husband has Medicare for the US and Seguro Poular here. Our intent is to treat any serious illnesses in the US, and Seguro Popular for emergencies. If there is an accident--say, a fall and a broken hip--we would have SP stabilize, then hire a private driver to get us to Texas. Or possibly just pay out of pocket--depends upon the situation. I'm still in the process of investigating evacuation insurance. I would prefer a company that repatriates globally, not just from Mexico to the US. Any suggestions?
  22. There is a new law now--Ley Federal--about the cohetes. They are to be sold only by the church, and they can only be set off from something (can't recall exactly) like 8 am to 9 pm... Enforcing that will be whole 'nother discussion. I am really glad I installed a mini-split in my bedroom and I can close the windows, turn on the noise machine, put in my earplugs, and take a sleeping pill.
  23. i'm looking for those concrete pavers that they sell in Home Depot or Lowes (in the US), they are about 20" x 20" and 1 inch thick. I was told to go over to the statue store near Tobogolandia , and she has them, but they are about 1 cm thick and I can't imagine them holding up very well. In lieu of that I will take those big flat flagstones that can be used on a wall or on a walkway. Last resort is bricks. These will not be set with mortar but will be a path of stepping stones, closely placed, and filled in with packed dirt. I am planning to do this myself. On second thought, do you know someone who would come in and lay the pavers/bricks, tamp them down and pack with sand? Might be a lot easier that way.
  24. I posted elsewhere--the SAT tower 's antennae was stolen. Talked to the gentleman at TelCel last week, he said a new one has been ordered and will be here and installed in 2 weeks, mas o menos. I am thinking, mas.
  25. I fly a lot of intra-Europe (like Dusseldorf to Lisbon, all Schengen) and with no checked luggage it's pretty fast, an hour is plenty. When I fly domestically in South Africa, like Kruger to Cape Town, or Uppington (Kalahari) to Joburg, 45 minutes is more than enough. I guess it depends where. The US manor airports have been the worst. Smaller airports, like Key West and Sarasota are a breeze. Well, my passenger arrived 2 hours before check-in and the agent told her she was one of the first. Then again it was a Wednesday (slow day).
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