TheBestSideOfTheWall

12 hours ago, bmh said:

Another interesting side effect seems to be depression, I hear about it from France and I see it in the indigenous communities in Chiapas, It seems that men are more prone to it.. it may be the same thing as the long hauler symptoms, I do not know but the amount of depression and the feel bad and or sick symptoms seems to be on the increase. ii.. I would not take any of the medecine advertise as the "cure " in Mexico on a bet. False  and misleading ads are filling the papers in Mexico and the internet on a daily basis.. Lots of snake oils salesmen out there and why people would fall for it is beyond me. 

We have added a side forum on the site with those being treated with the protocol I am using.  There was an obvious need to deal with the mental issues as even those who have always been stable and solid are questioning even looking at another day. One of the big problems is the shortness of breath and the natural panic it causes. The panic is good to wake us up if we are choking in our sleep or making us fight harder to not drowned. But when it comes from trying to walk up stairs and happens hour by hour, the overwhelming sense of dread that occurs is awful.

That, combined with the shame of having COVID is hard for some. I have been surprised how even level headed people who find out I have had it suddenly need me to be a bad person because I wasn't taking it serious enough. That was not the case. And it isn't in many cases. But we are almost made to feel stupid for allowing this to happen to us. I'm sure that is not a good feeling for a man of Mexican pride, as it isn't good for this white woman who knows she is dingy and is still bothered by the lack of empathy. If I said I had cancer, people would tell me how bad they feel for me. With COVID they just want to know where I messed up. 

And let's not forget we ALL are walking in a mental grey area with the economy, lack of normalcy, and grief over the loss of many. There will be a social PTSD aspect of life for years to come. My Great Aunt Minnie use to have an outhouse and also kept a well area with water. She had a fear the Germans were going to poison the public drinking supply as was her fear during the war. Tanta Minnie was not a crazy or strange person, but this one thing had eaten on her so bad when she was faced with a hard time, she had back-up sources of water and conserved until she died at 102. We will not know the true impact on our thoughts for some time to come. 

Talking about how reasonable the fears and depressions are is a big help to those suffering. As far as we have come in understanding the brain is a physically functioning organ that needs medical care, many still have a stigma when it comes to mental health. Ajijic is such a supportive community and I'm sure it will end up being one of the places better off in the end.      

1 minute ago, Go Solar said:

Great post by Best Side and wish you well.     Here is a very interesting article about a hospital / MD developed therapy in Ocala Florida, that combines proven existing drugs to help fight the worst symptoms and effects - not the virus itself - and thus can keep people out of the ICU if started early.     Still being tested but quite promising and could help fill the gap until vaccines are available:

https://www.ocala.com/story/business/2020/09/22/ocala-developed-covid-19-therapy-local-study/5865410002/

Best thing of course is to stay safe, distanced, masked, and patient, so as not to have to find out if this works for you.

Thank you for your kind thoughts. I am on a very similar regime. I'm on the D3 instead of the C. I take the corticosteroid "dexamethasone". And am on the blood thinner "eliquis." They are not doing an antibiotic in the program I'm on which is good because I do not react well with them. What I like about this approach is all three are short term dosages with older basic drugs. They are not trying to reinvent the wheel with this. And they drew from studies in the UK, Germany, China, and the USA. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be any egos in the process at the Baylor program. Admittedly I was lucky as I was a physician's consultant in Houston so I was taken in under the guise of a favor to an old friend, but when I saw they were using cheap, available medication for everyone's benefit, I slept well knowing good people where on the case.   

I agree 100% with your last sentence. I know I caught it at HEB, (Queretaro has two of them now and they are always packed.) They were trying hard to keep people apart but it was wall to wall the day I was there. I believe I transferred the virus when adjusting my glasses because they were fogged up. I had been living the life of a monk and had little skin on my hands due to the washing and sanitizer. But I let my hand go to my face for my glasses several time. And I should have walked out of the store when I saw how busy it was. I basically got lazy. Now lazy would be good instead of fatigued. Thanks again.  

Let me start with a confession. I'm not living in Ajijic any more. I now live in Queretaro. But I have made a few trips back since moving and this site has been a good way for me to quietly asses any issues like traffic that are going on. But in this case, I feel I need to speak out because I would feel awful if I didn't and someone was made for the worse for it. 

Three months ago I had COVID. I had a moderate case and did not need hospitalization. But afterwards, I just didn't get better. The fever went away, but he shortness of breathe, (SOB,) fatigue, chest pain, strange symptoms coming and going, did not. I was no longer viral shedding but have what they are calling in the USA, Long Haulers Syndrome. Studies are showing from 10 -15% of people are developing long term problems. And the range goes from mildly irritating to people dying 100 days after getting the virus from heart or lung issues. It has not been the top of the food chain news as a vaccine and keeping those initial deaths down are the priorities but you can "google scholar" real SCIENTIFIC studies that they have started to do with the issue. 

I have been working with a doctor in Houston through ZOOM who is with Baylor there in the Med Center. But most importantly, I have found some support sites that share with others what is and isn't working for various things. We are hive minding the best of the world's doctors and comparing notes. Many doctors say they visit the sites to see themselves what has - or is working. 

The reason I'm speaking out, is we are seeing now a few deaths from people taking "supplement mixtures" or homemade/specialty cures. This virus effects the ACE2 receptors and causes what is called a cytokine storm in the body. In fact, it can cause many storms spaced out. We have no idea what outside substance could also make these storms flair up more often and intensely. A woman who had been on for as long as I had lived in L.A. and she was talking about this great "chemist" that had come up with mixture of all natural items that was curing Long Haulers in weeks. She had just started it. Two weeks later, her husband got on telling us of his wife's passing. She started having a bad reaction almost the first day but at day three she went into cardiac arrest and her heart was swollen like a balloon. Preliminary autopsy reports showed she had a massive "attack" on her own heart by her ACE2 receptors. The "chemist" is gone. So is all the money he made with this great product. Other people were reporting getting worse instead of better. They don't know what exact thing was in the "natural" substance that made people react. As with everything here time will tell. 

Supplements are good. One of the treatments I am on is an intense medical grade vitamin D3 dosage based from positive trials in the UK and Germany. But it is only after it was watched carefully in patience that it was recommended for the general public. And fortunately, there are many studies already about D3 limits in the body in relation to ACE2 receptors. I'm not saying don't take vitamins. I'm saying do your research if you think you could get COVID or you get it. Some supplements that effect the immunities could be to much of a turbo boost or reaction killer to actually help - especially if combined with herbs to elevate your energy.  

PLEASE! Do not recommend mixtures or products that have not been vetted. I'm filling out questionnaires daily from doctors around the world looking for why some of us do not get better. As well as why some people have deadly "storms" within the first weeks. They want to know. From the source and amount of salt- to if I drink diet drinks. Do I use Tylenol a lot? Do I eat a lot of hormone enhanced products. Do I use essential oils? Take certain medications. Eat a lot of one fruit? There is most likely more than one needle in this haystack and we have to go straw by straw to find it. 

No one wants to advise a person to take something that could kill them. For those of us with no answer to how long we will be unable to function, it is so tempting to follow the "miracles." Especially if they are natural. Even 10% is an awful lot of people living in fear as to where the rest of their life will be spent. Right now mine is going from a bed to a sofa although I am seeing small gains from one of the three simple protocols they have me on. And it might not just be us Long Haulers that can damage ourselves with unvetted compounds or cures. You may make your own body weaker to the initial cytokine storms you have while viral.

Now! I will go back to stalking with my mouth shut. Forgive me if I'm out of line. I was planning on coming to Ajijic to bring a load of nice plants back right before the pandemic. I still hope to run into you at one of the local nurseries someday - sooner rather than later.       

I only know what the very nice Telmex tech told me who was speaking with a person from the department putting in new Fiber in the area. No fast speeds without new modems and eventually paying for cable to the house. I was told at the office I was getting 30 MBPS but when I called to report I was only getting 15 MBPS they were very insistent it was impossible for me to get the offered Fiber speeds with my current wiring and modem. I ask for them to send me a new modem and he said there was a wait for them. I was just so happy I got someone who spent so much time trying to get answers for me so I will except them as the truth. 
 

46 minutes ago, chapalence said:

Contact Julie y Wayne. They have a truck and two guys $400/load.

Do you know if they do moves to the Queretaro area? 

Don't get you hopes up too high. I spoke with an English speaking Telmex tech and he got on the phone with the department who lays and upgrades cable. He translated to me that they are laying the lines everywhere first but not changing the lines out to the homes for quite some time. They do not have the new modems needed for changing the service out (your DSL modem will not work.) Plus, they do not have a price scheduled for charging customers from the house to the line yet. I knew they would not do it for free as their competitors have an installation fee. So yes, there will be a slight bump up, but as long as the line carrying the data packages from their fiber to your home is DSL and your modem is too, 15 is probably as high as it is going to get for some time. 

Right now they have got me at a steady 14 mbps and I pay for the 15 mbps package. It is good enough for me and quite frankly, Telmex has given me less outages in the last two years than Comcast did in a month. 

I was just searching for info on moving Nationally. I will stalk your replies to see if any suggestions for local would also do to Queretaro.

There has been a lot of confusion to the water in La Floresta so a Facebook site has been set up so homeowners and long term renters have a way to compare experiences without boring the rest of Lakeside. The page is “La Floresta -Ajijic” and if you can’t find it, you can friend Kim Sepahpur and ask her to send you an invite. 

It isn’t limited to the water problem and can hopefully be used constructively as a tool for better understanding of all issues and how they are addressed. This is not an official site ran by the HOA. 

My Telmex Internet has been down since around 2:00pm. I have tried to call customer service but have had no luck. 

I then asked on the La Floresta Facebook page is others were out. Seems lower has service but upper does not. 

Hola;

I currently have a guest who is wanting to rent here Lakeside and is hoping to do so without the need to buy a car. Besides the obvious Ajijic city center, where would you recommend? Also, is there any shot of her finding short term (six month) rental for $500-$750 USD in one of these areas? She is single and has no pets which helps. I can't give her rental advice since I purchased and am clueless about most of the areas outside my little La Floresta. She drew the short straw with who she got to help her out. 

I have know this woman since I moved here and her efforts for the community towards animals and picking up garbage has blown me away. I’m proud to call her a friend. She admitted she did what she is accused of. The man has taken no responsibility for his long term harassment. 

Also, I have had problems with the man in question too. The first and only time I went, he first pretended to not speak English then got in my face clearly speaking English. So, I totally believe that he was the initial aggressor. He was so ugly to me I never returned. Yes, he is in his 70’s but he has no problem harassing a woman in her 80’s. And please tell me if he was having to get on to her for not pooper-scooping, how did she have a bag of poop to throw? She is KNOWN for picking up trash through out the area. For years!!!

Ellie has been depressed for a while now that she has so many animals to feed, vet, and advocate for with little help. If this site causes her physical or emotional harm, there will be no shortage of her friends to remind those posting here of their hand in it. I have taken screen shots so if this does occur, the people who were not there but feel free to pass judgment can be reminded how inhuman they truly are.

1 hour ago, AngusMactavish said:

Let me introduce you to  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT

 

That is what my router is flashed with. I was tempted to use Tomato but went for the most used instead of the most intricate.  

VPN companies have it in their best interest to keep server information available so we who flash can change addresses in DD-WRT if something happens to the server we are using. Speedify chooses your server and you really have to dig deep even for a list of countries where servers are available. This means you can’t personally change your DD-WRT script. 

Even with an open source like Tomato, DD-RWT, or OpenWRT, if you don’t have enough coding info, it ain’t flying.  

I did take the time to research. It is one or the other VPN and Speedify has such bad customer service that only one router company is flashing them and they seem to be in bussness with Speedify. I don’t like this kind of tech business platform of not sharing.

I do like the idea of seemless switching to the faster channel but I have no faith either channel here will ever be noticeable faster than the second. Thanks all. I’m sticking with my flashed NordVPN router and my Android box running Kodi to my Roku TV. I love to complicate my life to the fullest. 

I could look it up but am lazy today. 

I have a flashed router loaded with NordVPN. I am assuming since Speedify works as a VPN, the two would conflict. 

I’m tempted to try the ATT Wireless + Telmex but I don’t want to brick a $600 flashed router. 

Has anyone used Speedify on a flashed router?

Not sure why this post is here? Did you mean to put it somewhere else but accidently posted here?

4 hours ago, Ferret said:

Hunter green is a colour I gave up on a while ago. Just can't seem to get the depth I was looking for. And I can tell you that this colour discussion is probably driving most male posters nuts. I can still hear my hubby clearly... "Peach is not a colour, it's a fruit".

All base paints here come in matte, semi-brillo or brillo. Check your cans if you have any leftover paint(and I hope you do for touchups). If it's too shiny then it's not matte.

 

The gentleman at Sherman Williams speaks English so he knew eggshell finish immediately.

I have done many houses with an ex of 24 years and a few men since. Perhaps I always pick visual men because decor has always been a joint effort. When we moved from Washington to Sugar Land my ex bought our home and chose our decor without my input and it was spot on. I don’t think I could be with a man who didn’t have an opinion as to the optics of his daily life. Perhaps that is why I will most likely die single

After doing a wall in eggshell and finding it too shiny I went and got matte. Matte is matte no matter what it is on and was dull and absorbed light making it look cheap. Like I said - 55 years of dry wall means I will probably never embrace paint on a less porous surface. It is one of the trade offs for perfect weather.  

I brought my color palette from the States and had zero luck finding the right tones at anywhere but the Sherman Williams by Pale. All the other’s seemed to have colors that were either too yellowish or pinkish or or greenish - you know what I mean. They were just off.

I had a few Benjamin Moore colors, a few Behr, and luckily some Sherman Williams. They were all rich colors like hunter green, burgundy, mustard, mink, and royal blue with a neutral cream and a few lighter colors in the same families.  I was able to get darn close to the four other brand colors by getting a close SW color and they did all the SW perfect even though they did not have the color swatches for a few - they looked up the formula. 

The problem I’m still having is even though I did an egg shell finish, the paints are still to shiny on the concrete opposed to dry wall. I have a feeling I will never get use to the wall texture. 

I too have concerns. One of which is customer service after the fact. To do a one year contract and then have it go out all the time isn't smart. I am more than willing to sign up monthly until they prove dependability long enough for me to feel a year long contract isn't a risk.  Just because someone can do something doesn't mean they can do it well.  I was more than ready to jump on board until I saw how small and new they were. I would do it in a heart beat if I were a millionaire, but I can't take risks on leveraged ETF's or giving a years worth of communication/entertainment money to a company whose track record is nonexistent.  

I have been using Golden Frog just fine for three months now.