Tree trimming

We have been having trouble with our internet service for some time--before we went to Nova Scotia. We would have to repeatedly request it to download something. Finally, I noticed that the little LED green light for the internet would go off and even the red light would come on. During that time, we could not get or send anything to the internet. It has been getting worse. Finally, I went to Telmex to report this. The man I talked to said very decidedly that that should not happen. The green light should stay on; it flickers when anything is being uploaded or downloaded, but it should stay on. He entered a report. The very next day, I was called and they located a fellow who could speak English. I described the problem and he said that it could be a problem in the line and noticed on the phone that there was some static. Anyway, they would send out a repairman to check the line and things here. It took 2 days, but the fellow showed up and checked things out. I was able to show him the problem eventually. He went back and reported that the line was all right. The next day I got another call asking if we still had the same problem; we did. I suggested that maybe it was the modem and he agreed that that was possible. He gave me an order number to get a new wireless , modem/router. I went down to the Telmex store in Ajijic and soon had a new modem. The new one has worked perfectly since and that was over a week ago. The modem was obviously the problem. We got it new when we arrived in May 2008 and usually they last longer than that; however, there are big fluctuations in voltages and spikes. I have always used a surge suppressor, but we did not get the voltage regulator for the house until less than a year ago.

We have been very pleased with the speed with which we can load things from the internet. Telmex is fairly expensive; we pay 1000 pesos per month (approx. $85). For that, we get local phone service, unlimited long distance in Mexico (which we use infrequently), some special deal on calls to the US (which we do not use because we have the VOIP phone) and the internet Since we moved here, they upgraded the service; it is now claimed to be 5 million bits per second, but when I test it, the best I get is 4.3 or 4.4 million bits (i.e., over 500 K bytes/second) which is not too bad. However, upload speed is rather pathetic and well under 100K bytes/second. However, I am impressed by the customer service. Once I had reported the problem, I got a call every day following up.

On Monday morning Sept. 20th, we had a knock on the door. A workman was there to ask if we wanted to trim one of our eucalyptus trees. It had some boughs that were dead and other branches that were looking kind of sickly. We have been thinking that we should do something. This seemed like something we should do. He didn’t have any English and my Spanish is limited; as a result, communication was not perfect. However, we knew that we had to get permissions and he knew all about it. He took me to the La Floresta office and the manager agreed to give the initial ok, even without doing the usual inspection. Then Jose, that is the man’s name, got the documents needed and took them all into the municipality office in Chapala which gives the final permission. Jose was running around for 3 or 4 hours. He got started on Tuesday. He had waved his hands making some cutting motions and we thought that he was intending to take down only the obviously dead limbs. As it turns out, we had not really understood what he intended to do. What he ended up doing was cutting off all the limbs about 15 to 20 feet above the ground as you can see in the photos. It is now dwarfed by the other 2 in the front lawn. Finally, when we began to remonstrate with him, he managed to convey the idea that this way, new branches would sprout out, not up, in a kind of mushroom fashion. Barbara says that she has seen this done at other places and it seems to work. Rosendo, the gardener, gave his opinion that it was the end of the tree. Thus, it is a grand experiment; Jose said it would take 2 years to really branch out. I wouldn’t be surprised. The eucalyptus trees get about 35 metres high (over 100 feet). It must take a lot of energy to get water and nutrients that high. As a tree gets older and weaker, it may be easier to feed lower branches than very high ones. However, it does show the need to get better at Spanish so that we know what people are saying to us. Barbara is now studying Spanish everyday using the lessons on CDs that we brought with us when we came down. She practices Spanish with Rosendo and he seems happy to help her. At the same time, I am teaching Edwardo to speak English. We all seem happy with the process.

It seems that our rainy season is coming to a close. There has been a decided change in the last few days. There have been absolutely no clouds and the humidity has been plunging. The rain has been very heavy this year. The average rainfall by this time is usually just above 770 mm (just over 30 inches) with another 75 mm. (3 inches)--mostly in October--by the end of the year. This year, we have already had 1070 mm (42.2 inches). Lake Chapala is still rising and is now just 10 mm. (4 inches) below the peak in 2008. The heavy rain has meant that the reservoirs upstream are much higher than a year ago and that means that farmers are likely to get bigger water quotas for irrigation during the coming dry season.