Lake Chapala Society

I am now a Director at Large on the board of the Lake Chapala Society. I was not looking for such an ‘honour’. In January I met Fred Harland, vice president, at LCS. Barb and I had gotten acquainted with Fred and his wife on the trip to Morelia over a year ago. They are Canadians and very nice; we always chat a bit when we meet. At the encounter in January he asked me if I would let my name stand for the board. The new constitution, which was approved last December, called for 3 or 4 additional members on the board so they were looking for new bodies. I thought for a couple of minutes and finally agreed. I was certainly not eager, but I thought of all the people who volunteer to work at LCS. Almost everything is done by volunteers, many of whom give quite a few hours a week. I had already decided to stop doing my online courses so no longer had that as an excuse. The Nominating Committee, by whom I was interviewed, provided only sufficient nominees to fill the vacancies. There were no nominations from the floor at the annual meeting in March, so I and the other nominees were elected by acclaimation for a 2 year term. Actually, this was all indicative of a salutory situation. Two years ago, everything was in a turmoil as some previous members of the board were very unhappy with a new constitution proposed by the new board. They were attempting to put the organization on a more business-like approach and some of the people were unhappy that the old, ‘club’ approach would bechanged. However, the board brought some of the former members in and revamped the proposed constitution sufficiently. When the revamped constitution was put to a vote in December, there was opposition voiced and only 2 or 3 people voted against the new constitution. Everything has calmed down; things are running better. I have attended 2 board meetings and have been appointed to 2 standing committees.

Once again we have evidence about how quickly we can get medical stuff done. I had a recurrence of a pinched nerve in the lower back. Last time was just shortly before we were to leave to drive to Mexico in 2008. I was given a couple of exercises plus a very good book, Treating Your Own Back. The exercises cleared up the pain very quickly and I had no problem driving to Mexico. However, with no pain, I long ago stopped doing the exercises. This time, there was referred pain down my right thigh above the knee. I should have read the book and started the exercises again before going to the doctor, but I didn’t. On Wednesday, Dr. Garcia arranged for me to see a specialist in Guadalajara the next day. The latter did electromiography; that uses small electrical charges to the nerves to locate exactly where the problem was. By that time I had already decided that it was probably a pinched nerve in my back and he confirmed it. When we expressed our amazement that we got in so quickly, he laughed and said it was probably because it was the week after Easter and a lot of people had not returned from holidays as a lot of businesses and schools shut down for 1 or even 2 weeks. Anyway, he gave me the report and I took it to Garcia the same afternoon as he had requested. Garcia then called a physiotherapist to make an appointment for the next morning, Friday. It turns out that the latter lives only a block or so away. As a result, she came to my house for the 2nd and 3rd treatments. Some of the exercises she gave me weresimilar to those in the book. The exercises are the real answer and I have been having little pain most of the time.

More people are coming down here. A friend of Kate’s, Carol, who has been visiting here regularly for 7 years, finally got her husband Joe to come here in March. Joe really liked it and they decided to buy a house as Joe is finally thinking about retiring. The house they bought (they were down to close last Friday) is just a block and a half west of us on Camino Real so they will be close neighbours. They are very nice; Kate and Jack were unable to go out on Friday night to celebrate with them, but Barb and I did.

For 2 Saturdays we were invited to Jack and Kate’s with the girls to swim in the pool in their new house (they moved in about April 10th). It is a lovely pool and especially good because, as you can see, there are steps at one end. The twins are well on the way to being able to swim, Fatima not so much.