RAIN, GLORIOUS RAIN!

Sorry to hear about your problem, the same thing happened to us when we first moved to our house and it fried the surge protector and the tv and the computer...Now our house is grounded but we unplug everything anyways when there is a storm. I know it is too late if the first trike happens to you but we unplug everything and we also unplug everything when we leave for a few days. I hope your landlord helps you.

brigitte wrote:Sorry to hear about your problem, the same thing happened to us when we first moved to our house and it fried the surge protector and the tv and the computer...Now our house is grounded but we unplug everything anyways when there is a storm. I know it is too late if the first trike happens to you  but we unplug everything and we also unplug everything when we leave for a few days. I hope your landlord helps you.

You can add a whole house surge protector to your circuit breaker panel providing the panel is grounded. The surge protector is designed to be fried but if the parts that fry are too small it doesn't work.  Surge protectors won't work without grounded wiring also.  Buy a surge protector with a rating of 500 joules or higher. I use 4000 Joules Monster surge protectors.  Lightning protection is a complete different SEPERATE system from surge protectors and house wiring but a whole house surge protector will help for sure but some lightning strikes are so large that nothing works other than unplugging.  Lightning suppression requires a separate system.  Even with a whole house surge protector installed I still advice small individual ones for expensive equipment as surges can come from inside your house when an electrical device fails for example. I have never lost anything lakeside but I do protect my gear with the appropriate protection devices and you should also or unplug like Brigitte does.

Z

For those enjoying the world's 1st or 2nd best climate:

> It's late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in North Dakota asked
> their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.
>
> Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the
> old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the
> winter was going to be like.
>
> Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the
> winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the
> village should collect firewood to be prepared.
>
> But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He
> went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and
> asked, 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'
>
> 'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,' the meteorologist
> at the weather service responded.
>
> So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even
> more firewood in order to be prepared.
>
> A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Does it
> still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?'
>
> 'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'it's going
> to be a very cold winter.'
>
> The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect
> every scrap of firewood they could find.
>
> Two weeks later, the chief called the National Weather Service again.
> 'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'
>
> 'Absolutely,' the man replied. 'It's looking more and more like it is
> going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen.'
>
> 'How can you be so sure?' the chief asked.
>
> The weatherman replied, 'The Indians are collecting a shitload of
> firewood.'

Axixic wrote:You know, I think that "2nd Best Climate" thing is a self-perpetuating myth. I've heard it attributed to some article in the National Geographic but never been able to find the actual source.

I mean, the climate here is great and all but I think we might be engaging in hyperbole when we say that (and I am just as guilty of it as anyone.)

Exactly right. I went looking for the original source when I was researching the area, before we moved. It's an 'Internet legend' ... someone made it up, and then a bunch of other people quoted it because it sounded good. But National Geographic definitely never printed any such thing. And in fact, I could not find any authoritative source for the 'second best climate' designation.

This didn't stop me from deciding to move here, mind you -- and it really is a beautiful area -- but I do have a penchant for truth-in-advertising, and that claim is altogether erroneous.

My wife and I are here on our first visit. We have experienced warmer temperatures than normal for this time of year, rain when there isn't supposed to be any, I got a bacterial AND a parasitic infection that knocked me out for two days. Is their anything else to experience?

I was inside the Framacia Guad when it started. Three big lightning strikes with accompanying thunder. Rained for 15 minutes and it was done. Didn't seem like a lot of rain but, as it was said, depends on where you are.

World's second-best climate, my ass! Ain't even Mexico's first-best climate. That distinction goes to Cuernavaca.

i don't care what the rating is. i like the climate

"Best Places to Retire Overseas and Escape to a Better Climate":

http://internationalliving.com/2014/01/best-places-retire-overseas-escape-better-climate/

So we all got duped!

Just take average days of sun, average rainfall, average mean temperature and average humidity and decide for yourself. I actually find it a little too chilly in December and January, and a little too rainy June through October. Mind you I have only been here fulltime for a couple of years so we'll see how the next few years pan out. Different strokes for different folks.

Not really duped at all.  If you look at the places they name, a number of them have more variable climates and in Ecuador you have to deal with significantly higher altitude in order to get the more comfortable climate.  They state right up front that Uruguay is for people who like seasons.  

Malta is very expensive as well.  New Zealand definitely has winter.

And how could anyone not include the coastal area between Laguna Beach and San Diego when listing best climate for retirement.  Supposedly this article is only about best climates for retirement, without regard to cost.  

When you start throwing in cost, access to the amenities and air travel availability of GDL without having to live there, fast access to the beach, and very mild year round climate, I still believe this is one of the best places in the world to live.  I wonder how many of the places on that list do not require any heating or cooling year round.

Man, I can't imagine a Canadian finding any time of year too chilly. I agree that based on last summer, when we seemed to have an awful lot of cloudiness, it left something to be desired. It is interesting that the summer of 2010 when we got all that rain felt a great deal less cloudy than last summer.

Subconsciously Bob's missing the arctic weather up north! jaja

lala land never has arctic weather but rain out the yingyang.
we albertan's had the arctic weather. summer was 2 weeks.

CanuckBob wrote:Just take average days of sun, average rainfall, average mean temperature and average humidity and decide for yourself. I actually find it a little too chilly in December and January, and a little too rainy June through October. Mind you I have only been here fulltime for a couple of years so we'll see how the next few years pan out. Different strokes for different folks.

How did you ignore the 28 degrees difference in 8 hours yesterday?

Yesterday's Extremes
High Temp 85.0°F at 3:32pm
Low Temp 57.0°F at 7:00am

We left 28F for you to enjoy up there in Powell River......jajaja.

Powell River, BC - 28 Mar
High : 48°
Low : 39°
Showers / Clear

Yesterday here in Nova Scotia, we had a major blizzard with snowfall amounts from 40-60 cm, and wind gusts in some areas over 160 km/hr! Everything was shut down, they pulled the Halifax transit buses off the roads, closed a section of the Trans-Canada Highway from Truro, NS to Moncton, NB, which is about 180 km long, due to whiteout conditions! Welcome to Spring!
I'll take Ajijic's weather anyday!

Nasty. You will be glad to get out of there in a few days.

I sure will Bob! Looking forward to meeting you and your wife again! Thanks again for arranging the airport transportation!

The humming birds are back and the forsythia flowers are open.

The bees were fed last week, and an eagle took a duck (to feed their young ?)

Chapala should get the Chamber of Commerce and Rotarian types out to think up a new slogan. "Home of the World's Second Best Climate" doesn't seem to be drawing them. Maybe "Home of the Holy Miracle" without quite specifying what or when it was. "Home of the World's Largest Burrito" would always be a safe bet - but then you would have to pay to make it out of fiberglass.

The future "Home of the Lake Chapala Society".

CHILLIN wrote:Chapala should get the Chamber of Commerce and Rotarian types out to think up a new slogan. "Home of the World's Second Best Climate" doesn't seem to be drawing them. Maybe "Home of the Holy Miracle" without quite specifying what or when  it was. "Home of the World's Largest Burrito" would always be a safe bet - but then you would have to pay to make it out of fiberglass.

don't you form giant burritos,among other things. regale us with your skills.

arbon wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:Just take average days of sun, average rainfall, average mean temperature and average humidity and decide for yourself. I actually find it a little too chilly in December and January, and a little too rainy June through October. Mind you I have only been here fulltime for a couple of years so we'll see how the next few years pan out. Different strokes for different folks.

How did you ignore the 28 degrees difference in 8 hours yesterday?

Yesterday's Extremes
High Temp  85.0°F at 3:32pm
Low Temp 57.0°F at 7:00am

that looks like guadalajara;not chapala.

Pedro wrote: don't you form giant burritos,among other things. regale us with your skills.

Nope - I always turned those sorts of jobs down. In Canada, the metal support frame has to be engineered, and approved by a structural engineer, who are hard to find for full blown custom work and expensive. I know some Mexican welders and sculptors who could do it.

Pedro wrote:

arbon wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:Just take average days of sun, average rainfall, average mean temperature and average humidity and decide for yourself. I actually find it a little too chilly in December and January, and a little too rainy June through October. Mind you I have only been here fulltime for a couple of years so we'll see how the next few years pan out. Different strokes for different folks.

How did you ignore the 28 degrees difference in 8 hours yesterday?

Yesterday's Extremes
High Temp  85.0°F at 3:32pm
Low Temp 57.0°F at 7:00am

that looks like guadalajara;not chapala.

Your not looking too good, ¿is your "yin yang" too dry/hot?

Chapala Weather

i go by my thermometer in my courtyard and shop. didn't drop to 57f.
that guy's weather station is in riberas on the lake and has never been the same as in mi casa so i don't bother looking at it.