Thread Drift

[Pax]

I surely wish there'd been a grab bar in my FIL's shower when he fell this past spring. He falls a LOT now, being 86. Nothing in their house was set up for accessibility, so I'm very relieved he's now in assisted living and they've sold the house.

One thing I've found interesting here in Mexico is that building codes, so far as I can tell, are very lax compared to those in the US. I see new buildings going up having inspection notices, but in particular, stairways are not required to have handrails. I recently slipped while coming down the steps after yoga practice, and dang, that hurt. The steps have narrow treads (also no building code about that, I guess), are concrete that's been slickened over the years from wear, and there's no railing. I was messing with my bag and trying to get my bottle of water out and owie! Slid down several stairs on my butt and hit the back of my forearm on a stair. I thought I was going to have a terrible bruise on my butt, but fortunately, if I did, it was out of sight, and it never felt sore. The arm is still a bit tender a week later. I have been much more careful coming down those stairs since!

Other than buildings with elevators and/or ground floor units/businesses, this is not a place set up for the elderly or disabled, but they have started installing wheelchair ramps into a couple of businesses, and have made a couple of the beaches accessible with boardwalks.

I remember that about Europe, I spent the year I was 11 in wheelchair and there was nothing accessible anywhere. My brother and parents got very adept at bouncing me up and down stairs.

[OakLeaf]

Yep. All the people who whine about the ADA ....

I remember that about Valencia in particular, in all the parts of town we explored in two and a half weeks, there was one bar that was accessible, and it seemed like everyone in the whole city who used a wheelchair hung out there, because there was just no place else they could go.

[Crankin]

Meh, no one is looking at our house. Another open house this Sunday and we dropped the price again. We decided we are going to move by Thanksgiving, no matter what. The work on the condo has started and I am excited about how it is going to turn out. We spent last Saturday picking out and ordering new living room furniture. We had a really good sales person at Crate and Barrel; he got our taste and needs.

[emily_in_nc]

Meh, no one is looking at our house. Another open house this Sunday and we dropped the price again. We decided we are going to move by Thanksgiving, no matter what. The work on the condo has started and I am excited about how it is going to turn out. We spent last Saturday picking out and ordering new living room furniture. We had a really good sales person at Crate and Barrel; he got our taste and needs.

Fall is a tough time to sell, I think. We've always had better luck in the spring. Though one house we sold closed in January, after a mega-snow, so you never know. I hope your perfect buyers will come along very soon. I know you're anxious to be done with it.

How exciting to be getting new furniture. That's fun. Other than when we bought all new island-style furniture in Belize (which we then left with the condo when we sold it), we've always had mostly hand-me-down pieces with just a couple new things here and there. We've never had the luxury of buying a whole roomful of furniture before. It's nice sometimes to be able to start fresh, as your tastes may have evolved quite a bit over the years, and the old stuff just doesn't suit. Love Crate & Barrel!

[Crankin]

We have had our living room furniture for 35 years! It is beautiful, still in good shape, Danish modern. But, while it is not "formal" looking like a lot of people's living rooms, it is not right for what is really more of a great room. We need a couch where we can slouch and watch TV. I think my son is going to take it, and it will look great in his house. We have had different furniture for the family rooms in all of our houses, more as a reflection of the stage of life our kids were in, and once because the space was smaller and we just used a couch we had in a guest room, that had a pull out bed. We also have had 3 kitchen tables and 3 dining room sets (Had the first one for 20 years, then bought one that was quite beautiful to fit in the dining room of our last house. Too bad we got it about 3 years before we moved here and it didn't fit!). Our current dining room table and the hutch and corner piece will be stored in the basement, and hopefully, we can use it if we buy a place in the Berkshires.
We love Crate and Barrel, too. Our current family room sectional, which is going in the new sunroom/den, as well as our kitchen set, and dining room table are from there. It really reflects our style. When we were first married, our whole house was Danish modern, but, we have become more eclectic as the years have passed. But, both of us hate "froo-froo." There's a Yiddish word that describes what we dislike even better than froo-froo...

[Crankin]

Where is everyone? I have never seen this forum so dead.

[ny biker]

Where is everyone? I have never seen this forum so dead.

I was thinking the same thing.

I have things I'd like to post but am kind of overwhelmed by life these days, mostly due to job issues. Long story short I've been trying to get my current employer to let me transition from a front end developer (user-interface stuff) to a backend database developer which requires them to find someone to take on some of the work I've been doing, though the language I program in is being phased out so there's not much for others to take over. Anyway yada yada yada starting next month they said I will be 100% doing database stuff, mostly things I didn't learn the in class I took to get me started in that area so I have to try to learn it now. (The yada yada yada part includes an episode in which I learned that incompetent + happy is preferred over competent + frustrated by co-workers who don't listen to you and managers who lie to you about supporting your career development.)

Being from Long Island I have to ask -- what's the yiddish word? I wonder if I know it.

[emily_in_nc]

Where is everyone? I have never seen this forum so dead.

Facebook.

At least for me, I'm not riding very much here in Mexico so don't have a lot cycling-related to say, and I can't answer a lot of the questions posted here since I am so behind the times on bikes. I don't have super new bikes and don't know most of what's "out there" these days since I'm not currently in a buying mode. I'm posting beachy, dog-related, foody, and other photos on Facebook and sharing interesting things I find online. And reading a lot more novels than I used to.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Akumal, a bit south of us, and enjoyed some great fish tacos, amazing homemade ice cream, and walking on the beautiful beach.

Here are a few of the photos I posted on Facebook:

Attachment 17825 Attachment 17826 Attachment 17827 Attachment 17828

That's about all I got! ;-)