Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

For a quiet neighborhood it seems there is often some noise going on.  Taxis honking their horn when they are waiting for someone, garage doors opening and closing in the building, guys walking or riding their bike on the street hawking their wares, cars or trucks with loudspeakers on the roof blaring out some advertisement, the whistle guy, car alarms, etc.

And the building is not what I would call quiet.  The floors are all tile not carpeted like in America.  There is a “shaft” like an elevator shaft that goes from the 1^st floor all the way to the roof.  This is what I showed earlier in my pictures like a 1^st floor courtyard.  There are “louvers” that open up to it from high on the wall of our bedroom hallway.  There are also “louvers” from high on the wall of our main hallway that open up to the stairwell.  While it appears the majority of the construction is finished, soon we will have tenants upstairs.

Reina informs me she is going downtown tomorrow as it is more important for her to be here today when the workers arrive.

7:45 and workers arrive to fix our recurring toilet problem. 

8:10 and the garbage men come through.

9:30 and the workers leave and things appear to be much better.  Time will tell.  Reina tells me they are going to come back and replace the drain cap in the bathroom because it apparently smells.

10:30 and one of the workers comes back and spends 15 minutes replacing the drain cap.

I finished my latest Nook book - Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.  A very good read.  In places it even dovetailed with The 9/11 Commission Report.

Next book is The Concrete Blond.  It’s been a while since I read a book of fiction.  This should be a nice change.

12:15 and another worker arrives to patch some cracks in the walls and ceiling.  Interestingly, instead of a step ladder he perches himself on top of 7 large upside-down plastic buckets and just scoots himself along to change position.

2pm and Reina and I went for a walk.  When my brother was here we walked a few blocks west and then north to Calle 44.  This time Reina and I walked a couple of blocks west, then south to Calle 33, east to Avenida 80, and then north to Laureles Mall.  There is a cute little kitten there that is for sale gratis but we don’t have money for its food, bed, or litter box.  We’ll see if it’s still there next week.  We stopped at Almibar and we splurged and each had a small ice cream cone for 2mil each.

When we got home I went to the toilet and found an unpleasant surprise.  What is it about Colombians just flushing the toilet and walking away without checking?  I told her I am tired of finding these little surprises.  Yes, I know it should always go down on the first flush but that doesn’t mean it always will.  I gave her a little spanking so she will remember in the future.  Lol.  

A few minutes later I used the same toilet and didn’t have any problem.

6:05 and a small religious parade comes down our street and stops next door for about 5 minutes.  It consisted of a priest, an amplifier with speakers, singing, and they were carrying 11 small statues and many people were carrying small “staffs” that might have been used to prod sheep.

7pm and Colombia is playing soccer against Venezuela.  After checking Google it appears this game is part of the 2014 World Cup.  From what I can see by the standings Colombia should be the better team.  On the other hand they are playing in Venezuela.