Friday, April 19th, 2013

I’m sitting on the balcony having my coffee and www.weather.com says its only 66 degrees.  A lot of people walking by are wearing hoodies and carrying an umbrella though I don’t see any rain – maybe it’s misting a little and I just can’t see it.  The weather prediction for the next week is for cooler, rainier weather – high around 80 with 60% chance of precipitation and scattered thunderstorms.  Night time sleeping has certainly been more pleasant; haven’t used the fan the last couple of nights.

The 2013 Chicago Bears schedule is out – sure hope I can see some games from here!

Today I think I’ll go back to that clothing store and see if they accept my debit card and if they have any regular shorts.  I also want to write down the Canon Powershot camera models they have at Exito and start looking for something comparable to what I had before by checking them out online.  I assume the instructions will be in Spanish only and I would like something similar to what I had.  I also want to take my iPad to both malls and set them up to use their Wi-Fi.

Previewing my finances I think it would be to my advantage if I were to move into a smaller, less expensive apartment.  I emailed Mrs. Montes this morning of my intention to move into one of her newest apartments on August 1^st.  I also mentioned that if anyone desires a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a garage then maybe they could move in here and I could occupy one of the smaller ones.

Angel is starting to play more by himself by pushing a ball around and I’m starting to hear some new sounds from him while he does it.

I’m still unable to download new books to my Nook but I’ve decided to wait until next month and then try with my other debit card.  In the meantime I’m learning how to read books using my iPad.  Right now I’m reading Gifted Hands by Ben Carson, M.D. & Cecil Murphey.

1 pm and the garbage truck still hasn’t come.

1:15 and I left to run the errands I had decided this morning.  I looked at weather.com and it said it was only 75 degrees so I decided to gamble and I wore blue jeans and tennis shoes with socks.

First I decided to go upstairs and take another look at the 2 smaller apartments.  Luckily there was a worker there taking his lunch break.  I told him I just wanted to take a look at the apartments – hopefully he would recognize me from the building.  After seeing both apartments he wanted to show me a book he had and it turned out to be an English Spanish workbook.  He also showed me a small textbook and an English/Spanish dictionary.  His name is Erin.  I spent some time with him showing him how to pronounce various English sentences.  I tried to find out why he is studying English and how long he has been studying but wasn’t able to find out the answer to either.  By the time I left about 25 minutes later I was almost dripping from staying in that stuffy closed in space.

I walked down to the clothing store and found a small selection of shorts for only 32mil ($18) but only one looked decent enough to buy – and that pair looked more like something an old man in Miami would wear with his black socks and sandals.  Lol.  The others looked more like military camouflage.  And I believe I confirmed that they do accept debit cards.

I stopped at Laureles Mall and easily found an Internet connection with my iPad (I probably had found it earlier).  I also noticed a beer I recognized - Pilsen (for you beer fans).

At Viva Mall I also found an Internet connection with no problem – I probably had located this one earlier also.  In Exito I wrote down the names & models of 4 different Canon PowerShot cameras and their prices:

1.     GLPH110HS (appr.) – 479mil ($266)

2.     A4000IS – 329mil ($183)

3.     A3400IS – 279mil ($155)

4.     A2300 – 229mil ($127)

I’ll probably wait until late next month to decide if I can afford to buy one at that time but that will give me some time to research them.

As I was leaving Exito I was excited to find they had some new yoga mats.  2 of them looked like they could be rolled up very tight and held together by some type of strap (Velcro?) that would allow me to also use it to exercise my bad knee.  They were priced at 34,900 ($20) and 46,900 ($26).  I will probably come back early next month and buy one of those 2.

2:45 on the way home I noticed the garbage truck coming down the street but there were only 2 men working the sides of the street so that’s probably why they were so late today.

I was just in google.com and noticed they also have books available.  I’ll have to check that out later.