Sunday, April 7th, 2013

Today we found 2 pieces of mail for me in our garage.  The first, my brother’s postcard he mailed before he left on February 16^th; it took exactly 7 weeks.  It had 3 46 cent 1^st class stamps on it.  The second piece of mail was the monthly receipt for my Zurich pension dated March 1^st that took about 6-7 weeks to reach me.  In looking up the current price of a 1^st class stamp I found this announcement from October 11, 2012: “WASHINGTON — Beginning early next year, the Postal Service will introduce a First-Class Mail Global Forever Stamp. The new stamp will allow customers to mail letters anywhere in the world for one set price of $1.10, and is among new mailing and shipping services filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission today.”

The pet store in Laureles Mall had a special promotion where they had a veterinarian that would look at your pet for free.  We took Angel there at 10am and he got his first vaccination shot for 18 mil ($10).  According to my Google search it is for Distemper, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis and infectious laryngotracheitis.  Also an attenuated vaccine against distemper and hepatitis, and inactive canine leptospirosis.  So now you know!  This is when I found out Angel was born on February 21^st so she was just 6 weeks old when we picked her up.

We then took 2 buses to Reina’s mother’s house so everyone there could see Angel.  We then walked a couple of blocks and visited the lady with the Internet Café.  She had a grown poodle of her own and it kept jumping up and down trying to see Angel.  While her adult daughter played with Angel the woman treated me to a tres leche (3 milks) ice cream bar followed by a frozen ice cream cone (vanilla and strawberry).  I noticed that her charge for Internet use is 400 pesos (22 cents) for 15 minutes, 700 pesos (39 cents) for 30 minutes, and 1200 pesos (67 cents) for an hour.

On our way back to her mother’s house we stopped at her friend Jenny’s house.  Her son Juan Manuel I had seen at Reina’s mother’s house before but didn’t know his name.  Also living with Jenny is Denny who once lived in New York so his English was pretty good.  Jenny served us a cup of arroz con leche (rice with milk) that would have been pretty tasty if I hadn’t already had so much ice cream.

We were ready to leave about 4:30 but waited another hour so Aunt Blanca and her son Carmilla could see Angel before we left.  Aunt Blanca tried to convince me that Angel’s eyes are blue like mine but I wasn’t buying it.

Aunt Helen joined us on the first bus ride back downtown.  That driver was really crazy.  I got on the bus with Angel in a blanket in one hand and my money in the other hand and as soon as I got my change I was being thrown to the rear of the bus.  Luckily it wasn’t crowded and I was able to grope my way to a seat without falling.

Reina just told me her mother’s surgery is this Wednesday at 2pm.  I told her she could be there with her and I might go too.  We’ll see!