Friday, May 17th, 2013

I think it rained almost all night.  I slept good though, only getting up once.

I’ve decided that perhaps calling Medellin the City of Eternal Spring may be fitting after all.  It was like summer in February & March and more like a warm spring in April & so far in May. 

Yesterday after breakfast I squeezed as much air as I could out of my new bag of milk and put my only paper clip on the corner I had cut out of it.  This morning I had the rest of it with my cereal.  That saved me almost 2mil and a trip to Exito.  The milk didn’t taste funny and so far I feel fine.  J

This morning I recreated the file I had lost on movie theaters in Medellin.  The only thing I haven’t found yet is the website that allowed me to see what was playing at each of the theaters but I’ll locate it eventually.

I heard some hammering from downstairs.  I went down and as I expected they are putting in a newer, stronger door for Lionel.  The landlord, Jamie, was there and I asked him to come upstairs to show him a couple of small problems.  1^st, in the guest bathroom there is what looks like a rust stain coming down the wall to the floor from the toilet paper holder.  2^nd, in the laundry room there is a rust stain on the floor under the gas water heater.  I put a small plastic bowl under it to catch the rusty water.  I told him neither are important to me; I just wanted him to know about them.

This is cool!  The other night I downloaded a Magic Jack app on my iPad and used it to call my brother.  He wasn’t home so I left him a message.  He called me back a few minutes later; he said the number on his Caller Id was a Miami number.  We got a pretty good connection except he said it sounded like I was talking from a telephone booth. (This was a clue to my Rosetta Stone pronunciation problem!)  So, I just called the GetIPass office in Illinois and had them report my transponder as lost and they cancelled my account.  I told them I am no longer living in the USA and they could keep my $5.65 balance.  (They can use it towards their pension mess! Lol)

I then called Sears to see about why my pension deposit was smaller this month and also to give them a slight address correction.  The first lady had a difficult time hearing me and when she transferred me to the pension department the second lady claimed not to be able to hear me at all.  That was probably because: I was using my iPad (I have to check where that microphone is again), Magic Jack, there is an echo from the walls & ceiling, and there was a lot of intermittent noise from the construction downstairs.  So I hung up and will try again later!

In an email I got from the owner she mentioned the apartment is in estrato 5; the highest is estrato 6 so this is a very nice, though not the best, area of the city.

In reviewing my USAA account I realized I had made a mistake, in my favor, in regards to how much money I have left this month.  I owe Social Security $45 and my son sent a check in for me.  I was thinking that would come out of my account but I can wait to pay him next month so I am much better shape financially than I thought.

About 2:30 I left for lunch.  (They were still working on the door.  It does look very solid and fancy.)  I had the Friday special at Burger King which was just a nice cheeseburger; add in the Pepsi and the total came to 6200 again ($3.44). 

I had noticed in Exito an area which looked very similar to that where I paid my utility & communications bills at the downtown Exito.  I asked the guard (via a note I had prewritten in Spanish) “Puedo pagar estas cuentas aqui” which means “can I pay my bills here?”.  He pointed right to the area that I had suspected was the place.   So, I’m good and Monday I can take money out of the ATM and then immediately pay my bills.

I then went and picked up my laundry.  The only drawback was the lady told me my mesh bag (bolsa) I brought the dirty clothes in wouldn’t be available until tomorrow.  Hmmm.  Ok.

Because of my “amazing good fortune” I stopped on the way home and bought a kilo of strawberries for 3mil ($1.67). 

After I cleaned them I gobbled down half of them immediately and saved the rest for later.

Watched some TV the rest of the evening (7pm-10pm) on my laptop.