I was supposed to do my yoga exercises this morning but my shoulder
muscles still felt sore from Monday morning’s routine. I decided to wait until Friday to do them the
next time. I guess that 4 month layoff
affected me more than I thought. Better
to be careful – I can’t afford to hurt myself.
I got to Exito just as it opened at 8:30. When I came out I saw the one female guard
that I’ve seen many times before. She
had asked me before where my girlfriend is and I told her we aren’t together
anymore. Every time I’ve seen her since
I have told her “no girlfriend today, maybe tomorrow”. Today she was especially talkative but, of
course, I didn’t understand a word she said.
I spend most of the morning changing my less important
passwords like eBay (which I will probably never use again) and iTunes. Of course I also had to download iTunes to my
laptop. I hope I can figure some way to
transfer the songs from my library on my iPad to my laptop. (Maybe they are sitting somewhere in the
iTunes servers somewhere and I just have to figure out how to access them.)
I had an unusual visitor this morning. I only remember seeing one once before – last
year I believe it was – in the States.
This one is much smaller, either a slightly different type or maybe not
mature yet. See if you can figure it out
from the 4 pictures I took of it on my curtain. Answer at the end
of today’s post.
Again when I started Rosetta Stone it told me I wasn’t
pronouncing the first word – Hola – correctly.
By looking at a comparison of the graph of the pronunciation of the
speaker and myself I think I figured out the problem. Because the floors here are tile and the
walls are bare it’s like I’m talking in an echo chamber. I can see the extra sound in the graph at the
end of each word. I set the
pronunciation sensitivity again to Easy to I’ll soon know if that solves the
problem.
On my way to lunch I noticed they had a large mural lying on
the sidewalk outside Viva Mall. They had
been changing the fencing just outside the (always closed) doors adjacent to
the food court. Lunch was a burger,
fries, and coke at Gordogs in Laureles Mall.
It poured from about 12:30 until 1:15 when I left. I stopped at an ATM machine and took out
100mil for this afternoon’s purchases.
I washed my Chicago Bears t-shirt for the first time in a
little Fab and cold water. It will
probably take a couple of days to dry.
Reina came by taxi (which I paid for of course) about
2pm. She brought my suit that I had
brought with me when I visited Medellin
last June. Soon after she got here it
started pouring. We walked down to Laureles
mall to see the Vet. On the way I saw a
man in either a EPM or UNE uniform going from house to house leaving what
looked like bills. Finally! The vet put some medicine from a tube in
Angel’s mouth and gave Reina the rest to give to him each of the next couple of
days. Then she gave Angel an injection
and boy did he complain bitterly this time.
Whatever it was must have either been very uncomfortable or maybe there
was just more of it and the needle was in him longer. He really yelped and cried and squirmed but
he didn’t try to bite. (The injection
cost 15,543 ($8.64.)) Then we bought a
brush for him and what was probably another month’s worth of food. All this came to 59,591 ($33.11).
We stopped and had a cup of coffee and we shared a pastry
(14mil; $7.78). At the table next to us
4 ladies were just sitting down with a couple decks of cards and lots of
coins. I then gave her 5 mil for some arthritis
medicine and another 20mil for taxi fare.
I walked her across the street where she caught a taxi. I guess I’ll see her again on or about June 4th
when Angel is due for his next shot.
On my way back I could see that the mural was behind the
fence with a McDonald’s type playground area for children. I guess they will close it from the outside
and open the doors from the food court.
Time will tell.
When I got home I found all the bills for the building just
inside the front door; they had obviously been slipped under the door. My utility bill is 139,586 ($77.55) and my
communications bill is 86,351 ($47.97) for a total of 225,937 ($125.52). At least now I know what I owe so I know how
much I will have left this month for food.
And the utility bill especially should go down next month. Now I have to see if I can figure out how to
pay it. I hope it’s as easy as going
into the Exito and giving them the bills and my money. It appears I have until May 22nd to
pay the bills without additional charges (sin recargo hasta).
I’m going to have to be real careful with my money from now
to the end of the month to ensure I have enough money left for food. Saturday I’ll probably just check to see if
Monterey Mall has the USB headphones with microphone and wait until next month
to buy them.
Dinner was Chili con carne and fresh mango juice for 11,600
at El Comedor de Chava. The 4 ladies
were still there playing cards. The
guard even walked up to them and talked to them briefly so I guess playing
cards for money isn’t illegal in Colombia.
It’s a praying mantis.
The best clue is to look at the folded “arms”.
I downloaded a Nook app on my iPad. Supposedly I can then read the same book on
either device and it will keep track of where I am on each. Well, if I am reading from the Nook and go to
the iPad it will take me where I left off but not the other way around. Still it’s kind of neat.
I watched PBS on US TV Now from about 8-10pm. One of the expats turned me on to this free
online service for people living outside the US.
It was an interesting program about Neanderthals.
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