Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

Happy May Day everyone!

It rained hard again last night from about 8:30 to 9:30 although it wasn’t a thunderstorm.  If this is the rainy season I think I’ll enjoy it as long as it continues to be a little cooler and it only rains late afternoon or evening.

Took my medicine 20-25 minutes after dinner but still got up a couple of times to go to the bathroom last night.  Then I had a little trouble getting back to sleep; maybe for an hour.

I heard Reina get up about 5:45 and I thought I heard someone leave.  When I got up about 6:45 Reina wasn’t in bed, her robe wasn’t in the bathroom, and no one was up.  My best guess is that Reina got up, woke up Dylan who left and then Reina went back to bed in Dylan’s room.

While sitting on the balcony having my coffee I noticed a green hummingbird across the street.  Twice it stopped in front of a small blue sign on the window of the house across the street; probably attracted to the bright color thinking it might be a flower.

I checked my USAA checking account and I see my 3^rd small pension has been deposited but so far not Social Security – the big one.  But I notice the 3^rd deposit is only $61.29 instead of the previous $87.55.  That’s exactly 30% less than before.  I wonder why that is!  Oh boy, one more thing I need to investigate.  If I could do everything by email or online it wouldn’t be so bad, but all too often I have to make a phone call. I checked and my April Social Security deposit was on the 2^nd.

8:25 I hear the phone ring and I think Reina answered it in Dylan’s bedroom.

8:35 Reina got up and informed me that Dylan left early to play football.

The ants are back!  I wonder if this is going to be a perpetual cycle of here 3 days, gone 3 days.

Reina has a small table at her house she is going to give me.  I’ll probably use it to display my bible in the living room.

Reina and I left about 9:45 and went to Viva where I took 120mil out of my checking account.  From that I paid 6,793 for shampoo for Angel, 20mil for something to clean Angel’s fur, and 17mil for his 2^nd vaccination.  Next is due on May 15^th so Reina will probably stop by with him for that.

Back to Viva where I withdrew another 720mil from my checking account and then bought that Sportiva exercise mat at Exito for 46,900 pesos.  Outside Viva I was sitting on some steps playing with Angel and waiting for Reina to finish a call at the pay phone when I noticed I have a few spider veins on the inside of my right thigh.  (Too much information? Sorry!)  Getting old is not something I recommend!  Reina finally arranged a pickup truck to pick up their things today for 70mil.

Reina will come back tomorrow at 1pm for the rest of her money.  I’ll email her in the morning to let her know if Social Security came through with my deposit.

The truck arrived at noon, 30 minutes early.  Jesus arrived 20 minutes later.  Between the truck driver, Jesus, and Dylan they managed to wrestle the refrigerator down the stairs and onto the truck.

12:40 the truck is almost loaded and we hear thunder.  12:55 and they all left: Reina, Angel, Dylan, his amigo Harold, Jesus, and the truck driver.  Just a very light rain for a few minutes and then it stopped – at least here!

Now I have no refrigerator and no TV.  Time to do some cleaning!

1:25 and it’s starting to rain.  I hope they got everything unloaded at Reina’s house; especially the electronics like the television sets.  Luckily the rain only lasted a couple minutes.

1:45 and somebody buzzes me from downstairs.  I look out over the balcony and some guy rattles off something in Spanish.  I told him I don’t speak Spanish.  He pulls at the cuffs of his shorts and points to his shoes.  I just said I’m sorry and went back into the apartment.

Since all I had for lunch was a large bowl of Frosted Flakes, timed before the milk disappeared with the refrigerator, by 4pm I was starving.  I decided to splurge and have a fried chicken combo at Frisby’s for 17Mil.  On the way, I was thinking maybe my money wouldn’t be available tomorrow and I should be a little more conservative so I decided to use a Burger King coupon I had been carrying around for a while.  When I ordered they brought to my attention that it had expired – yesterday – so I ordered a Whopper Combo #1 for 14,900 pesos.  While I was eating it I noticed the paper covering the plastic tray had words in English.  I thought it was interesting so I copied it here:

KNOW YOUR WHOPPER

DON’T GET FRIED

NAME. The “h” in WHOPPER isn’t present when spoken.  But if your burger is labeled WOPPER, you’ve been given a fake.

SMELL. A WHOPPER smells like a backyard barbeque flame-broiled burger.  If yours smells like paper, either it’s not a WHOPPER or the wrapper’s still on.

WEIGHT. With ¼ lb. beef, a WHOPPER sandwich should feel heavy.  Burgers with a bun in the middle feel much lighter.

FLAME-BROILED.  Kissed by fire, never fried.

100% BEEF. All real beef no funky filler meat.

CONDIMENTS.  Ketchup, mustard and mayo.  Our condiments are well known.  “Secret Sauce” not required.

If you feel you’ve been fried, don’t worry – the damage CAN be reversed. Depending on your level of distress, order an original WHOPPER, DOUBLE WHOPPER or TRIPLE WHOPPER.  Take a bite, and let the healing begin.

On my way back I cut through Exito and noticed I can buy a single bag of milk for less than 2mil.  Since I have most of a large box of Frosted Flakes left it would behoove me to finish the box over several upcoming breakfasts and save some money.

8:30pm I guess today is a holiday.  Not only were a number of the smaller stores closed but tonight the teenage boys are out playing in the street.  At least I think they will quiet down before long.

The kids quieted down just before I went to bed at 10pm.  (That must be their curfew time too!  Lol.)