Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

I’m supposed to take my enlarged prostate medicine (Tamsulosin) 30 minutes after dinner but sometimes I forget.  And if I have a snack like some strawberries I never know if it’s better to take it after the meal or after the snack.  Last night I was 30 minutes late taking my medicine after dinner.

I went to bed at 10pm but had a little difficulty getting to sleep.  I heard rain last night the couple of times I got up to use the bathroom.  My eyes always seem to be tired; I’m wondering if it might be because I haven’t used my reading glasses in months.  I’m going to try to wear them more – at least around the apartment where it’s more convenient and hopefully that will make a difference in how my eyes feel.

After I started talking to John William yesterday a giant palm leaf fell right where I had walked a minute previously.  He told me a person can be seriously injured if it falls on them.  I guess I’d better be more aware of that type of tree and look up or give it a wider berth.  John told me when I introduced him to Reina he asked her if she loves me.  She replied she is afraid when I get another girlfriend I’m no longer going to help her family.

I went to Viva Mall, took some money out of my account and paid my utility and communication bills at Exito without any difficulty.  Exito has Woolite!  I bought a 1 liter bottle for 9,910 ($5.51), another package of Trident gum for 2,460 ($1.37), a small banana for 182 pesos (10 cents), and a bag of milk for 1,520 (84 cents).
On the way back to the apartment, a young lady I’ve never seen before gave me a very cheery “buenos dias”.

After I got back to my apartment I saw Jaime and Marta so I took the opportunity to show the workman with them the problem with my balcony door.  If I understand him correctly, the track just needs to be cleaned.  I’ll take care of that (a vacuum cleaner would sure come in handy here) and see if there’s any noticeable difference.
Reina reminded me that I should be getting my $1000 deposit back that I gave to Walter back on January 25th.  I sent the owner an email this morning asking about that.  According to my understanding it was a utilities deposit (and may have nothing to do with the owner) that I get back when I move out of the apartment.  We’ll see!

I cleaned the track of the balcony door but it doesn’t work any better.  I caught the workman as he was about to leave and implored him to look at it again.  This time he finally put the one end back on the track.  Only question now is - how long will it stay there?
I had the 7mil lunch at Likkes.  This time there was a small salad of vegetables in vinegar and chicken that was lightly breaded.  It was all very tasty as usual.

I headed over to Laureles Mall where I was supposed to meet Dario to go to the Stadium today.  About 1pm Andrew showed up wanting to play a game of chess.  I explained to him, best I could, about my appointment with Dario although I didn’t know what time he would show up.  We were almost finished with the game just before 2pm when Dario showed up.  He waited a couple minutes while I beat Andrew.  He still thinks it’s more important to move fast than to find good moves. 
From the west end of the Laureles food court we walked 3 blocks south to Calle 35 where we caught the Route 191 bus.  In about 10 minutes we were at the Stadium.  I believe its official name is the Paul Keres Chess Club.  Paul Keres was an Estonian (former USSR) chess grandmaster.  He is considered to be the strongest player never to become world champion.  I saw a URL for it as http://www.clubpkeres.blogspot.com/ and I believe it is open every day.

In the chess area, there is a building where I saw about 8 games in progress.  Just below that there is sort of a band shell with about 4 or 5 long rows of tables all with chess boards in them.  They could play dozens of games there at one time.  We played 3 games of 30 minutes each and he won 2 and we tied 1. 
Afterwards we stopped at a snack shop on the way to the bus stop and I had an orange juice and he had a soda.  He paid for the bus fare and I paid for the snacks.

Dinner was a whopper for 9,700 ($5.39) and a coconut milkshake for 6900 ($3.83) from Burger King.
I got an email from Reina.  We’re going downtown tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be getting medical insurance.  She finally agreed I would take the Simon Bolivar 195 bus downtown and she would meet me where it stops at Calle 50 and Carrera 50 across from Parque Berrio.

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