Today is the 1st day of Chicago Bears training
camp! I’m really looking forward to
their upcoming season. Because of my
foreign retirement I have more time than ever to follow the Bears.
Just before I went to bed I had a sudden attack of heartburn. I took 3 small Tums, waited another 30 minutes and finally went to bed at 11:30. I got to sleep quickly but woke up at 1:10 with another feeling of heartburn. I took 1 more Tum and went back to sleep. I woke up at 6:20 put some drops in my eyes and went back to bed with a small towel covering my eyes to keep out the sun. I got up at 6:45 took 2 Excedrin Migraine (generic) to help clear my head. I finally got up about 7:20 and proceeded with my day.
Last night I got Beatriz’ number for
accumulating points at Exito; no more for Reina.
Beatriz and I are going to meet Friday night at my apartment
at 7pm and then we’re going to go for coffee and desserts at a bakery across
the street from Laureles Mall. She said
they are delicious there.
I finished my book How
to Reassess Your Chess by International Master Jeremy Silman that I brought
with me from the States. I ordered the
book Chess Strategy for the Tournament
Player from Amazon that’s estimated for delivery here between July 12th
and August 1st so hopefully it will arrive any day now.
About 9:45 I stopped at the barber shop but Oscar wasn’t
there. I understand he should be there
at 11am so I told Jhon on my way back that if I wasn’t back by noon he could
meet me at the restaurant as I have to walk right past it on my way to his
office.
I was back at the barber shop just before 11 and was
introduced to Irma who gave me a very nice trim. She spent an hour on me and when she was done
I asked how much and she said 5mil ($2.63).
I had a 5mil and 50mil bill on me and I wanted to give her a tip so I
showed her the 50mil bill and I could see by her expression that that was too
big. I told her she could have a tip
with the 50mil bill or no tip with the 5mil bill and she took the 5mil
bill. I told her I would tip her next
time.
I me Jhon at the restaurant a couple shops down just after
noon. I had my usual and he had what he
called “wet chicken”. We saw Laura there
and she helped serve us our food. After
lunch I killed a few minutes at Jhon’s office and then started my 12 block walk
to Dario’s apartment. On the way I
passed an old woman wearing a “Chicago Bears 2006 Conference Champion T-shirt”.
I got to Dario’s about 20 minutes early. When he came out we went to a recreation room
and picked up a plastic table and 2 chairs and took them to the same balcony where
we had been before.
He showed me a list of more than 12 men that are part of a
chess club he started in his building.
He’s teaching them the game and he invited me to join him in a
simultaneous exhibition against them. Of
course I enthusiastically agreed.
The first game I had black and again he opened with “d4” aka
P-Q4. He has beaten me consistently with
this opening as I have struggled to find a defense that I am comfortable
with. He usually gets me in a bind with
pawns coming down my throat. This time
when he attacked me I attacked right back and some things I learned in my books
helped me to get my first victory against him with black.
The second game I had white and was able to get into the
opening I am most comfortable with. He
hung a knight (that means nothing was protecting it) but I had one of my
knights in the way of being able to capture it with my queen. While I was trying to figure out how to make
a good move with my knight so that I could pick up his knight for free, he made
a move that allowed me to trade off my knight for his bishop and then pick up
the unprotected knight for free. After
that it was just a matter of continuing to make good moves and trade material
to an easy endgame for another win. This
was the first time I won 2 games in the same day against him. Once before he won 2 games against me. Most of the time he wins one and I win one.
While I was there he said “there’s my wife, the one in
glasses” as 2 ladies were walking down the stairs behind me. I had never seen her before.
So now I know. Dario’s
wife, Amparo, is the matronly looking woman approximately the same age as
he. His friend (amiga), not his
girlfriend (novia), is an attractive 50 year old dentist named Margarita. Hmmm. We finished playing about 4pm and he invited
me to come back tomorrow and we’ll go to the library to play chess.
Since I was 2/3 of the way to Philly Steaks I decided to go
there for dinner. The same woman was
working there so I told her to bring me ½ of the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich
and wrap the other half to go. I also
had 2 Pepsis for a total of just under 18mil ($9.47).
I caught the Circular 303 bus back to Viva Mall for $1. I never explained before but the crossover
you use to get across busy Avenida 80 has 2 ways to ascend. You can use the stairs or a ramp. I could see someone sleeping on a cardboard
box on the ramp so I went that way where usually I use the stairs. As I got closer I could see 2 sets of feet
and when I was standing over them I could see it was a man and a woman. I’ve never seen anybody so dirty in my life;
it looked like they stepped out of a coalmine.
I tapped his foot with my shoe – no response. I tapped it again and this time he woke
up. She also woke up and opened her
mouth and I could only see one tooth. I
asked him, in Spanish “want a sandwich”?
He took it and said “thank you”.
There were a couple other people around I could have given it too but
they certainly seemed to need it the most.
I hope they enjoyed it.
I stopped at Jhon’s office and we chatted a bit and then
moved to the store where I had a small juice and he had a small coke for a
total of 2mil ($1). I finished telling
him my jokes and we talked philosophy.
He is quite a philosopher. He
thinks he can “read” people easily.
As we left I noticed the “flashlight” on my cell phone was
shining through my shorts and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. I remember seeing that option before but I
can’t find it now – and it’s not called “flashlight”. There must also be some easier way to turn it
on and off since it came on while still in my pocket.
Back at my apartment I had a bowl of cereal at 7:30 so I
could take my medicine 30 minutes later.
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