Monday, August 26th, 2013

Last night it started raining at 9pm but I have no idea what time during the night it stopped.

I went to bed at 10:10 last night, got up 3 times during the night, and finally got up at 6:30.  (I was delayed taking my medication last night because of the after dinner conversations I had.)

I forgot to plug in my iPad last night so this morning I was down to only a 14% charge remaining which was just enough for me to do my morning activities – read the Chicago Sun-Times, check the weather report, and read the Chicago Bears articles.

It was 10 weeks ago today I ordered Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player - on Monday, June 17^th. 

I got an email from Eddie.  He should be back in Medellin on Monday September 2^nd but he leaves to go back to the states on Wednesday the 4^th so he only has Tuesday morning the 3^rd for us to get together.  I told him I’m flexible so I can probably meet whenever and wherever he wants.  He wants to meet at 10am at the same Exito in Envigado we met at the first time on June 14^th.  It should be no problem.

There’s a small one story house across the street which had a for sale sign on it for a few months now.  I have seen a few different people going in and out lately (prospective buyers?) and today I saw a man doing a little painting outside.  There is an overhang about 8 feet high with a soffit (sp?) above it and he had to figure out how to get up to it.  He only had a 2-step stepladder; there’s a stone “railing” coming out from the building at one end about 2 ½ feet high but it’s only about 6” wide and the stepladder is about what, 1-2 feet wide?  He found a long but narrow board that he balanced on the “railing” then balanced 2 of the four legs of the stepladder on it and put it against the wall.  He was able to carefully raise himself up to the soffit to do his painting job.  It was interesting watching him solve this problem.

I skipped breakfast this morning.  It could because I feel I might be gaining weight or maybe today I’m just too lazy to walk to the store.

I completed a couple of RS lessons with scores of 93% and 100%.  Both were reviews of earlier lessons – its called repetition. 

I took a nap from 9:10 to 10:10am.  

Here’s an example from the next lesson.  Spanish: Me cepillo los dientes con un cepillo de dientes.  English: I brush the teeth with a brush for teeth.  It sounds kind of funny to an English speaker.

I scored 100% and 94%, respectively on the next two lessons, Listening and Review, so it was a good day for me.  I think next month I’ll do 5 lessons a day.

Some man is walking up the street saying something in Spanish and carrying 3 garden hoses.  I looked up “hoses” and in Spanish its “mangueras” which sounds exactly like what he was saying.  At least HIS pronunciation was good.  Lol.

Beatriz called me just before I left for lunch.  She wants to meet for lunch tomorrow at 12:30 at Laureles mall.  She said she will have 1 hour.  That fits into what I thought that she has lunch break from noon to 2pm so she has 30 minutes left to walk each way.

I met with Jhon briefly and we made a lunch date for Friday.

Lunch was the Chicken Combo #2 at Frisby.  Soon after I finished Dario showed up.  We played a 30 minute game and as we went from the middle game to the endgame I had the advantage but once again I was in time trouble, didn’t make the right moves and lost.  We then played a couple of 15 minutes games which I don’t record so to me they don’t count but I won them both.

I met Jhon at his office about 4:30 and we went to the store for a drink.  I bought a juice for each of us for 2mil ($1) and we relaxed and talked for almost 2 hours.

I reminded Jhon I was interested in finding someone to come to my apartment every week and clean it for something like 20mil.  He said he would talk to Olga because she knew something about that business.  Later I saw Olga walking across the street and I signaled her to come over and Jhon talked to her.  She said she would need to check on it.

Bob joined us just before we were going to leave.  I told him the problem I’m having getting good haircuts here and he told me when he gets a haircut he only allows them to use a #5 attachment and then he is good for 2 months.  Maybe I should only allow them to use a #6 or #7.  I bought a bag of milk before leaving.

At home I had a bowl of cereal and one of my apples and took my medicine on time.

Tonight I watched Shark Tank, Get out Alive with Bear Grylls and Under the Dome.

8:45pm and it rained for 5 minutes.

Today I got an email from the US Embassy.  I think this might have been the problem Eddie ran into when he said he couldn’t catch a bus back from Ecuador because of the strikes.  I’ll put it up as a separate posting.