Sunday, December 29th, 2013

Last night, at 8:45 I heard a few firecrackers off in the distance.

I watched The Company Men (6.8) on Netflix, a 2010 movie starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson, and Kevin Costner.  Per IMDB: “The story centers on a year in the life of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company – and how that affects them, their families, and their communities.”  That (2008) was a rough time for a lot of people, myself included.

I went to bed at 11pm, was awoken twice during the night from firecrackers, woke up at 6:50 and got up at 7:15.

I had breakfast at the hotel from about 8:45 to 10am.  When I was leaving I noticed a full page map of Medellin’s Metro system so of course I asked them for one.  I knew there was a cemetery on the other side of Avenida 80 from the airport but what I didn’t notice is that the golf course – Club El Rodeo is just before the cemetery.  It might be surrounded by bushes or a stone fence because I don’t remember seeing it; now I’ll have to remember to pay more attention.

Afterwards I reviewed some more of Bobby Fischer’s games at LM.  About noon a man named Mario challenged me to a game of chess.  He was really just a beginner and he moved very slowly; I won 2 games in about an hour.

I withdrew the last of my cash from the ATM.  On the 1^st of next month I’ll count my cash on hand and that will tell me how much I had to “borrow” from January’s cash infusion to pay for the renewal of my Pensionado Visa.

 The high is predicted to be 85⁰ today with only a 20% chance of rain.  Again almost no clouds; this is the 3^rd day in a row with more summer like conditions.

I was at Sport Wings by 4:15 and Reina arrived about 10 minutes later.  We shared their small Ribs & Wings combo which included 3 wings, 3 legs, 3 ribs (with lots of BBQ sauce), French fries and 3 celery sticks :).  (I thought the ribs were pretty chewy; maybe a little too chewy.)  We also shared a brownie with ice cream.  I also had 2 Cokes and a mango juice and she had 2 mango juices.  The total came to 66mil inc. 9.25% tip.  I also left an additional 3mil as a tip.  

In Spanish, “ahora” means “now” and “mas tarde” means “later”, but Reina told me in Colombia “ahora” means “in 30 to 60 minutes” and “mas tarde” means “later than that”.  Maybe this is what they mean by “Colombia Tiempo”.

I gave her the telephone number for the Immigration office in Medellin and she’s going to call to check on their hours (are they even working this week?) and how much it costs to renew my Cedula this year.  We will probably meet on Friday and go there to renew it.

She still wasn’t feeling well from her cold so she left about 6:50.

I guess I should mention the Bears lost 33-28 so their season is OVER.  :(