Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

Last night I fell asleep quickly only getting up once at 5:30am.  Laura got Teresa up at 6am and again 30 minutes later as she was leaving.  Intermittently after that the dogs went crazy for some reason or other.  Teresa said it was because of Don Carlos.  I finally woke/got up at 8:40am.

Teresa wants to have a cabinet built in the kitchen to hold food stuffs so she called Ramiro the carpenter.

We left the finca at 1:30.  On the way up the path I noticed a small line of ants crossing the path in a great hurry.

The killer dogs heard us coming.  It seems the other dogs only come as far as the path waiting for the rottweiler to arrive.  This time I got off a good spray towards the rottweiler.  This spray is strong stuff; maybe too strong.  It caused me to cough once and Teresa was gagging and coughing for a full minute even though she wasn’t anywhere near where I sprayed it.

At the top of the hill we ran into Guillermo talking to someone in a car coming down from the other fincas.  He’s cutting a trench to install a pipe to direct water away from the road and down the hill.  While Teresa talked to them for awhile I got a head start down the hill as far as Don Carlos’ house.  His dog came out and I gave him part of a dog biscuit.  He’s a very friendly dog.  When Teresa caught up with me she told me they plan to resurface the side road this June at a charge of 200mil to each finca resident.  As we were walking down, the car caught up with us and gave us a ride as far as the side road to Caldas.  We walked another block or two to the “tent” where the police often check Cedulas.  Five minutes later we were on a bus to Envigado.  

We took a taxi up to Nueva eps.  The good news was the place was far from being crowded but the bad news is that Teresa informed me that there aren’t any appointments available for the Urologist so we have to come back next month.  At least “next month” starts soon.

We stopped at BanColombia where I took out a little cash.  They used to have separate rooms for each ATM but now they are simply out in the open.  I don’t like it as much; it’s not as secure and you get glare from the sun on the screen.

We stopped at an ice cream store where I had a strawberry soda and she had ice cream over a slice of apple pie for 15,300.  I called Alan and told him I wasn’t going to be in Envigado much longer so we would meet another time.

We stopped at a store where Teresa bought 2 bottles of nail polish for 9,100 and at another store where she bought material for another blouse for 18,750. 

We stopped at the tailor’s where Teresa informed me she didn’t buy enough material for her blouse.  Teresa talked to Laura who told her there is an ant problem at the finca.

We walked down to Exito where I took out some more cash and we picked up some items for 60,300.  I included a bottle of Smuckers strawberry sauce to try with the waffles and vanilla ice cream.

After Exito, for some reason Teresa wanted to return to the tailor’s but I was tired of walking so she carried the bags of groceries.  She thinks I don’t get enough exercise, but hey, I am 69 years old.

It took a few minutes to catch a taxi to the highway.  As we were driving over the highway to the entrance ramp I noticed the traffic wasn’t moving.  I told Teresa there is a lot of traffic today, but the driver cut through to the leftmost lane and then it was clear sailing.  All the cars were trying to take the exit ramp from the highway to Envigado.

We were quickly on a direct bus to the finca.  As usual a man came on the bus and handed everyone a couple chocolate bars.  Teresa and I, sitting across the aisle from each other, declined to take any.  When he came back to collect the money, or retrieve the unsold bars, I noticed he didn’t get money or the bars back from the guy sitting next to me.  First time I’ve seen someone forget.  It is possible that someone else bought them for him but then why wouldn’t they be sitting together?

When we got off the bus we noticed the rocks at the bottom of the side road had been leveled into the ground.  I forget the name of the road equipment that does that – steamrollers?

As we walked past Don Carlos house his dog came out and I gave him half of a large dog biscuit.

The killer dogs heard us as we approached the neighbor’s house but the rottweiler stayed back and didn’t approach the path.  Maybe he’s learning to respect me – or my spray.

I couldn’t believe it but about 100’ up the path from the finca there was a line of ants that must have been an inch wide and 20’ long.  I’ve never seen anything like that before.  It was just before dusk so tomorrow I’ll try to take a picture of them.

Good news: my tax refund arrived today.  Bad news: the peso has fallen from a recent high of 2,600 to 2,400 to the dollar.  Still, it’s much higher than the 1800 COP per USD I was getting when I arrived 2 years ago.

We finished watching The Woman (6.1).

Teresa told me the next version of Master Chef is going to feature children.

I took my sleeping pills at 11pm, I set the alarm for 5:30 and we went to bed at 11:15.

T-shirt of the day: Chocoholic.