Tuesday, October 27th, 2015

I got up once at 3:50am and had difficulty getting to sleep after returning to bed.  The alarm went off at 7am but Teresa didn’t get up right away.  I finally woke/got up at 8:30am.

At 9am I checked the thermometer outside and it said 62 degrees and quite humid.

I heard a pig (maybe one at a time) squealing several times down in the valley as if a farmer might be slaughtering them.

We left the finca at 12:30.  For some reason Teresa dressed up a little more than usual and insisted I wear my nicest shoes that I haven’t worn in week.  I also had my jacket with me since the weather was so cool.  Teresa couldn’t remember where she had left the cell phone so we left without it.  

We got past the killer dogs undetected and and were on a bus after only a 5 minute wait.  (Going up the hill my shoes were digging into my heel.)  It started raining by the time the bus got to the Caldas turnoff.  Everyone put up their windows and luckily the driver put on the A/C so it didn’t get stuffy.  It did get a little cold so I put on my jacket for what would be the only time that day.

The rain stopped by the time we got off the bus in El Poblado.  We arrive at El Tesoro 10 minutes before our appointment.  I went with Teresa up to the 12^th floor and left her in the doctor’s reception area.

I took out a little cash at a Bancolombia ATM in El Tesoro and then went into a book store next door.  They had some interesting special editions of National Geographic that were selling for about $25.  I picked up the regular November issue about climate change for about $7.25.  Of course those were all English editions.

Back upstairs I read some of my NG until Teresa had finished and left another 200mil towards our bill.

We had lunch for the first time in an Italian restaurant named Archie’s.  I remember there was one on Avenida Nutibara in Laureles but I never ate there.

Of course they had pizza but I ordered a Minestrone soup for the two of us and the Fettucine Alfredo with bacon (actually thought I was ordering something else) for me.  Teresa didn’t care for the soup and I thought it was too peppery and had too many beans.  Teresa ordered the salmon which came with a side of spaghetti and a salad.  She liked the salmon but didn’t care for the spaghetti or the salad, neither was anything special.

Did I mention that some of the nicer restaurants ask if you want to leave a tip.  I almost always say yes.  The total came to 76,500 (about $26).  Teresa thought that was expensive but once again I told her we don’t splurge like that every day.

Teresa returned a blouse to Zara and looked for something else while I read my NG in the hallway.  A couple kids came by with a 2 month old Shetland collie and I gave it a dog biscuit.  The girl broke it in half because it was a little too big for its mouth.  The mother coaxed them to ask where I am from.  When they did I told them Chicago, USA and they got excited.  They said they knew Chicago but then they left right away.

Teresa exchanged the 99,900 blouse for a 129,900 blouse.

We stopped in Fedco where she bought some face cream for 49,900.

We stopped at O-Cake where we shared a piece of banana cake with nuts on top and we each had a cup of coffee for a total of 12,700 (about $4).  They put one of those sleeves on each cup so you can handle it but there wasn’t anything hot about it.

After a short wait we were on a taxi to El Poblado station.  Teresa had a few minutes discussion with the driver, apparently about where the highway to the south is by the station.  After a short wait we were on a Tratam bus back to the finca.

I saw an unusual car on the highway, its wheels were illuminated but on the inside (under the frame) not on the outside.

Luckily a full moon was just coming over the trees as we were going up the hill because I didn’t have my cell phone flashlight.

We got past the killer dogs undetected and were back at the finca by 7:30.

About 8pm a man called to tell us he would be at the finca at 9am tomorrow to finish my chairs.  (I was just going to tell her to tell them that I’m not putting any money down on kitchen cabinets until they finish my chairs.)

I received an email from Barnes & Noble.  They recommend I call them for assistance with my Nook problem.

At 10pm I checked outside and the temperature was 58 degrees with the barometer at the maximum humidity level so we’ll probably have rain tonight.

It was so cool tonight that I wore socks to bed, something I rarely do.

T-shirt of the day: Are you in a film or in reality?