Thursday, January 28th, 2016

I was awakened by one or more of the terriers early in the morning, got up once at 4:30, finally waking/getting up at 8am.  Teresa was already up and she told me she got a call and Une is coming this morning.  (I love a good joke in the morning.)

I gave up on my latest read Megan Abbott’s 262 page The Fever.  It might be a good book if I was still going through puberty but I’m more than 50 years removed from that.  After all the good books I’ve read this one is certainly the most amateurish.  An example of her writing, “she became Gabby’s friend in that way that can happen, because the girl with the cool boots always finds the girl with the occasional slash of pink in her hair.”  I’m certainly not the demographic the author intended.  I wish I knew where I got the idea to buy this book because I certainly wouldn’t want to trust that source again.

At 11:30 Teresa and I went up to the top of the hill to meet the Une guy.  On the way we met Guillermo coming down.  I gave the black dog 2 treats on the way up and one on the way back down.  The Une guy called again and I understood he had trouble finding his way to the finca.  After waiting about 5 minutes we finally saw him come up on his motorcycle.  He parked it at the top of the hill and we walked him down to the finca.  

I understood that it will take 2-3 hours to fix my internet problem.  If they can’t come early tomorrow to fix it then they will wait until after my brother leaves on February 6^th.

We left the finca at 1pm and I gave the black dog 1 dog biscuit.  On our way down the hill Teresa got a call from Natalia.  I understand I can pay my health insurance today or tomorrow instead of waiting until next Monday the 1^st of February.  I didn’t have my deposit information with me and I wasn’t going to go back to the finca so I guess it will be tomorrow in Laureles.  We were on a Rapido Ochoa van after a 10 minute wait.  It had air conditioning although it wasn’t turned up very high and I was in the front seat right in front of it.  I was so unused to riding in a car that the driver had to remind me to put on my seatbelt.

At Carbón de Leña I had the chicken shish kebab and Teresa had Robalo Gratinado, mazamorra and dessert.  While we were waiting for our food, with my iPad I checked immigration (Cedula not ready for pickup), checked the current exchange rate (3,300 COP), downloaded Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game, and got caught up on my emails.

Laura arrived, with a very bad cold, as we were finishing and she ordered a caserole.  Teresa left to have her nails done.  Laura told me that the movie No Escape with Owen Wilson is very good.  Laura had a baked potato and I learned its called papas cocinada.  Teresa came back as Laura was finishing eating.  Her manicure looked very fancy and only cost 5mil.  The food bill total came to 57,300.

Teresa left to have her hair done, Laura left for work and I went across the street to the park to play chess.  There’s an area that chess players are a little reluctant to use and today I experienced why.  The pigeons pooped on my head, my shirt and my jeans.  From about 3:30 to 6:30 I won 7 games and lost one although I didn’t think any of my opponents were particularly strong.  

We stopped at an ice cream parlor where I had a banana split and Teresa had a fruit salad for 16,800.

We walked over to Exito where Teresa picked up eggs, arepas and a few other things and I picked up a couple pairs of socks for our trip.  I still need a couple more pairs that I hope to purchase at the Laureles Exito tomorrow.

As we were leaving downtown I thought Teresa forgot that she wanted me to get a haircut but as we walked down the street we approached a barber shop and she made me get a haircut for 8mil.

After a 5 minute wait we caught a taxi to the highway and almost immediately were on a bus back to the finca.  Traffic was extraordinarily good and we got back to the finca by 8:30.

This will be my last posting for awhile as I don’t know if I’ll create postings for our vacation starting tomorrow.

I took 2 sleeping pills at 10:30 and went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Always happy.