Wednesday, February 1, 2017

I slept well only getting up once during the night.  I finally woke/got up at 8am.

I took a shower and had breakfast and then Teresa asked me to help her with the mattress.  We removed it and she removed a LOT of dust bunnies from underneath the bed frame.  We flipped it and were putting it back with Laura’s help when my Terry cloth wrap started slipping off.  Laura nearly died thinking I had nothing on underneath.  Lol.  It was funny to see her reaction.

I headed to the bank to pay the rent and my health insurance.

As I approached I saw a long line but thankfully it was for the ATM machines.  There was only one man at the payment machine and he finished quickly.  I went thru the steps but it didn’t take me to the point where it would ask how much I’m going to deposit.  I tried again, with the same result, so I left.

Back at the apt I waited an hour for Laura to get ready so she could go back to the bank with me. 

When we got back to the bank there was now a line of about 10 waiting to use the deposit machine.  I saw Jose using one of the ATM machines and I called to him.  He came over and we talked briefly.  When he left, Laura told me she thought he was gay and to be careful.  Lol.  After a 20 minute wait we had no problem making my payments.

We walked across the street from the park where Laura had a large cheese stick (pastelito de queso) and a soda.

Back at the apt I used my iPad to take a photo of my receipts and emailed them to their proper recipients.

Teresa showed me the 20mil bill the taxi driver wouldn’t accept the other day and on closer inspection it’s obvious to me now that it’s counterfeit.  I’m going to keep it to show my brother.

Teresa dictated, Laura wrote, and I signed a letter for the real estate agency stating our intent to give up the apt on May 1^st.

Well, I guess I won’t be going to the gym today.  I’ll try to get there early tomorrow.

I left the apt at 2:20 and after waiting 10 minutes for a bus I started walking to the metro station.  As soon as I got to the bottom of the hill the Metro Bus passed me.

At the Envigado station I stopped and said hello to Herman.  I asked how business is going and he said it will pick up soon as it will get warmer.

I got off at the Industriales Station and took the bridge over the highway.  I saw a side path coming up but since no one was going that way I continued straight ahead.  I soon saw the entrance to the Metro Plus bus station.  These are the elongated buses that have their own lane.

It looked like there were two ways to go.  I asked a police officer that I wanted to go to Los Molinos CC and he took me someone working there who took me to the proper line.  A bus came a couple minutes later.  It got a little crowded but not quite cattle car crowded.

I got off at the first station (Carrera 82) after Avenida Ochenta (80).  I walked a couple blocks up the hill to Carrera 84 and then turned right heading north.  After walking about 8 blocks I was kicking myself for not bringing Dario’s address.  I knew I would find it if I kept heading north and a little east.  I finally found it and I arrived exactly at 4pm when I was supposed to.  I first stopped at the small store across the street where I bought a bottle of water and, since they didn’t have Snickers, I bought a Jumbo bar which also has chocolate and peanuts.

Dario was waiting for me and we went into the clubhouse where we set up 4 plastic tables with chairs.  About 4 young preteens showed up and started playing amongst themselves.  Then Dario and I started playing with the chess set and clock I brought with me.  In the first game we were only about 10 minutes into the game when I pinned his queen against his king and he resigned.   (I should have brought a scorepad with me but somehow I thought the games were going to be different.)  I won the next 2 games and then he asked me to play one of the kids.  I won 2 quick games against a young boy and then Dario came back.  I won another game against him and he asked to play a 15 minute game (we usually play 30 minutes for each side).  We did and it was real close.  In the ending he had a rook, bishop and 5 pawns, 2 of which were doubled.  I had a rook, knight, and 5 pawns, one of which was passed.  I ended up barely queening a pawn and he resigned.  He didn’t want to play anymore so I left at about 6:15.

I walked down the hill to Avenida 80 and after a 5 minute wait I was on a Circular Sur 302 bus.  This one didn’t have a machine so I paid the 2,000 pesos in cash.  The bus only had about 10 people on it which I thought was unusual at that hour.

I got off a block from the Aguacatala station.  Passing 6 buses parked on the street outside the station I observed that only the first 2 had the Civica readers installed (at least that I could see).

I took the metro to Envigado and quickly caught a Metro Bus to Parque Envigado.  I was able to use my new Civica card on both the metro and the Envigado bus.  (Each of the metro trips appeared to cost me 2,000 pesos but the bus from the metro was only 1,500.  I think it gave me an “integrado” rate because of the proximity in time to the two rides.)  I stopped at the bakery that sells churros but it was closing for the night.  I guess I’ll have to celebrate my 5 victories with a churro another time.

I was back at the apt by 7:30.

T-shirt of the day.

The following wasn’t really a t-shirt, but a sign, that was too good to pass up: “2/3 of Trump’s wives were immigrants … proving once again that we need immigrants to do jobs most Americans wouldn’t do”.