Wednesday, October 17, 2018

I had a typical night’s sleep, waking up at 7am and getting up at 7:15.

Teresa left early for a gym class and I had breakfast at Carbon de Leña.  They have a new menu, and new prices.  My calenatado and café con leche that used to cost 8,500 pesos now costs 9,200.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show and left for the gym.  I’ve noticed the young blind guy has put on quite a bit of muscle the last few months.  I imagine he probably had quite a bit before his injury and now he’s just putting it back on.  (Btw, why can I talk about a man’s physique but not a woman’s figure?  And if I was gay would it be the other way around?)

A mystery occurred today at the gym.  First some background.  There is a machine called the butterfly.  You can lift weights from 2 different sitting positions, facing away from it and facing toward it.  I do facing away first.  I had been lifting 145# and the next increment is 160#, too much.  So I manually have to go and get 5# weights to add to the machine.  So, today I went and got 2 5# weights and added them to the inside of the machine.  I usually do 20 or more reps.  I remember doing something like 21, 25 and then 30 today.  When I finished I switched the machine for the other direction and then went to remove the weights and they were gone!  Who removed them and when did they remove them?  I never saw anyone near the machine.  Well, that’s my mystery.

Later Laura called me into her bedroom and asked me how to open the horizontal blinds.  I asked her where the hanging rod is as it wasn’t there.  She told me her mother said it was broken.  I asked to see it and she handed it to me.  The end still had the hole in it and it wasn’t broken.  Obviously in Teresa messing with it it came off.  I carefully put it back on the hook for the blinds, showed her how to turn it so the blinds are in a horizontal position then used the parallel strings to raise the blinds.  Consider that lesson 101 in horizontal blind operation.  Lol!

As requested I called Will Johnson today from Oklahoma but all I got was his voice mail.  (Later he told me they were swamped at work and he returned my calls later but they just went to my voice mail.)

I talked to Laura and offered to send an email to the 2 families to put a little pressure on them to make a decision.  She told me to wait until next weekend and we’ll see what happens in the meantime.

About 4pm I told Teresa I could see what looked like storm clouds gathering in the east.  When we finally left about 4:45 it started raining on the way and soon it was a downpour.  We hid out in the small mall across the street from Viva Envigado because it was getting windy and my small umbrella wasn’t up to the task.  I was disappointed we were so close – we only needed 2 more minutes and we would be in the shelter of Exito.  Luckily, the rain stopped 10 minutes later and we headed to the mall. 

First we stopped at Cine Colombia to buy tickets.  I asked the cashier what my balance was and I understood 50mil.  Great!  I asked for 2 tickets and Teresa explained that the balance is only 50 pesos.  Oh, yeah.  I added another 50 mil and we bought 2 tickets to The Wife (7.4) for 4mil each ($1.30).  The cashier mentioned that all the seats are preferred – interesting.  (I only need 3 more visits and I qualify for the platinum card.)

We went up a level to the food court where we had Subway sandwiches and sodas for 28,700 pesos ($9.50).  (Later Teresa informed me that she’s tired of Subway sandwiches so I wonder what the replacement will be.)  After we finished we still had some time to kill.  She called someone on her cellphone and I went to Sport Wings where they confirmed they do show American Football games.

Back in Cine Colombia we bought a small popcorn and a medium soda for 13,200 pesos ($4.50).  I had some trouble finding theater 6 until I asked at the entrance to the platinum area and was told its inside.  (No wonder all the seats are preferred.)  An usher unnecessarily guided us to our seats.

I thought the movie was a little slow developing until I figured out the couple’s secret.  We both liked the movie very much.

We were both happy to see it wasn’t raining on our way back to the apt.

I finally talked to Will Johnson and gave him some more information about Colombian customs.  I also gave him the name and email address of an English speaking Colombian lawyer here that he will probably get some additional advice from.

Laura told me that starting November 15^th she will be working at the same store near Parque Berrio that she worked at over last Christmas season.  We talked a little about her au pair families.  She doesn’t want to give up the other 3 she is less interested in because no one has actually chosen her as yet.  We discussed her lack of driving experience.  I asked her how much it would cost for her to get more practice.  She said 2 hours a day for 5 days would cost 95,000 pesos.  That’s about $30.  I told her that’s like nothing.  She said she wishes she could say that.  I told her that between now and November 15^th she should take 1, 2, or 3 weeks of driving lessons, enough where she feels more comfortable and just before she leaves for the US we’ll get her another week.

Teresa and I talked about our apartment.  Since we don’t have another place to move to I understand we’re stuck here for now.  I told her how difficult it will be to find another apt.  For example, if December 1^st we find a lovely apartment and if we have to give our current apt owner 3 months notice obviously we’re going to lose the new apartment.  She said she will talk to Don Orlando, the owner of the agency, to see if we can renew our current apt on a month to month basis.  After all, our bedroom ceiling leaks whenever it rains and we have no gas for the oven or hot showers.

Tomorrow Teresa has 2 classes early in the morning and I, weather permitting, will go bike riding.

Joke of the day

A man asked his wife, "What would you most like for your birthday?"
She said, "I'd love to be ten again."
On the morning of her birthday, he got her up bright and early and they went to a theme park. He put her on every ride in the park - The Death Slide, The Screaming Loop, The Wall of Fear. She went on every ride there was.
She staggered out of the theme park five hours later, her head reeling and her stomach turning.
Then off to a movie theater, popcorn, soda and sweets.
At last she staggered home with her husband and collapsed into bed.
Her husband leaned over and asked, "Well, dear, what was it like being ten again?"
One eye opened and she groaned, "Actually, honey, I meant dress size!"