Saturday, March 30, 2019

Despite getting up a few times during the night I felt I slept well finally waking/getting up at 8:45.

I left the apt at 9:45 and walked up to Avenida Poblado.  I was a little surprised by how much progress had been made on the new Smart Fit gym.

I quickly caught a bus to Poblado.  At Envios Market I picked up my April Reader’s Digest and paid 39mil for April’s rent.

I walked up to Cedimed where I withdrew a bunch of 20s.  I also grabbed the Poblado version of the Gente newspaper.

Back down the hill to Avenida Poblado I caught a bus to Starbucks.  I was wrong about a Peruvian restaurant going in the old Krispy Kreme location.  Actually it’s next door and something else is going on in the old KK location.

I had my usual cold café mocca blanco with whole milk without whipped cream but this time I was given an option I didn’t understand.  She called another girl over who asked me in English if I wanted it with ice cubes or frappe (which is like a slushy).  I asked for the latter and I took it to an outside table.

I was reading a Chess Life magazine when I reached for something and knocked over my drink.  I had only finished about 1/3 of it.  I went inside and got a girl to come out with a mop and clean it up.  She offered me a fresh one but I declined.

I got a call from Chuck from New Orleans.  He’s finally sold their house with an upcoming close date of April 11^th and then they are going to visit some friends and relatives in the East.  By late April they will have moved to Envigado.  Darnelly has had her surgery and is in physical therapy.  Hopefully, that won’t slow them down.  When they get here Chuck will get a spousal visa.  In fact, Chuck if you’re reading this, he can come on a tourist stamp and he’ll have 90 days (another 90 if he needs it) to apply for the spousal visa.

Across the street I stopped at Pasteur pharmacy where I bought 10 Metacarbamol tablets for 3,120 pesos ($1).

I took a bus back to Envigado arriving at the apt by 12:15.  Btw, the portero told me that their new guard house is still 2-3 weeks from completion.

I forgot to mention that last night Laura went out with that young man from Boston.  He must have driven about 7 hours (or flown?) to see her.  Interesting!  Later Laura told me its 11 hours driving or 1 hour by air.  His name is Lenny and he has a fishing boat in Alaska.

We have a little problem with our hummingbird feeder.  It leaks slightly and because the balcony railing slopes outwards it drips down to the balcony below us.  At some point the downstairs neighbor will probably complain so I’m going to see if I can buy a can of Playdoh to put on the edge of our balcony to contain it long enough for it to dry naturally.

Teresa informed me that we don’t have any meat so for lunch she made me tortilla soup.

In the Poblado Gente newspaper there were articles about 1) By 2030 Medellin will be the latin american capital for electric mobility, 2) a memorial park will be built in the previous location of Pablo Escobar’s building, 3) Parque del Rio is in stage 1B (whatever that means), 4) 120 kilometers of bicycle routes have been constructed, 5) 300,000 visitors arrived in Medellin to view last month’s (bicycle race) Tour Colombia 2.1, 6) Medellin will host the World Cities Summit July 10^th to 12^th, and 7) April 22^nd they will start a 4 month project to renovate Parque Poblado.

About 3pm Teresa said she had a good idea for dinner tonight – we’ll go to Mu, if it isn’t raining.  I said it won’t and it was not 5 minutes later that I heard a clap of thunder and outside it was raining.  But luckily it only lasted 5 minutes.  But 5 minutes later it started again so we’ll see.  Again it only lasted 5 minutes.

Teresa called Mu just after 6pm and placed an order for a medium plate of ribs.  I dressed and went downstairs and soon was in a taxi to Poblado.  The driver waited outside, I ran in and paid 62mil ($20) for the ribs and back outside the driver took me back to our apt for a total of 17mil.  I was back by 6:45.  There was almost no traffic in Poblado probably because they have increased pico y placa to include Saturdays.  What that is is only those with license plates ending in a specific digit can drive on main thoroughfares during certain busy times.

The ribs were great.  In fact I think the owner made a mistake because it was (at least) a large order with 9-10 ribs.  We have enough left over for lunch for both of us tommorrow.

6,171 steps today.

Joke of the day

Two farmers, John and Henry, were sitting around talking about their day when John notices a pig with a wooden leg hobbling across the front yard. He turned to his friend and asks, "Henry, why does that pig have a wooden leg?"

"Well, John, that pig...," his eyes mist up, "That pig's mighty special! A few weeks back a wild boar attacked me while I was in the woods. That pig there came a runnin', went after that boar and fought him off. Saved my life!"

"And the boar tore up his leg?"

"No, just got a few scratches, nothing too serious. But that night the barn caught fire. That ol' pig started squealin' like he was stuck, woke us up, and before we got out here, the darn thing had herded the other animals out of the barn and saved them all!"

"Ahh so that's when he hurt his leg?"

"No, John, the next day my tractor hit a rock and rolled down the hill into the pond. I got knocked clean out. When I came to, that pig had dove into the pond and dragged me out...but that's not how he hurt his leg." "Oh no, no, he was fine. Cleaned him up real nice, too."

"Okay, Henry. So just tell me. How did he lose his leg?"

"Well", Henry begins to explain, "A pig that special...you don't want to eat all at once."