Thursday, December 29, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once 3:30, finally waking at 6am and getting up at 6:45.

I received my Social Security deposit with the 8.7% increase. Sweet!

I left the apt at 9am and walked to Parva. Jerry joined me about 10:30. We talked about a number of challenges we gringos have here in Colombia. He told me he uses a free TV service through Youtube and something about DBID and Troypoint.com. I’ll be exploring that further. He suggested I might be able to renew my driver’s license earlier than waiting until September, the month before it expires.

I left and just past Los Porteños I noticed that café Alfamore is closed permanently. No surprise as I seldom saw any customers there.

Teresa requested and I bought a kilo of papas criolla in Ara. A man came up to me and in English asked where I’m from. When I said, “Chicago” he said his brother lives there. His name is George (Jorge) and he lives in our apt complex.

Lunch was the last of our turkey as turkey vegetable soup.

I checked online and found this:

That gives me a little more flexibility.

Teresa asked me to deposit 180mil into a Bancolombia account so I guess we’re on again for New Year’s Eve in Guatape.

I walked to Envios Market where I picked up the box of Cora Lee English toffee Jeannie sent me for Christmas. I gifted a taste to all 5 people working there today.

Back at the apt Teresa was getting her massage.

I exchanged some things and left at 1:30 and walked to the mall. In Auros I had some chess notes printed, had my passport information page printed and scanned to my USB drive, and had my CS signature page scanned to my USB drive.

Upstairs I made a small ATM withdrawal and went to the Bancolombia consignacion machine. Unfortunately, it had this message on the screen

I wasn’t sure what they meant by “entregar” as my translator came up with “deliver” but that didn’t explain to me if it’s not taking cash or not returning cash. For the latter I thought they would use “devolucion” so I figured it won’t take cash.

I went downstairs and had a latte and glass of ice water in Urbania. When I turned the glass it looked like a hair on the side that I couldn’t fish out. When I looked further I saw it was a crack. I pointed it out to the waiter (una grieta) and he brought me a fresh glass of ice water. After ruminating over my problem a bit I decided I should go into the bank itself and make a deposit with a cashier. I paid my bill and went upstairs to the bank. When the young lady was helping me obtain my turn number I saw one of the options was for people with disabilities or over the age of 60. I told her I’m 77 and she gave me a special ticket. I asked her if this was faster and she just shrugged her shoulders. It turned out to be a 45-minute wait for a 2-minute transaction.

I bought a large box of MPs and half a dozen apples in Exito. Coming out I saw a young man wearing a Chicago Bears cap but he didn’t even speak English. My taxi driver did and I told him a couple jokes on my way back to the apt.

I see my pension deposits in USAA so all is good for the New Year.

For supper we ordered pizza from Gloria’s and the owner delivered it to the porteria and I went down and picked it up.

Jimmy texted me, “The doctors are stopping treatment on mom. Please don’t reach out to Jeannie about it yet because mom is supposed to tell her some time today, she’s getting back from seeing Jacob’s parents.” ☹ I recall when doctor’s stopped treatment on my mom’s cancer she only lived a couple more months.

Today I got in 6,790 steps.

 

Fun pix