Thursday, October 31, 2024

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

Today, or tonight at least, is Halloween.

I ordered 4 bottles of 400mg Calendula Flower capsules from iHerb for $29.66, including shipping.

I left the apt at 8:15 and walked to the mall. I recycled a few plastic bottles then made a cash withdrawal from the nearby ATM, all 50s.

I went upstairs to the banking area and withdrew another 2,000,000 pesos, mixed bills – 20s thru 100s. I went into the bank and easily (no line) paid for the apt rent. (Our rent went up today to 2,275,376 pesos, a bargain from what I hear about nearby rent increases.) I went down the hall to Bancolombia where I quickly paid for the gym and our health insurance, even though there was only one working consignacion ATM.

I went outside to the concrete benches and Marcos soon arrived. We went inside to Urbania where we had lattes (cute)

and discussed recent events. He told me about his “heart attack” scare that turned out to be arthritis in his left arm that he’s now taking medicine for. He also will be switching to a different TV service and he’ll let me know how it goes. I briefly shared my concern that if and when our health gets to bad we should consider a nursing home or assisted living or something that takes the stress off our wives. He left about 9:45 to take care of his errands and I hung around for a bit.

Teresa called at 10:30 and informed me we don’t have running water and it will be off for 6-7 hours so she’s going to El Hueco with a girlfriend to buy purse materials then she’s going to pick up her mammogram results at Clinica Medellin so I’ll be on my own for lunch.

I left at noon and stopped in Champions where I tried on a pair of Quechua convertible pants size 34/34. They fit but it would be better if I got Teresa’s opinion first so I didn’t purchase them.

I stopped in Ikea and asked if there was a way to get directly to the cafeteria without going through the shopping maze. The guard pointed behind him and I walked over there and it was a café with coffee, their world-famous cinnamon rolls and a few other items that reminded me a little of Pricesmart’s café.

I returned to the same man and asked how to get to the restaurant and he pointed up the escalator and to turn right. I did and I found it.

I went to the serving area and got their famous meatballs (nothing special), skipped the peas and lingenberry but had mashed potatoes and got a cinnamon roll and a soda.

The total came to 29,470 pesos ($7). Btw, the air conditioning is on so high it’s quite cold inside, not conducive to wanting to hang around.

From the Ikea exit it was a short trip to the back entrance of Exito through the parking garage. I bought 2 bags of milk and containers of mustard and coffee and returned to the apt by taxi.

I watched some news until Teresa returned at 5pm.

I put the pumpkin (maybe next year I’ll get around to carving it) outside our apt door. Similar to last year our first trick or treaters arrived at 6:30. By 7pm I’d given out most of the first box of 24 1.9oz full size Baby Ruths. It was then quiet for a while and I was concerned that was all we would have. (Last year it rained and I thought that might have forced more kids inside; no rain this evening.) Between 7:30 and 8:15 we had waves of trick or treaters and I gave out all the rest of the candy bars and had to disappoint three kids. What they do is they ring all the doorbells on a floor to see which will open, so more than once I opened the door and no one was there until they all moved to my door. Early in the evening I even gave candy bars to a few of the parents.

Note to self: Next year buy a few more than 50, and I think I’ll switch to Butterfingers.

 

IN HONOR OF IKEA