Thursday, January 16, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 9:30, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 5:45.

It looks like I can save $32.99 a day on a Budget car rental if I use my USAA card and decline their Cover The Car (LDW) coverage.

I met Marcos at Tostao at 9:30 where we each had a medium café con leche. I told him about my Chicago vacation research and he recommended Turo for car rental but when I told him about the discount using my USAA card he thought that was a better deal. He left at 10:15 and I moved to Peccato where I had a latte while starting to go through my Chess Life magazine. I left at 11am and returned to the apt.

I tried accessing the online library books but it didn’t seem to work like the demo video showed. I used my magicJack to call the library and a lady tried to help me although she said it would be best if I came in with my computer and Kindle so she could help me. Lol.

I left the apt at noon and walked to the mall. I purchased a 4^th row ticket to 2014’s Interstellar (8.7) in their iMax for 8mil. Interesting that it was printed on paper instead of the usual cardboard. Teresa called and asked me to meet them for lunch in Ikea. I had their mixed lasagna and a Coke and they each had their salmon plate and shared a bottle of water for a total of 122,410 pesos.

I said goodbye at 1:15 and went downstairs to Cine Colombia where I purchased a large Coke for 15,200 pesos to go with my free Platinum popcorn. I was quite cold in my shorts and t-shirt but managed not to freeze to death. At Runpee’s 2^nd recommended pee time I made a quick trip to the restroom. The movie was pretty good although the ending was a little confusing.

I was about to leave the mall when I remembered to call Teresa. They were in Juan Valdez outside Ikea. I met them there and Teresa was hungry so we returned to Ikea where she had their chicken meatballs and a vegetable soup for 21,890 pesos. We walked MT down to the Exito exit where we said goodbye and caught a taxi back to the apt.

I finally found a book in the Illinois library but it turns out I already purchased it and it’s in my Kindle ready to read.

I finished watching the limited TV series The Breakthrough.

I lost a game to my “nephew” in 62 moves dropping my rating to 1568. ☹

When I started reading The Enemy on my Kindle, I found I had already read it. ☹ I managed to check out a different library book and this time the process went faster. 😊

My new Pirc opening with black hasn’t given me the best results, 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses in 6 games but I’ll stick with it a little longer.

 

EL ARROYO

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 9pm, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 5am.

I found this comment from one of my blog readers who goes by the name of Expat: “You don’t say what you are doing about insurance cover. The auto insurance cover offered by many US credit cards often has small print to exclude you from coverage if you are an overseas resident.”

The usual plan is for Teresa to go to her 7am gym class then return to the apt around 8:15 to make me breakfast. We’re switching that around a bit today because I’m up so early.

I left the apt at 6:30 and at this hour found Smartfit a little busier than usual. I completed my workout then moved to Ganso y Castor where I had a ham, cheese, and tomato omelet and 2 lattes for 49,800 pesos ($11.50). 

I replaced the missing peanut and the squirrel took it when I wasn’t looking so I replaced it again. Workers were carting away the last of the Christmas decorations:

I was just about to leave when Teresa called and informed me she was hungry and asked me to meet her at Los Portenos. I moved there and she arrived a minute later. She had a couple fried eggs and a latte and paid for it with her own money. I returned to the apt for my shower while Teresa stopped off at Ara to buy a few groceries. (I’m wondering where she gets her cash?).

I copied USAA’s Guide to Benefits to my USB drive for later printing.

Talking with Teresa I got more details about her embassy “interview”. It was a real assembly line operation. There was a line of applicants and the embassy rep only looked at their passport and his computer screen. Most of the time he just said, “no, siguiente” (no, next) and the line moved on.  The rep wasn’t interested in seeing the stack of paperwork they brought with them and those that wore high heels, he couldn’t even see them because he was apparently standing on a riser looking down on them through a window. Teresa was then asked if she wants to go to Chicago followed by the questions I had mentioned earlier. He said “aprobada”, handed back her passport with the piece of paper and it was the next woman’s turn. Teresa was #15 in line and she didn’t see any of the other women in front of her get approved and of course she doesn’t know if any after her were approved. MT believes she got approved because she’s married to a gringo but I said it might also be because we’re not young like the other applicants.

Teresa got a call and told me my package is in the porteria. I went down right away to claim it. The box contained 6 bottles of Calendula flower capsules, September & November issues of Chess Life magazine, and 3 envelopes. The envelopes were nothing important and I just threw them away.

I left the apt at 2:30 and took a Sabaneta bus to the used bookstore where I exchanged paperbacks for 4mil. I stopped at the copy center where I printed the first 5 pages of the USAA Benefits Guide about their Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver. I stopped in Todo Drogas where I purchased a couple of medicinal items. I stopped at the luggage repair place, Carrera 43 #33 sur 19, to replace one of the broken carabiners on my laptop bag. (I accidentally broke the plastic thing years ago.) The girl checked something (probably someone) in the back and told me they didn’t have a plastic replacement but showed me a metal one. I told her that would work fine. She asked if I wanted to replace both of them so they would match and I gave her the go ahead. She returned 5 minutes later with the repair and I paid 40mil ($9.30). I continued on to Eduardo Madrid for coffee.

I don’t know if I should mention this. It’s one of the downsides of being old (or maybe having urinary incontinence). I made a trip to the restroom and used the urinal and after I was done, I found I had dribbled all over the front of my shorts. (The same thing happened to me yesterday to a lesser extent.) I took a seat and had a latte and when I left 90 minutes later at least the wetness was no longer noticeable.

ONEIPAMETATO1453 (1489) was beating me and I was just trying to force a draw so I wouldn’t lose so many rating points. He checked me all over the place and when he finally couldn’t check me again, I checkmated him in 4 moves raising my rating 5 points to 1584. Now I’m losing another game to Mr_Blamo and I’m trying to force a draw in that one also. I think he just made a mistake which may cost him the game.

My next move in our vacation planning is to call USAA to see if a resident of another country is eligible for their car rental discount and insurance coverage.

Teresa and I made plans for Sunday. We’ll take a Didi and pick up MT and go to Terminal Sur where we’ll take a bus to El Retiro for the day.

My no-see-um bites only bothered me a little for 72 hours even though I can still see them and I haven’t had any new skin lesions for the past few days so I’m happy about that. Maybe the latter is due to a change in the weather, for the better?

I finished reading Lee Child’s Persuader Jack Reacher #7 on my Kindle.

Tomorrow I’ll try to download a free book using my new library card.

 

JUST FUNNY

 

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once at 2:45, couldn’t fall back asleep, got up at 3:30 and read a little, returned to bed, finally waking/getting up at 6:15.

I must have ordered my Uber earlier than usual today because I arrived at Unicentro 15 minutes before opening. I got to the table first with Jose joining me five minutes later. He had an egg casserole and I had the French toast. I also got a bottle of water to go so I could take half an Excedrin to help clear my head.

We adjourned to the food court where I had the Black pieces in the first game. I got myself in trouble pretty quickly, fought on but resigned on the 30^th move.

I wasn’t tired but I figured my lack of sleep would hit me soon.  That’s my excuse anyway.

It was only 11am when we started the second game where I had the White pieces. He got an early advantage but late in the game I had an opportunity to win the exchange (rook for a knight and a pawn) but I his king was exposed and I had a number of pieces nearby so looked for a checkmate and found it and he resigned four moves later.

It was only 1pm when I ordered a Didi to take me to Viva Envigado. My driver was Elson the young guy with all the tattoos and piercings. He remembered me also and mentioned I was with my wife so I guess it was a trip to or from our apt.

In Viva Envigado I had lunch in Best Burger, a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke. The least enjoyable thing about the meal was the meat.

I wonder what Chicago Meatballs are:

I made an ATM withdrawal and paid the epm and Claro bills.

I stopped by the egg section in Exito and saw only one carton of 32 eggs so I grabbed it and paid right away instead of waiting and coming back later.

I had a latte in a very busy Urbania until 4pm and there was no wait for a taxi to return me to the apt.

Per google (slightly edited), “USAA’s Visa card benefits include rental car insurance. If you pay for your rental car with a USAA credit card, you have secondary coverage for damage and theft of the vehicle up to $50,000.

You must rent the car in your own name for no more than 31 consecutive days using your USAA credit card. The full rental must be paid in full with your card, USAA reward points or a combination of the two. You can’t split the cost with another credit card. Also, you must decline the CDW/LDW offered at the rental car counter.

Your insurance also covers personal injury or damage to personal property, damages to other vehicles, property or injury to another person.”

Next, I need to see what increase in my credit limit USAA will give me. It looks like I’ll need at least $1000 but if they can give me more, we might stay in the US a little longer.

I changed my mobile number for my Capital One account to my MagicJack number; we’ll see if that works for me for future identity validation requests.

I watched another episode of season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix.

 

JUST FUNNY

Monday, January 13, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, slept through the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:15.

Since I was concerned that an hour and 40 minutes might not be enough time in Houston to get through immigration and get to our next gate, I inquired on Facebook and received this opinion:

I left the apt at 8am and completed my workout in Smartfit. I had a latte in Ganso y Castor then replaced a couple missing peanuts before returning to the apt.

I started looking into renting a car with Avis or Budget, using my USAA discount.

I left the apt just before noon and took a Didi to Mayorca mall. (Teresa had a gym class here earlier then she had coffee with a friend.) I took a table inside Crepes & Waffles and Teresa arrived 10 minutes later. I tried something new, Beef Thai Salad with a mango juice and Teresa had the salad bar.

The total came to 59,400 pesos ($13.75); looking at the receipt I think they forgot to charge for Teresa’s salad bar. We checked out a few stores and found 2 sleeveless t-shirts for me in Racketball for a total of 139,800 pesos ($32.35), not bad. I understand we’ll be keeping these for our trip to Chicago.

We had yogurt ice cream in Percimon before returning to the apt by taxi.

I received a text message from Innovation Corp that my package has arrived in Bogota. (Interesting that I haven’t had any back pain since I ran out of pills, maybe it’s healed?) I used Paypal to pay the $18.63 so my package will be released and sent here.

I googled how much I have to have on my credit card and found these:

So, adding 25% (for a Toyota Corolla for 19 days) means I’ll need between $1,962.08 and $2,190.50 limit on my USAA credit card. So, I guess I’ll be asking for a new credit limit of at least $2,500.

I think the rainy season is OVER.

 

JUST FUNNY

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, had trouble falling asleep, the last time I looked at my watch it was just after 1am, woken up by truck hydraulics at 6am, finally waking/getting up at 6:15.

I met Glenn at 9am in Olivenza. I told him about my frustrations with DirecTV and no internet and my progress for our trip to Chicago.

He informed me there are other car rental options like Zipcar and Turo which I’ll be checking out.

He still hasn’t made an appointment with Teresa’s recommended gastroenterologist because he’s feeling better. I told him he should get started on the appointment as it’s likely to be months away.

He gifted me a couple of LL Bean t-shirts that he doesn’t like because they don’t have a pocket. They are only medium but they fit me but I don’t like the tight crew collar so I’ll probably gift them to Kelly.

I left at 11am and walked back to the apt.

I see from a message Glenn sent me that Zipcar charges about $90 a day. Not sure what the extras would be.

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but MT did get her January Social Security payment and I told her the first step in renewing her passport is to get a new passport photo.

I need to lift the security freeze on my account with Equifax then request an increase of my USAA credit account limit. I may need this in order to rent a car.

For lunch, Teresa wants to return to the restaurant in the mountains, Donde Albiero, Calle 36D sur #9-250.

I called Equifax and got a 2-week hold on my credit freeze. Then it will automatically revert back to a frozen account.

I put on my convo pants, a t-shirt and  some insect repellant and at 2:45 we took a Didi to Donde Albiero high in the mountains for 14,400 pesos. I thought these tables were overflow from the restaurant

but they are actually the line waiting to get in. LuckIly, there were only two of us so the wait was only about 15 minutes. As we entered the restaurant I felt the first no-see-um, a bite on my right wrist.

I ordered the ribs again with fries, and a Coke and it came with a small salad. Teresa ordered the sancocho again, ate half of it and got the other half to go (she brought a portable pot with her to carry it in).

While there I heard the Spanish version of the 1963 hit Sukiyaki over their speakers. 😊

The total check came to 120mil. I got my 2^nd bad bite under my left upper arm as we were leaving the restaurant. (I had a couple more bites but they weren’t as serious.)  I ordered a Didi for the suggested 15mil, got one after a 10-minute wait, he cancelled and they were expanding the search for a car. After another 10 minutes I cancelled and used InDrive to order a ride for 30mil cash. I got one and he was only 5 minutes away so we got back to the apt by 6pm, just before dark. I don’t think Teresa knows I paid so much for it. 😊

I submitted a request online with USAA to increase my credit limit to $5000 but now they want me to call them.

I watched some 60 Minutes in the evening before reading more of my current Kindle book.

 

EL ARROYO

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once at 5:45, finally waking/getting up at 7:15.

I took an Uber (Didi couldn’t seem to find the exact location) to Daniel’s new barbershop at Transversal 34DD sur #32C-05. It’s on a corner across from a church and a small park. It’s larger and very open with 2 barber chairs, a manicure/pedicure station, and a separate waiting area with television.

The haircut took about an hour but the manicure/pedicure took over 2 hours and I’m not very happy about that. The manicurist was a young lady with a nose ring and a few tattoos including one on her forearm in English that said, “Everything is going to be okay”. 😊 I paid Daniel the usual 50mil (included a 5mil tip) and the manicurist 50mil (also included a 5mil tip).

By the time I left, Daniel was working on another customer and the other barber had arrived and was working on another customer so it appears his business is successful. I told him I’d see him in four weeks.

I returned to the apt by Uber and Teresa informed me the Direct TV guy never showed up. ☹

Teresa received a call at 12:30 then informed me the Direct TV guy will be here about 1pm. He showed up just before 1pm and spent an hour here. 

He checked the wiring in the hall and I guess something must have been disconnected. We purchased a new remote (smaller than the old) for 25mil and got his personal contact information should we have future problems. 😊

I left the apt about 2:30 and carried my laptop to Ganso y Castor. Initially, I couldn’t log into their Wi-Fi either, but after I uninstalled the NordVPN I was able to get internet again.

I made plans to meet Glenn for breakfast tomorrow but I’m sure next Sunday Teresa will want to go to some pueblo like El Retiro.

I reserved June 27^th to July 8^th (July 9^th to the 15^th aren’t currently available) for

Private Loft studio above detached Garage - Guesthouses for Rent in Des Plaines, Illinois, United States - Airbnb

Which is walking distance from downtown and the train station.

I stopped in Ara as Teresa wanted me to buy 2 bottles of suero, whatever that is, for her but when I returned to the apt she said it wasn’t the right thing – it was a salad dressing. I had asked an employee and he went in back and brought it out so I thought I was the right thing.

When I returned to the apt I got internet; I’m so happy I won’t have to go to the Tigo/Une office or Monterrey mall.

I checked my bank balances to ensure they matched my excel spreadsheets then updated my blog postings.

ONEIPAMETATO1453 resigned our game increasing my rating to 1573.

My next task for our trip is to check on renting a car.

 

JUST FUNNY

Friday, January 10, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night, woke up at 5am and got up at 5:30.

I left the apt at 8am and completed my workout in Smartfit which wasn’t as busy as usual today.

I replaced the missing peanut in the park then had a latte in Ganso y Castor for about an hour.

I exchanged a few texts with Alejandro but he didn’t have any advice about my computer internet problem.

We left the apt at noon, had the Didi pick up MT at her complex then drop us off at Santafe mall.

My brother reminded me that our mother passed away 30 years ago today – 1/10/1995. I really didn’t expect her to still be alive today at 102 but it would have been nice if she had lived another 10-15 years.

The ladies went shopping while I went to Valentina’s and had a couple lattes and a chocolate crookie. When they returned (Teresa found a pair of sandals in Zara) they had lattes while sharing a slice of yogurt cake.

We stopped in Medipiel because Teresa had a 50mil coupon but I guess the original price was too expensive as she didn’t buy anything.

We bought 120mil of groceries in Jumbo before returning to Envigado by taxi.

I received a text message from Natalia that our health insurance will increase to 228,100 pesos ($52.50) a month this year.

Alejandro believes it’s a Tigo/Une (router) problem. To make sure I'm going to take my laptop to an internet café: If my computer works there, then it's a Tigo/Une problem. If it doesn't work there then it's a computer problem. 

 

JUST FUNNY