Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 11:30, again at 4:15, finally waking/getting up by alarm at 6:30.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 4,126 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 4 hours and 17 minutes. ☹

At 7:15 I started ordering my Didi to take me to Unicentro mall for 22,450 pesos. Traffic was very slow until we passed a stalled truck in the left-hand lane. The fruit truck wasn’t there so no banana today. I was just early enough to walk around the outside of the mall once and then I saw the fruit truck and bought my banana. I was right behind Jose as I entered the restaurant. I had my usual 2 scrambled eggs, Italian sausages, almond croissant and latte for 47,637 pesos.

We adjourned to the food court where we played two long games. The first ended in a draw but I lost the second one.

It was 3pm when we finished and I ordered a Didi to take me to Viva Envigado for 22,400 pesos. I’ve noticed the last few rides drivers have avoided the expressway for the early part of the trip.

In Viva Envigado I had chicken teriyaki in Sarku’s. Teresa called and asked me to pick up olive oil in Ara. By the time I was finished eating it was 4pm with no time for coffee. I walked to Ara where I bought the olive oil, 4 gala apples for me and a bag of milk.

 I watched some news and another episode of The Man in the High Castle.

Teresa somehow ordered 3 boxes of zopiclone that she had delivered so now I have more time to wean myself off them completely.

I finished reading Lucy Foley’s The Guest List on my Kindle.

 

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FUNNY

Monday, May 18, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 3:45, couldn’t fall back asleep so I got up at 4:30. ☹

According to my Fitbit, I got in 2,153 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 2 hours and 56 minutes. ☹

Today is another holiday, Dia de la Ascension.

I had an hour nap after breakfast and felt much better.

I left the apt at 8:45 and found Smartfit much less busy than usual. I completed my workout including 18 minutes on the treadmill.

I had a latte in Ganso y Castor for about an hour before returning to the apt.

After lunch I planned on going to Gardenia but I just couldn’t motivate myself to leave the apt. I’ve been feeling very lazy lately, maybe tied to my trying to wean myself off the sleeping pills and my restorative rest hasn’t been the same.

I won a game vs Troyclough increasing my rating to 1499.

I watched news of the shooting in San Diego.

I finished season 3 of The Man in the High Castle.

At 8pm I skipped The Rachel Maddow Show and started my pre-sleep routine.

 

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Sunday, May 17, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 11pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 1am, fell back asleep pretty quickly, finally waking at 5am and getting up at 6am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 7,941 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 4 hours, 56 minutes.

The plan for today was to go to El Retiro but Teresa didn’t like that it’s overcast so we may not go. We’ll wait a little longer and see if the weather changes.

After breakfast I returned to bed and slept for about an hour.

I told Teresa about the robot dog yesterday and she told me Monica was playing with it before she met up with us.

The new plan for today is to have lunch in El Correo (sort of a belated Mother’s Day lunch) then go to El Tesoro so the ladies can check out the stores but MT wasn’t answering her phone. Last chance she finally answered, we left the apt at 1:30, picked her up by Didi and continued on to El Correo for 17,300 pesos.

The ladies shared a chicken breast plate while I had the baby beef, a baked potato and a Coke. The total check with tip was 221,796 pesos ($59).

I ordered another Didi to take us to El Tesoro for 10,100 pesos.

Teresa expected the mall to not be busy which it wasn’t until we turned the corner by H&M and encountered this World Cup card collecting & swapping event:

The ladies went in to check out H&M while I took a seat on a sofa. It looks by this photo that there is a page for each team (here South Africa) where you paste on the individual players' card.

When the ladies returned, we went up to Valentina’s where they had a slice of cheesecake and I a slice of carrot cake (mine was dry) and we all had coffees for 66,000 pesos.

Coming down the escalator the crowd for the World Cup card trading was even larger.

At the taxi stand there was no line as we returned to Envigado for 27,000 pesos.

I watched 60 Minutes then started my pre-sleep routine.

 

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FUNNY

 

Bob Burford - Anecdotes

 How old am I? Well, I'm old enough to remember a time that just the mere suspicion that a politician has attempted to molest a child would have been headline news and the end of the politician's career. In the cesspool that is MAGA such a thing isn't even worth a brief mention.

The Secretary of the Interior, testifying before Congress, just said that solar panels were unreliable because they stop working when the sun goes down!  Like, the ignorant fool doesn't have a clue that we can store electricity during daytime to be used at nighttime. It's called a battery!  He's the Secretary of the Interior for god's sake!!!

For 45 years of my adult life I've traveled, lived and worked all over the U.S. During those years I've worked as a telegrapher (Chicago), sales rep (Detroit), office manager (Santa Monica), counter clerk (Tucson), industrial engineer (Michigan), typographer (Michigan), metropolitan newspaper editor (Washington Post), jazz guitarist (North America), adjunct professor of jazz guitar (Michigan), magazine editor (Reno), and private investigator (Nashville). For years people have suggested that I write a book. I could come up with only one idea: that would be to write a bathroom book. So, one day with nothing better to do, I sat down and began writing a short story. Thus: a few dozen tales later: "Anecdotes".

Available on Amazon.

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 4am, fell back asleep pretty quickly, finally waking at 6:30 and getting up at 7am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,001 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 5 hours, 25 minutes.

Today is Annie James’ 8^th month birthday and baptism; sorry I’m going to miss it. Photos later.

I left the apt at 9am and walked to the mall. I recycled a couple plastic bottles then went up to the atrium and found it set up for some type of travel fair.

I continued on to Urbania and had a latte. I blundered against Troyclough lowering my rating to 1502. ☹ Teresa called and asked me to pick up 2 packages of kiwis in Ara on my way back to the apt. I left at 11am and stopped upstairs at Linea Estetica and asked for my skin cream

CREAM 1

They didn’t have but suggested something else

CREAM 2

Since I haven’t been able to find what I want I bought the suggested one for 83,930 pesos. I handed the girl 2 50s and she checked their authenticity with some type of fancy pen. I got a little concerned when she talked to another girl then checked it again but I wasn’t too worried because I’m 99% sure they came from an ATM. She approved the purchase and I put the cream in my tech bag.

I walked back to Ara and found the two packages of kiwis and picked up a bag of milk because I remembered Teresa was going to make cheese broccoli soup today.

Teresa wanted to meet up with a friend, Monica, so we left at 3:30 and took a Didi to Santafe mall.

We went down to Valentina’s and had drinks. Monica joined us about an hour later. My cellphone battery was down to 30% and I had forgotten to bring my portable battery. ☹

Monica said she was hungry so we went up to Crepes & Waffles where she had a regular meal and Teresa and I shared a Suprema ice cream and Monica picked up the check.

The ladies explored some of the stores while I sat outside.

At one point we passed a robot dog I’ve only seen on the internet. They missed it because they were talking and there was a crowd around it. I wish I had gotten a photo or video of it but the ladies were on the move.

Monica left and we had a short wait outside for a taxi to return us to Envigado.

Teresa proclaimed she was hungry so we went to Quilombo where we shared a solomito and a bottle of water for 82,000 pesos. It was a nice quiet night, not very busy because many are out of town for the holiday. Across the street crowds were around bar TVs

CROWD

watching Atletico Nacional play – they lost to Independiente Medellin 2-1.

As soon as we returned to the apt, 9pm, I started my pre-sleep routine.

Tonight, for the first time I took only ½ of a zopiclone tablet with my ½ Benadryl.

 

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Friday, May 15, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 2:45, fell back asleep pretty quickly, finally waking at 5:30 and getting up at 6am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,173 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 4 hours, 43 minutes.

I had a 30-minute nap after breakfast and left for Smartfit at 8:45. In the trees by Gardenia I saw the same two birds I saw the other day and this time I could hear why they are considered noisy. Smartfit was busier than usual but most people seemed to congregate at the far end of the floor. I completed my workout including 18 minutes on the treadmill. As I approached the Chest Press machine another couple seemed to be waiting to use it. I’ve noticed them before, he a tall slim black man and she a younger Hispanic looking girl. The guy and I both stumbled over our words in Spanish until finally he asked me, “habla Ingles?”. I replied, “Mi Ingles mucho mayor que mi Espanol.”. We then switched to English and I learned he is from Maryland. I’m sure we’ll talk more in the future.

I moved to Ganso y Castor where I had my usual morning latte for a about an hour before returning to the apt.

After lunch Teresa received a photo of my package from the portero. I went down and retrieved my large package which contained: a 6# box of Bisquick (enough for 145 pancakes), a 2.5# bag of peanuts for the squirrels, 3 new sleep masks and an Annual Funding Notice for one of my pensions.

Teresa left to meet her friend Lucy at Otra Parte then they were going to the cultural center.

I watched a couple more episodes of The Man in the High Castle.

Teresa came back and showed me her vaccine card – she got a flu shot. Okay, I haven’t heard anything about a flu outbreak here and the only time I got a flu shot on the States I got sick from something.

I watched The Chris Hayes Show then it was time to start my pre-sleep reading.

 

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Thursday, May 14, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 2:45, took a while to fall back asleep, finally waking at 5:45 and getting up at 6:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 6,793 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 3 hours, 53 minutes.

Just before 8am sitting at the dining room table I experienced a tremblor for 20 seconds or so.

I left the apt at 8:30 and walked to the mall. I went up to the banking area and withdrew 2 million pesos all 100s then went across the hall to the consignacion ATMs. There are four of them and the 4^th was being loaded with cash with a security guard holding a shotgun standing in front of the 3^rd. I went to the first and in the midst of the process realized it wasn’t going to be able to return the change I need. I looked at the 2^nd ATM and the security guard nodded to me to use it. I completed the process and it returned the bills and coins as change and ejected my receipt. By the time I took the bills and coins and put them in my fanny pack I saw the machine pull my receipt back in. I freaked out and went inside and quickly found a bank employee who spoke a little English. We went back to the ATM and I showed him the Innovation Corp information I had entered. He did some magic on his tablet and had me call a 

number listed on the machine and after entering some numbers in the keypad, he spoke to someone. He hung up and told me to call the same number tomorrow and choose options 1 then 1 and they would email me the receipt.

I thanked him then went down to Exito to pay the utility bill. Last time they had a machine to give me a turn number but today I found this:

SIGN

There were 4 officials working computers and customers hovering nearby and others seated on a couch so I wasn’t sure if there was a waiting line. I told one of them as she got off the phone I wanted to pay my epm bill. She took it, I handed her the cash, she processed it and handed it back with the receipt stapled to it.

I retraced my steps through the garage, stopped in Starbucks and bought a blueberry muffin and took a seat in Urbania. I had the muffin with a latte and went through my phone. I texted Innovation Corp about my payment but losing the receipt and could they see that I paid. I left at 10:45 and purchased a few groceries in Exito before returning to the apt by taxi.

The elevator was under maintenance so I had to walk up four flights to our apt.

I forgot to buy lettuce and Exito didn’t have broccoli so Teresa sent me next door to Ara and the elevator was still out of order.

I won a game vs Chesswiz98 increasing my rating to 1512.

I watched a couple more episodes of The Man in the High Castle.

Innovation Corp answered my text: they can see my payment and will ship my package. Whew, now I don’t have to worry about the call to Bancolombia.

By 7pm the 2026 NFL schedule was released and I entered the Bears games into my Excel database.

At 7:15 we had a downpour but it only lasted 5 minutes.

I watched The Chris Hayes Show then it was time to start my pre-sleep reading. I finished John Grisham’s novel The Associate on my Kindle.

Soon it started drizzling but had stopped by the time I went to bed.

 

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