Monday, June 15, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, a trip to the bathroom at 2:15, took a while to fall back asleep, finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 4,309 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 7 hours and 54 minutes for a sleep score of 88.

Today is another holiday, Sagrado Corazon (Sacred Heart).

I left the apt at 8:30 and found Smartfit not as busy as usual. I completed my workout including 18 minutes on the treadmill with a final hear rate of 118 bpm.

I was having a latte in Ganso y Castor when Teresa called and asked me to pick up broccoli in Ara. I left at 11am, stopped in Ara and picked up broccoli and a bag of milk. Only having two hands, I put my notebook in one pocket and my cellphone in my other so as to be able to carry the items I purchased. The weight of the notebook and cellphone nearly pulled my gym shorts down. 😊

We are out of eggs so at 2pm I packed my laptop and took a Didi to Viva Envigado.

I recycled a pill bottle and withdrew 2 million pesos from the ATM near Exito. I got in a slow line at Exito Wow to pay my epm bill.

I bought a mocha blanco latte in Starbucks for 16,500 pesos then took a table in the back and set up my laptop.

An hour later I still hadn’t figured out how to get an internet connection. ☹

I left at 4pm and stopped in Cine Colombia to purchase a ticket to Disclosure Day for Wednesday afternoon but there was a long line at the cashiers and the ticket machines were out of order so I just skipped it.

I stopped in Exito and bought tomatoes and eggs before returning to the apt by taxi.

I watched another episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, then The Chris Hayes Show then it was time to start my pre-sleep reading.

 

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Sunday, June 14, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, a trip to the bathroom at 12:45, fell back asleep quickly, another trip to the bathroom at 5am, couldn’t fall back sleep, got up at 5:30, downloaded a new book and worked on my blog notes, returned to bed at 6am, finally waking/getting up at 7:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 4,968 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 35 minutes for a sleep score of 74. My sleep score seems to be gradually getting worse.

It took a while to balance my USAA checking account because of those 6 crazy transactions. I had the payments and credit reversed. Like others, I lost a few bucks on that error.

I finished season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale; two more seasons to go.

Teresa warned me that because this is a holiday weekend there will be a lot more people out. If it’s that bad we just won’t do that again.

We left the apt at 11am, pick up MT at her apt and continued on to Exposiciones station. A bus was about to leave but it was nearly full so we waited about 15 minutes for the next one and got our usual seats in the back.

The trip usually takes an hour to an hour fifteen minutes but today it was an hour and a half.

I spotted this Weber Grill store just outside El Retiro.

It was just before 2pm when we arrived at Lomo Fino and there was a short line.

When we finally got a table, both of the ladies had chicken and a glass of fresh juice while I had the solomito and a Coke for 183,000 pesos ($52.08).

We walked down to a busy El Retiro Café but got the last table, which was small with stools instead of chairs. We each had drinks and shared a slice of a not so fresh apple cake.

We left at 5pm, walked back down the hill to the bus station and soon were on a bus back to Medellin. An hour and 30 minutes later we were back at Exposiciones station. Taxis were waiting for us and we easily returned to Medellin.

I started reading James Patterson’s Cat and Mouse (Alex Cross #4) on my Kindle but it sure seemed like I had already read it. I did a search on my book list but didn’t get a hit. I searched my blog notes and found I read it May of last year. When I went back to my book list, I saw the title of a book was missing for that month, so that explains it. I’m glad it was free from Libby.

 

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Saturday, June 13, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly, a trip to the bathroom at midnight, fell back asleep quickly, another trip to the bathroom at 5am, couldn’t fall back sleep, got up at 6:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 6,747 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 41 minutes for a sleep score of 76.

The final score last night was USA 4, Paraguay 1.

Teresa got up at 7:30 and made pancakes. After breakfast I went back to bed and finally slept for about another 30 minutes.

Teresa wanted to go with me to Mayorista where I buy my Badia tea so she can buy a piece (not sure what term I should use here) of salmon.

We left the apt at 12:30 and took a Didi to the restaurant Amazonia for 11,400 pesos. The restaurant was crowded but I spied a small table inside. A waitress explained there was a line but when we walked to the corner the 4 people sitting on the curb weren’t alone, around the corner were at least a dozen more. ☹

We went down the block to the Badia location but it was now Makeina and when I googled Badia, their Medellin store is permanently closed. It looks like they have domicilios (delivery to your home) if I could figure out how to use the app and pay for my tea.

Teresa bought some things in the store then I took her inside the mall and up to the 3^rd floor to the food court where she chose a restaurant with traditional Colombian food. She also got a couple containers of frijoles to go and the total check was 70mil.

We quickly caught a taxi back to the apt for 15,000 pesos.

Still no internet so I packed up my laptop and went to a not busy Gardenia. I updated my blog and completed another chess lesson. This time I won 2 games, finally the last player was strong enough that we actually played a book opening. I left at 5pm and returned to the apt.

Still no internet but I finally figured out the problem…I didn’t pay the bill I received last Saturday so I guess they only give you a 4-5 days grace period then they cut you off.

I went to the Gana kiosk and after waiting about 20 minutes for an old lady to buy all her lottery tickets I finally paid the bill. I took a walk through the park to check out the crowd and see how many restaurants were showing the current World Cup match. Now until mid-July there will probably be a game on all the time.

I talked to Juan and Glenn is in isolation with a bad virus that’s causing his coughing and they’re only allowing one visitor at a time and they have to wear a mask and robe to prevent the virus from infecting others. Tuesday or Wednesday he’s going to be discharged and they are moving him into a hospice care home in Laureles as he certainly doesn’t need a place with a gym and pool.

I see the Scottish team qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years and they beat Haiti 1-0.

I finished reading Target Alex Cross by James Patterson.

 

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FUNNY

Friday, June 12, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, a trip to the bathroom at 1am, fell back asleep quickly, another trip to the bathroom at 4:30, couldn’t fall back sleep, got up at 5am and read until 5:40, fell back asleep, finally waking/getting up at 7:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,052 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 7 hours and 17 minutes for a sleep score of 81.

Glenn called and thanked me for my efforts with his iPad. He asked me to give it to Juan and he will go to Monterey mall and see if they can order a battery for it. I put a post-it note on it and left it with the portero when I left the apt at 9am for the gym.

Smartfit seemed a little busier than usual. I completed my workout including 18 minutes on the treadmill with a final heartrate of 120bpm.

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

After lunch I rested my eyes in bed for about 30 minutes.

I left the apt at 2:30 and stopped in Eduardo Madrid where I ordered 16 English muffins for pickup Tuesday afternoon.

I continued on to Ganso y Castor but all the inside tables were taken and it was too noisy outside to hear my chess lesson. ☹ I guess I need to skip this restaurant on the weekends as all tables were eventually taken and whenever I tried to connect to my cloud databases on ChessBase 16 it said it couldn’t connect to the server.

Nearby, Canada was playing in the World Cup but not many were paying attention to it. The USA plays Paraguay tonight at 8pm our time.

This is a short video of men cleaning the permanent umbrellas in the park or whatever they are called. Paraguas?

About 5:15 the men moved to the umbrella close to me and our waiter suggested I move. I just returned to the apt.

I found I have Wi-Fi but no internet.

I tried fixing the internet with no luck. I even tried restarting the router numerous times. I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if its fixed and if not spend more time on solving the problem.

Thankfully, my cellphone still has internet because it uses the Claro network.

When I went to bed the USA Men’s Team had a 4-1 lead over Paraguay in their opening World Cup game.

 

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FUNNY

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, a trip to the bathroom at 11:30, fell back asleep quickly, another trip to the bathroom at 3am, couldn’t fall back sleep, got up and read until 4:30, fell back asleep, finally waking/getting up at 6:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 7,434 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 11 minutes for a sleep score of 71.

I had coffee with Marcos and updated him on Glenn’s status. Glenn has contact information (601 909-0770) of a rabbi here in Medellin who speaks English. He also gave me estimated costs here for:

·      Cremation - $500

·      Burial (Jewish section of a Catholic cemetery) - $3000

·      Shipping his body back to the States - $20,000

I returned to the apt and Glenn called and informed me he has a brain tumor and is only expected to live another 2 months. He said he wants to be cremated but his brother wants his body shipped back to the States. I sent Carrie an email with the above information.

After lunch I went for a 45-minute nap but just ended up resting my eyes.

I left the apt at 2:15 for Gardenia. They had a screen set up and were showing the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa. Mexico won 2-0. I took a seat inside and started my next chess lesson which was to play 2 games at a 15 minute 10 second time control then analyze them. I won the first game but 1) missed a candidate move, 2) played too fast. I won the second game but missed an early opportunity to win a pawn.

I was finishing up my analysis of the second game when Teresa entered with her friend Lucy. They took a table outside and I packed up and soon joined them. Later Teresa saw two ladies at the next table eating small pulled pork burgers so she ordered them for us. They were very good although I wasn’t a fan of the dark buns. Then the next table ordered oatmeal waffles with berries and Teresa ordered those for us. I paid the bill of 90mil and we left just after 6pm and returned to the apt.

Mr-Santos resigned our game on the 43^rd move increasing my rating to 1502.

I watched some news, The Chris Hayes Show, then started my pre-sleep reading.

 

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FUNNY

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm (still raining), fell asleep quickly, got up once at 12:30, fell back asleep quickly, finally waking at 5:15 and getting up at 6:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,788 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 22 minutes for a sleep score of 76.

It was a very cool morning so I put on my hiking pants, t-shirt and jacket, left the apt at 9am and took a Didi to El Tesoro for 10,795 pesos. The driver took some backroads I haven’t been on before; he said he was very familiar with the area. I arrived at the mall 35 minutes before my appointment. My usual print station wasn’t open yet so I took a seat nearby. A young lady came by and obviously wanted to use their service also and she took a seat nearby. I mentioned to her they may not open until 10am and I have a doctor’s appointment at that time. She got up and talked to a nearby security guard then told me there is another place we can go. I followed her to the Cine Plaza corner and down to the 4^th basement (escalator wasn’t working) where there was an Auros. 😊 There was just one person ahead of her and I soon got my single page PSA test result printed for 700 pesos. I stopped at the atrium and took a few photos of their Jurassic Park.

Up to the 13^th floor of Torre Medica 1 I checked in with Dr. Castano’s secretary then took a seat in the main waiting area. I was called in to see the doctor about 10:30 and gave him my PSA result of 0.006. I asked about taking 1000IU of Vitamin D daily and he said it should not be a problem. He congratulated me on being cancer free 5 years after my surgery, gave me a zopiclona prescription good for one year, and did an ultrasound of my abdomen and reported all my organs look good but I have 1 small stone in each kidney. Because I’m now cancer free, I don’t have to return for a year instead of 6 months.

I went down to Valentina’s and had a latte. I sent Teresa a note that I could meet her for lunch in Olivia’s at 12:30. She changed our meeting to Parmessano instead.

At noon I ordered a Didi to take me to Mayorca mall. I thought I requested to be picked up at Entrada #4 by the Mac Center but I was standing outside when he said he arrived and I didn’t see him. After trading a couple texts, I learned he was down the hill by the taxi stand. He took me to Mayorca for 20,900 pesos.

I went up to the 4^th floor to Parmessano and Teresa soon joined me. She had her usual salmon with some green juice and I had the spaghetti bolognese with a mango juice for a total of 111,882 pesos ($34).

We went down to the basement and soon were in a taxi back to Envigado. She got out down the hill from the cultural center and I continued on to the apt for 15,400 pesos.

The elevator was under routine maintenance so I had to walk up 4 flights. I dropped off some things, changed my clothes (weather had turned warmer), packed my laptop and headed for Gardenia. Of course, on the way it turned cloudy and windy with thunder as I walked the two blocks to the restaurant.  Luckily, it didn’t turn into rain. The restaurant had a party going on outside on the patio so I took one of 3 inside tables.

I texted Juan and they are waiting to check Glenn in to Clinica Vida which is a cancer hospital. If I understand Juan correctly, they no longer think Glenn has dementia but instead brain cancer and symptoms of the opioids he was taking.

I see my USAA credit card payment was processed. Now I can order our rental car.

I read an article (Popular joint supplement glucosamine linked to faster Alzheimer’s progression) about glucosamine and how it affects the brain; I’ve been taking 1500mg of it for years in my Joint Support tablets. ☹ Worse, I still have 2 additional bottles in my closet. I think I’ll be spacing them out instead of taking one every morning.

I left Gardenia just after 5pm and stopped in the Pasteur pharmacy to buy the larger (and easier to cut in half) zopiclona tablets. The girl spent quite a while on the computer, finally came up with a box (first two boxes she gave me were the round ones), took a photo of my doctor’s order, checked it against my cedula and I paid about 28,699 pesos for them. Later I found the box only contained 10 tablets but I should be able to get more my next trip to Todo Drogas in 10 days.

I met Teresa at Eduardo Madrid where she bought a dozen cheese muffins and I had one with a latte. I hope this additional  late latte doesn’t affect my sleep tonight.

We stopped in Tienda D1 and bought a few groceries before returning to the apt.

I watched some news, The Chris Hayes Show then started my pre-sleep reading.

 

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FUNNY

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10:15 (still raining), fell asleep quickly, got up once at 3:15 (still raining), fell back asleep quickly, finally waking/getting up at 6:15 before my 6:30 alarm.

At first my Fitbit said, “NO DATA” but later I got my Bluetooth reconnected.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,237 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 7 hours and 24 minutes for a sleep score of 83.

I ordered a Didi to take me to Unicentro and I expected with the wet pavement today it would cost 30mil but it was only 12,300. (I didn’t realize I had ordered a ride to Viva Envigado not Unicentro.) When my Didi arrived, the driver mentioned Viva Envigado but I corrected him to Unicentro. It took a minute to get it worked out but in the end I paid the original 12,300 with my debit card plus another 20,000 pesos in cash. I arrived early enough to buy a banana using 20 50-peso coins and walked once around the mall. I met Jose upstairs in Parmessano where we had our usual breakfast of eggs and coffee.

We moved to the food court where I turned off my cellphone as usual so it wouldn’t distract me.

I lost two quick games, one in 25 moves and the other in 22 moves. I haven’t been playing good chess lately, not sure if its due to old age or sleep problems. Maybe both?

It was just past noon when I turned on my phone and ordered a Didi to take me to Viva Envigado for 19,000 pesos.

I went up to the 3^rd floor where I had my usual chicken teriyaki in Sarku’s. I checked my messages and Glenn had called at 9:39 but didn’t leave a message. Juan, his guardian, called at 9:41 and left the following message: Juan noticed Glenn was drooping on his left side so Juan took him to the emergency room. They did some tests and Glenn’s cancer has metastasized to his brain so now he also has brain cancer. ☹

I was contacted by Dr. Castano’s office and they changed my appointment to tomorrow morning at 10am so I’ll be missing gym.

Later after checking in with Juan I learned Glenn’s in clinic IPS PAC INCODOL which ironically is near Unicentro mall. I asked Juan to keep me updated.

I checked in Cine Colombia but they didn’t know anything about showing World Cup games this year.

I had a latte in Urbania for about an hour. Strangely, as I left the woman at the next table was smiling and staring at me. It was only later I realized I was wearing my “GIRL GRANDPA” t-shirt. 😊

I bought a few things in Exito and returned to the apt by taxi just as a downpour was starting.

The rain finally lessened by 4pm and I stopped at the Bancolombia kiosk to print our chess games then stopped in Eduardo Madrid where I bought a 5-pak of sesame seed bagels and a slice of carrot cake and returned to the apt.

I notified Teresa my urologist appointment tomorrow is now at 10am. She said she’ll go to the gym early tomorrow; I’ll be skipping it.

I spent some time figuring out how to download my PSA blood test results to my USB drive.

I lost a game to chesswiz98 lowering my rating to 1494. ☹

I deiced the ice maker which I have to do every couple months to keep it from clogging.

I watched another episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, some news, then started my pre-sleep reading.

We had rain in the evening and was still raining when I went to bed at 10pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY