Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

If all goes well tomorrow some of my retirement money should be in my checking account!

This morning Reina and Dylan left at 7am to see someone about his military service.  I will be fixing my own breakfast.  And they might be gone all day so Reina left me some lentil soup for lunch.

I wanted to fix myself French toast for breakfast but we had neglected to purchase bread yesterday.  I checked my USAA account and I can see 2 of my pensions have shown up but I probably will have to wait a day or 2 to access it.  So that means I only have $9.34 available or about 16,000 pesos.  I decided I would try to withdraw 10mil of that to buy a loaf of bread.

By 8:45 I had finished my coffee and left for Viva.  I used the Vivienda ATM machine and the least amount it showed I could withdraw was 20mil.  So, figuring it would be rejected anyway, I chose the 20mil and darned if it didn’t go ahead and allow the withdrawal.  Now is that because of the 2 pensions that are waiting in my account?  (I’m still trying to figure out how all this works.)  I then bought a loaf of bread for 3,030 pesos and a large box of Frosted Flakes that was on sale for 11,193 pesos.  I figure with all the milk we bought I can at least have breakfast at home for a few days.

I got home at 9:08 which means that in 23 minutes, I walked to Viva, took money out of the ATM, went upstairs to Exito, located & purchased the bread & cereal, and walked back to the apartment.

When I got back I was surprised to see Dylan and Reina back already.  She explained if they pay 1,200,000 pesos ($667) he can get papers that will keep him out of the army.  Well, she’s not getting it from me!  I’ll pay her what I owe her and she can decide what she wants to use her money for.

I made French toast and gave Reina a piece; she said she liked it, but I think she gave what was left after she took her first bite to Dylan.

Reina tells me that Saturday, May 3^rd is a big holiday – Dia De la Sta Cruz and a lot of the stores will be closed.  I don’t see this listed as a holiday in my book on Colombia.  But if you change Sta to Santa then this translates to Day of the Holy Cross.  

10am Reina left with Dylan’s computer.  She’s taking it downtown to see if it can be repaired – hopefully for not a lot of money.  

I checked my USAA account online and it processed the ATM withdrawal as if the 2 pensions were in my account available for withdrawal.  If my Social Security payment is on time – tomorrow – I’m confident I can pay Reina what I owe here and get her out of here.

Again the ants are gone!  Actually they weren’t here yesterday either.  We’ll see if that’s finally the end of them.

11am and the garbage truck finally came through but I didn’t notice the pretty street sweeper this morning.

Lunch is becoming routine – soup (lentil), rice with a sausage, a few potato chips and milk.

3:20 I hear thunder out west.  3:40 Thunder slightly south with light rain.  4:00 heavy thunder and saw lightning for the first time and actually caught some of it on video on my iPad.  (I didn’t catch the loudest thunder however!)

4:30 Reina returned and said the Inverter, whatever that is, needs to be repaired and it will cost 100mil.

Dinner was a simple one: lentil soup, a fried egg with rice, a few potato chips, and a 
glass of milk.

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Today’s my 100^th day in Medellin, Colombia!

2 more days and I should have some money in my checking account!

I was able to make a final cup of coffee with what’s left in my jar of instant coffee by scraping out what I could and then pouring some hot water into the jar and finally into my mug.

8am An SUV pulls up and a man gets out and opens all the utility boxes in the driveway.  He is wearing a uniform with EPM stenciled on it.  I think he is checking the electric and/or gas meters.  

Utility boxes in our driveway/sidewalk.

These same utility boxes are in the sidewalks outside almost every home and business.  They can be found both downtown and in the neighborhoods.  But the covers on many of them are broken leaving a large hole almost a foot wide by about a foot and a half long and a foot deep.  Some of them have large rocks tossed into them in an attempt to at least block the large hole.  So pedestrians have to constantly be looking down so they don’t step into one.  (With the litigious nature of the US one incident and accompanying lawsuit and they would all be fixed quickly.)

8:25 a truck pulls up across the street and they deliver 6 rolls of a light blue material.

9AM Reina gave me 800 pesos (45 cents) and sent me to a local store to buy a couple of carrots and 1 pasta de magui (? Paste).  (I took my last 50 peso coin with me just in case.)  On the way I was surprised to see 9 men and 3 women actually playing a basketball game on the basketball court.  I gave the man at the store the note Reina had given me and he gave me 3 good sized carrots and a small cube that said Caldo de Gallina on it which I later translated to “chicken broth” so I guess it was like a bouillon cube.  And it cost me exactly 800 pesos.  Reina told me she would be able to get 5 or 6 carrots for the same price in her neighborhood.

Angel’s learned a new trick.  His mouth is large enough and strong enough that he can now pick up his small rubber balls.  Now when I play keep away with him with my feet he catches up to the ball and then carries it away and hides under the sofa so I can’t get it.  He is also starting to learn how to play fetch.  I’ll throw his little squeaky plastic dinosaur and he’ll run after it and bring it back to me on the balcony.

I asked for, and Reina gave me, her Cedula number – 43 555 159 – which I will use at Exito for her to acquire extra points.  

11:30 My brother emailed me he had put $40 into my Citibank account.  I checked and I see it in my account.  Now we can go buy some food this afternoon.

Lunch was simple: chicken and rice with chicken soup and nothing (but water) to drink. 

I was lying on the sofa and one foot brushed the big toenail on the other and it darned near swiveled off.  Remember the one that turned black and blue on day#3 from my new gym shoes?  Something like that had happened years before (ran over it with a vacuum cleaner) and it took at least a year for a new one to grow out.  There isn’t much left holding it on now.  I don’t like the idea of pulling it all the way off myself; guess I’ll let it slough off naturally.  That should happen soon enough.  I remember when I was reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, Cheryl Strayed mentioned she lost 6 of her 10 toenails from all her hiking.  lol.

We went down to Viva and I took out 70mil from the ATM machine.  Because it would allow me to take out as little as 10mil, it’s now obvious to me the amount it allows you to take out (minimum & maximum) is based on how much you have in your account.  I withdrew 50mil and then another 20mil for my limit.  I still have 39,021.14 pesos left just in case CitiBank fines me $10 this month for being under the minimum average daily balance.

We then paid Exito a visit and bought milk, chicken, eggs, arepas, COFFEE, sausage, cheese, saltine crackers, and more bouillon cubes.

I’m watching my favorite all time movie – Shawshank Redemption – on Netflix on my iPad.  I was very surprised it was free.  

5pm Dylan came in.  He says the old Dell computer I gave him doesn’t work anymore.  The screen appears to be shot.  Maybe he should have used it just for school, as intended, instead of always playing music and goofing around with Youtube!

Reina and I gave Angel a “bath” using something we had gotten earlier from the vet at the pet store.  It’s similar to talcum powder - you just rub into his fur to give him sort of a dry cleaning.

Sunday, April 28th, 2013

3 more days and I should have some money in my checking account!

Went to bed at 10pm last night and woke up at 6:30 this morning.  (I did take my medicine last night and on time.)  I did get up once during the night but fell asleep again quickly.

Got an email from my brother; he’s going to put $20 into my Citibank account so I can buy some food.  Thanks bro!

The ants are back – lots of them – a constant stream down to the garbage can and back outside to that same corner of the building.  I assume ants lay eggs so maybe these were born after the adults died?  I put down more farina so we’ll see what happens in about a week.  Anyway, once Reina is gone I’ll clean up the area and their main food source will be gone.

9:30 Reina Skyped me and we talked for a minute.  I understood she’s going to be back around 4 or 5pm.

Breakfast was a handful of dry cereal, a fried egg on the last arepa, and a cup of hot chocolate.

Lunch was a banana (forgot they were here) and a large batch of popcorn.

2:30 The sky has darkened and it’s noticeably cooler; feels like a storm coming.

2:35 and it’s started raining; you can’t see it but you can hear it beating against the corrugated plastic covering the “courtyard”.  It’s really noisy.

2:50 finally a single peal of thunder.  Now you can see the rain coming down hard.

2:55 and a very loud peals of thunder followed by periodic thunder but still no lightning.

3:15 and the storm appears to have passed although you can still hear thunder in the distance.

5:30 Reina came home with a package of arepas (10).  About that same time the futbol game between Medellin and Atletico Nacional was starting.  Once again it isn’t being broadcast by our TV company but Dylan showed me how to get it on my laptop.

For dinner, Reina grated 4 tomatoes, mixed it with 2 eggs, cooked it like scrambled eggs and served it with an arepa along with a few saltine crackers and hot chocolate.

After Medellin scored I could hear the chanting from the stadium from my balcony.  (I think the stadium is about 10 minutes from my apartment.)  The final score, though, was 2-2.

8:45 and I see Angel pulling about 15 feet of toilet paper out of the bathroom.

Saturday, April 27th, 2013

Today is the last day of the NFL draft. The selections for Rounds 4-7 begin today at 11am.  The Chicago Bears have a pick in Rounds 4-6 - #117, #153, and #188.

I had another rough night.  This time it was heartburn soon after I went to bed.  I took 2 Tums but they didn’t solve the problem completely.  An hour or so later I took 1 more and after a while was finally able to get to sleep.  Then I slept through until 6:30am when I was wakened by something that sounded like drilling.  I got up but the “drilling” didn’t continue.

Reina and I are still wheeling & dealing: I get 3 of the large curtains and the small curtains in the laundry room and Reina gets the pink blinds in the master bedroom.  Instead of removing the blinds I’m going to give her 36mil and she can buy her own blinds.

10:30 Reina and Dylan left for her mother’s house.  She may or may not come back tonight.  She prepared a little food for me for lunch and dinner.  We are out of milk.  I wonder if I could use my coffee creamer as a substitute for milk to make French toast.  Oops, that won’t work as we’re also out of bread.  The one thing I’m most worried about is I’m almost out of coffee.  I know I have enough for tomorrow maybe even Monday but that’s it.

12:10 With the 117^th pick in Round 4, the Chicago Bears selected 6’1” 241# linebacker Khaseem Greene from Rutgers – Grade 78.80.

Lunch was 1 sausage with rice and a large bowl of frijoles (beans) and a glass of water.  (Maybe that’s why Reina went to her mother’s house – because there isn’t enough food here for 3 people.)

1:10 went to Laureles Mall with my iPad.  I’m going to play chess while I wait for the bears to make their next draft picks.

The Chicago Bears traded their 153^rd pick in Round 5 to Atlanta for the 163^rd pick in Round 5 and the 236^th pick in Round 7.

With the 163^rd pick in Round 5, the Chicago Bears selected 6’5” 316# offensive tackle Jordan Mills from Louisiana Tech – Grade 67.00.

With the 188^th pick in Round 6, the Chicago Bears selected 6’4” 265# linebacker Cornelius Washington from Georgia – Grade 69.40.

I came back about 3:30, boy was Laureles Mall busy.  There weren’t many tables to spare.  I cut through Exito on the way back and it was real busy also.  Besides the usual weekend shoppers they were having some special exhibits for children.

With the 236^th pick in Round 7, the Chicago Bears selected 6’2” 194# wide receiver Marques Wilson from Washington State – Grade 67.30.

6pm I got an email from Reina.  “Terris EstaNoche I sleep hello to my mother back home tomorrow to angel looks ok take care your morning lunch beans and a sausage for you ok bye good night thanks Terris”

After decoding it I think she’s trying to tell me that she’s staying at her Mother’s tonight and tomorrow she’ll make beans and sausage for my lunch.  So I guess I’ll be making myself some an egg or two for breakfast.

7:30pm and it sounds like there’s a street party going on outside.  I can see at least a dozen teenage boys running around the street.  By 8pm they were gone.

I gave up reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen after about 200 pages.  Trying to understand the old English was beginning to feel too much like a homework assignment.  Lol.  Now I’ve started The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - still on my iPad. It's over 5,000 pages

long so it should keep me busy for some time.