Thursday, November 28th, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Last night I watched another episode of Lie to Me.

I went to bed at 10:45, had a little difficulty getting to sleep, got up once during the night, woke up at 6:30am and finally woke/got up at 8:15.

My neck is feeling better but there is still a little stiffness.

I walked over to Paisa Pan on Calle 44 but they didn’t have any sugar donuts so I just kept walking.  (Now I’m thinking they don’t make them until later in the day.)  I circled around and ended up at Fresco Pan where I had 2 Pastel de Arequipe (turnovers) and a cup of my usual coffee for breakfast while I read my Nook book.

While I was sitting there I saw a worker climb a nearby telephone pole.  Here the poles are made of concrete instead of wood but they don’t use ladders or cherry pickers to climb them.  They have a cloth rope tied together at the ends (maybe 10 feet in cirmumference).  They have 2, one for each foot.  They loop one around the pole and put one end through the other.  They put one foot in the open end and do the same with the other rope.  They then put all their weight on one foot and raise the other rope higher up the pole.  They repeat the process with the other rope shinnying their way up the pole.  Then he climbs down, ties it all on the back of his motorcycle and away he goes.

I finished Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell.  Her first book was a good one.  I’m sure I’ll be reading more of her books but my next read is Inferno by Dan Brown.  Interestingly, Inferno was on my list when I came here but I didn’t have the name of the author written down.  So last July I read the 900+ page beast - Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945.  Now I’m going to read the book I meant to read.

I stopped at the corner store, asked my amigo Fabian to add 2mil to my cell phone and handed him my phone with the directory set to my phone number.  After the amount is recorded I always get a text message confirming the amount was added.  While he was doing that my phone rang and, kiddingly, I asked him “is that for me”?  He said “yes” and I took the phone back and I had a call from Dario.  He tells me there isn’t chess today in his apartment building and that he will call me sometime to get together to play.  (I should have remembered the sound I hear is different for a call than a text message.)  With my luck, when he wants to start playing again on Thursdays I’ll, hopefully, have a relationship with Gloria and we’ll be together on her only day off – Thursday.  I should know more after tomorrow’s lunch date.

Lunch today was the Chef’s Wrap for 8,900 pesos (with coupon) and 16oz Pepsi for 3,900 pesos at Burger King for a total of $6.74.   As I was leaving the food court a young boy about 7-10 years old was excited to see me and rambled on in Spanish.  The only word I understood was “ajadrez” (chess) and I said “yes, I play chess” but that was the end of our conversation.

On the way back to my apartment I spoke briefly with Jhon.  Jhon was busy all morning with a student and hasn’t seen Bob at all today.

I have a Thanksgiving dinner reservation at 5pm at restaurant Arriba! Arriba! so I’ll post today’s events early.