Wednesday, December 25th, 2013

Merry Christmas everyone!

Last night I wasn’t feeling very good so I went to bed at 8pm, more about that in a minute.

At 9pm the fireworks started.  Even with my earplugs in I heard the “whump” sound it makes when they sent them up every 2 seconds until 3am.  It sounded like it was very close, like the next street over.  I’m sure everyone in Medellin isn’t watching the fireworks here in Simon Bolivar so my best guess is this is being repeated in each neighborhood.  It finally stopped at 3am but resumed every 15-30 minutes (because they found more somewhere?) for a few more minutes until at least 5am.  It stopped sometime between 5am and 6am when the sun started coming up.  I got up at 6:15 (wow did the gunpowder smell hit me when I opened the bedroom door) went to the bathroom, grabbed a hand towel and put it over my eyes to help keep out the light.  (I have my brother bringing me an eye mask when he visits in February.)  I got up again at 7am, took 2 Excedrin Migraine and went back to bed and finally got back to sleep.  I woke/got up at 10:45 feeling good enough that I resumed my morning exercises.

One of the sayings I often use is “Timing is everything”.  I was feeling so poorly last night I probably would have had trouble sleeping anyway.  I had what I call a case of the blahs due to my bad eating habits.  And I have put on a few extra pounds.  I don’t really need 3 big meals every day.  I should drink more juices and eat more fruits and only eat when I feel hungry.  I shouldn’t have so many sodas, hamburgers and French fries.

I talked to my daughter and son on their cell phones using magicJack Plus and then my brother on his cell phone and wished them all a Merry Christmas.

About 2pm I took a walk around the neighborhood to see what’s open.  By Bob’s hostel, the grocery store is open but the bakery is closed, Los Mejores bakery on Calle 35 is open, the corner store is open but the Tinto store is closed, and Likke’s is closed.  There was a lot less traffic so it was easy crossing Avenida 80 and I noticed the Circular Sur buses were running.  In Viva CC more than 50% of the stores are closed but a few are still open.  In the food court, all the restaurants are open as well as the 2 white table cloth restaurants on the other side of the mall.  Exito is open but there are very few customers.  Across the street at Mall de Laureles about 2/3 of the restaurants are open but only a few of the stores.

On my way back to the apartment I bought a slab of pineapple from the corner vendor for 1mil (53 cents).

Did I mention that Sophia, the owner of Bob’s hostel, closed it and opened a new one in Los Colores?  It’s even supposed to have a swimming pool.  Bob moved there at the same time so I probably won’t be seeing him in the neighborhood much anymore.

3:30 and the firecrackers have started.  Luckily only a few.

I was afraid that the Exito food court might close early again tonight so I decided to head over there.  On my way I was surprised to see Bob at the corner store sitting with Margarita.  I wished him a Merry Christmas and he told me he was just visiting the area to wish the same to some people he knows here.  I was at Exito about 5pm and had a container of cole slaw for 4,800 ($2.53) and a corn on the cob (already buttered) for 5,800 ($3.05) from Frisby.  Can you imagine - $3 for an ear of corn?  On my way back I found Bob and Margarita having a beer at the grocery store across from the bakery.  I asked him if it was noisy near his place last night and he said it was for only a couple hours but he is on a hill and he could see the fireworks of the berrios to the south.  Can you imagine if there are something like 265 berrios (not sure of the number) and they all have their own fireworks.

Its 7:20 and I can hear some fireworks to the south.  I can even see the few that are higher than the buildings across the street.

I see that 11 people viewed Tuesday’s post.  What’s going on?  Usually I only have 3 or 4.