Friday, January 24th, 2014

Yesterday I left the apartment at 4:55 and as I was approaching Avenida 80 a man was yelling something at someone, then everyone.  He started coming towards me and yelling at me while I was waiting for traffic to clear so I could cross the street.  I would have felt more comfortable had I had my pepper spray with me.  He finally turned around, picked up a large rock, hurled it at a metal garage door and continued walking down the street.  He must have been on drugs!

As I was passing Viva CC I saw that they lowered the “!” signs so they could hang pennants from the framework of the upper part of the structure.

I had the Solomito (skirt steak) at SanJote with a mango juice for 16,500.  For the first time the owner gave me a cash register receipt.  I wonder if this had anything to do with his talk with Augusto.

I took the Laureles 191 bus and was at the Stadium at 6:15, 15 minutes early.  I think 5pm is about the correct time for me to leave for a 6:30 start.

I have a solid Class B rating – 1693; in time I’ll find out if that’s my true strength or not.  I don’t know if I’ve gotten stronger or weaker since my tournament days from years ago.  My Wednesday night game was against a solid Class A player with a rating of 1905.  Last night they had me paired against an Expert with a rating of 2009 and I had the black pieces.  I held out for 30 moves but I never even had the opportunity to castle.  I was done before 8pm and wandering around I saw a fairly attractive young lady playing and she has a rating in the 1800s.  I checked the list of players and there are a lot of strong ones and a few with ratings like mine in the 1600s.

I forgot to mention that Wednesday night I wore an undershirt, a long sleeved shirt and my light jacket.  I felt fine all night but I probably didn’t need the jacket.  Last night was warmer so I just wore a long sleeved shirt and was fine.

I caught a bus back to the apartment and watched Cowboys and Angels (6.5) on Netflix.  “Danny, a young lawyer jilted at the altar, dreams of becoming a cowboy and must choose between two very different women. Candice's appeal is that she is a traditional woman, but JoJo is unconventional and leads Danny on a voyage of self-discovery.”

While watching the movie on my laptop my peripheral vision caught something come in the window and land on the floor.  It was a cockroach whose life expectancy was extremely limited.

I went to bed at 11:15, didn’t sleep well, got up at 4:30, put in eyedrops and took 2 Excedrin Migraine, went back to bed, got up at 5:30 and, still not feeling well, skipped my morning workout.

I walked up to Carrera 84, over to Calle 35 and down to Los Mejores where I saw Damaris and had my usual coffee and croissant.

Back at the apartment I laid down from 7:30 to 8:30 and then felt a little better.

I finally got an email response from Reina.  She is selling cell phone minutes in Envigado every day from 10 in the morning to 7 at night.

I checked out the new US movie releases and there isn’t anything I’m interested in.

I checked out the local movie theatres and I would like to see The Wolf of Wall Street (8.6), American Hustle (7.8), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (7.6), Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (6.6), and Dallas Buyers Club (8.1).  It looks like I’m going to be seeing some movies next week.  I suspect some of the start times change between Friday and Monday so I’m going to wait until then to identify them.

Today the dollar (USD) is worth 2000 Colombian pesos (COP) so I’m thinking of using that as my conversion factor instead of 1900.  I’m having a discussion with Margarita regarding what source to use for determining the currency exchange rate.  Different sites give different rates.

As I was leaving the apartment I saw Martha with the man they’ve had working in the building many times in the past.  I told him I will have a little work for him in 3-4 weeks while my brother is here.  I got his name (Darley Ocampo) and cell phone number (312 268 9553) and put it in my cell phone directory.  (Only possible problem is the ink smeared a little but I think I got it right.)

I took a bus to Los Molinos to get a haircut.  I arrived at 10:30 and Juan was there but he was busy and told me to come back at 11.  I did and he wasn’t there but he came back at 11:15.  I got a nice trim leaving most of the hair on the top of my head alone for 20mil plus a 5mil tip.

I took a little nap from 1-2pm.

I continued my advanced test in ChessMagnetSchool.com and was promoted to knight and then yeoman.

Hopefully I’ll have an opponent tonight with a rating closer to my own.