Thursday, January 9th, 2014

Last night I watched another Netflix recommedation - the 1993 movie (6.4) Morning Glory starring Christopher Reeve and Deborah Raffin.  Very good movie.

I went to bed at 11:30, again had some trouble getting to sleep, got up once during the night, woke up at 6:45 and got up at 7:05.

While cleaning my shaver outside my window my shaking it as I do every morning this time the head came off and fell to the driveway below.  That got me dressed and out a little faster than usual.

I picked up my shaver head, put it in my TechBag and headed for the store to buy a small bag of milk.  I had a little granola cereal for my breakfast and then I (easily) put my shaver back together.

I stopped at the Tinto store and had a cup of coffee with Gonzalo.  I gave him my list of requirements for a different apartment:

·       2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms

·       No garage

·       Not furnished

·       Not on the 1^st floor

·       Not rented via a real estate company (to avoid having to pay 6 months in advance)

·       900Mil or less ($474)

Of course, the version I gave him was in Spanish.  If I can find an apartment I like for the price I want it should save me $200 a month or $2400 a year.

I went across the street to the bank and exchanged 50mil for 2 20mil and 1 10mil bills.  Luckily there were only 2 people ahead of me and I was out in 5 minutes.  I stopped at the internet café a few blocks away and reprinted the photos for my chess table in color for 6mil ($3.16).  (As long as I was so close I walked past Paisa Pan but didn’t see any churros.)  I stopped at the Tinto store again and had another cup of coffee.  Gonzalo told me he should have an apartment for me to look at later.  I told him anytime is good with me but I’m meeting with a friend at 2pm.

I had a short nap from noon to 12:45.  When I got up the vision in my left eye was blurry and eye drops didn’t help.  Over the next couple of hours though it went back to normal.

At 1pm I was having an empanda and Coke at Bunuelo Express in LM.  Dario showed up at 2pm.  I gave him my list of apartment requirements in case he might know of one that is available.  I showed him the pictures of the chess table I want and the name and location of the building that Augusto gave me where I might be able to find it.  I asked him if he brought his car to go to Parque de Ajedrez and he said it should only be a 15-20 minute walk.  

We stopped first at my apartment and I dropped off my TechBag, umbrella and books and just took my chess set.  It turned out to be a 30 minute walk, due west, and all uphill.  On the way I learned he’s 76 years old and walks 2-3 hours every Saturday and Sunday.  When we got there, while it is a pretty large park with swings, slides and teeter totters for the children, the only reason I could see that it would be called a “chess park” is because in one flat area that have a black and white tiled grid, only its 10 by 10 instead of 8 by 8.

We found a picnic table in the back of the park and while I set up the board he went across the street and game back with a bottle of cold water which he shared with me and a small orange juice, also for me.

We played 2 games.  Again I made a mistake in the first game and he threatened my king.  I managed to hold out into the endgame but he eventually had 2 pawns he could queen and my king could only catch one so I resigned.  In the second game, he made a mistake early on and I got his knight for free but he started attacking my king with his queen and while it was on the other side of the board I attacked his king with my queen and forced it out into the open and he soon resigned.

It was only a 20 minute walk back to our respective apartments.  He’s not sure if he’s going to be available to play tomorrow or not.

I walked onto my balcony to see if I needed to be concerned by any forthcoming rain and shile I was standing there a small hawk landed briefly on the roof nextdoor.  I immediately thought “kestrel” and sure enough it looked very much like this (cut & paste into your browser):

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ownbyphotography.com/Kestrel.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ownbyphotography.com/newpage54html.htm&h=238&w=212&sz=1&tbnid=m0uBGjkkP6gd3M:&tbnh=186&tbnw=165&zoom=1&usg=__Pw2sKcfwDtKrrxOaXVregN5VhA4=&docid=2d94aUlSXB-1-M&itg=1&sa=X&ei=Uk7PUtCMJpbIsAS_-IL4Cw&ved=0CIQBEPwdMAo

I walked over to Paisas Pan on Calle 35 and saw churros there.  Because of previouis confusion I ordered a sugar donut got something like a large donut hole with arequipe inside.  I asked the guy working there what you call the other thing and he said “churro”.  Lol.