Tuesday, February 4th, 2014

Last night I watched the 2012 movie Soda Springs (5.5) on Netflix “The story of a man's struggle to claim his future by confronting his past. The road is not an easy one though, as old demons resurface to threaten everything Eden has fought to overcome.”

I went to bed at 11:45, got up twice during the night and woke/got up at 7am.

As I was leaving the apartment I was surprised to see a baby dove in the downstairs alcove (?).

For breakfast I had a coffee and croissant at Los Mejores.  Damaris was there and always has a big smile for me but at one point she came out to clean the front of the display case but didn’t come over and talk to me so maybe she’s settled down.

Back at the apartment I left the front door open and managed to shoo the dove out the door where it was immediately joined by its mother.  Unfortunately it went out in the street and I had to shoo it to the other side.

I picked up my dirty laundry and took it to the Tinto store.  Beatriz lives in the apartment building next door and was already outside so I gave it to her right away and she told me it will be ready on Friday.

One of the Florida gringos was at the Tinto store – his name is Mitch – and Gonzalo had just shown them a new 3 bedroom apartment but they want too much for rent - $750 a month.  I offered to show them my apartment since I’m going to be moving upstairs soon.  For the time being he and his buddies are moving downtown to a hostel where they only have to pay $17/day.  He’s the one who will probably be retiring here at the end of the year.  Later another gringo, Rocco, came by and I chatted with him a little.

I don’t know the names yet of the 2 young ladies that work the Tinto store but one is very pretty with the most beautiful smile; if she were only 20 years older – and available.  :-)

 

I informed Gonzalo about “Luiza’s” real name (Maria) and her other details.  I’ve decided she’s just too young (29) for me to pursue but he thinks she’s “muy especial”.  He mentioned that the Salsamentaria is for sale for about $65,000 and it turns over about $5000 in inventory every day.  I think he was looking for me to invest in it.  I told him not only do I not have any money but my Pensionado Visa forbids me to work and I think investing is probably included in that.

I checked the Immigration website and found it was updated again on February 1^st but my Cedula number is still not on the list.

I mentioned I purchased new security for my laptop called Bit Defender.  Last week when I went into my Citibank account it seemed to go into a special Bit Defender “zone”, the usual icons at the bottom of the screen disappeared and I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the “zone” and back to the desktop.  The next day when I went into Citibank my screen cleared and seemed to “lock up” and I couldn’t even reboot the computer.  I had to pull the plug and wait for the battery to die before I could start over.  So far I haven’t had that problem again but then again I haven’t gone back to Citibank either.

Walking through Exito I saw the umbrella I want to purchase at a discount but now I see it costs 2,000 points where before it was 1,000 points.  Now I wonder if I was declined months ago because they had already raised the limit but hadn’t changed the sign.

Lunch was a Double Stack burger and medium Pepsi for 11,800 (with coupon) at BK.  While I was waiting for my food Harry (the Finnish man) stopped by.  He told me he had lunch with Gonzalo on Carrera 84 for 3mil – rice, meat and drink.  I know the restaurant he’s talking about at the north end near the park.

Back at Fresco Pan, Maria was just leaving.  I told Juliet Andrea that Maria is a beautiful woman but 29 is too young for me; I need someone at least 40 years old.  I think she agrees.

I told Alfred that I looked “giros” up in the dictionary and it gave a secondary definition of a “money order”.  I think he was kidding me that I could just ask the US to send me more money.

While there, Michael (the Canadian) stopped by and told me he and his girlfriend are on their way to Vizcaya to see American Hustle.

I’m past the halfway point in Tom Clancy’s novel Executive Decision.  

Dinner tonight was a ham sandwich from Subway for 7,900 and a small strawberry shake from BK for 5,400.