Monday, February 9th, 2015

Happy Birthday Jim!  Today is my son’s 28^th birthday.

Last night I was on the computer while Teresa watched some TV program that I understood was about prostitutes.  This morning she told me that it showed women in their 70s and 80s working as prostitutes in Germany, Italy, and Colombia.  She asked me if I remembered the man who delivered our liquid propane tank.  She said his mother (grandmother?) is 90 years old and still enjoys sex with men younger (there probably aren’t many left that are older) than herself (and not for money).  We had some good laughs imagining those situations.

My eye is still red and Teresa said it might be “confuntibitis” which, after I entered it in Google Translate, I understood she meant “conjuntivitis” which in English is “conjunctivitis”.  We’re going to stop and see a doctor about it this afternoon.  We may have to leave our hotel visits for another day.

We left the finca at 11:55 and I took 1 ½ dog biscuits with me along with 2 umbrellas because the sky was so overcast.  The killer dogs heard us but by the time they got to the trail we were past them and even the doberman didn’t approach us.

We caught a direct bus after a 10 minute wait and took a taxi up to downtown Envigado.  I paid my 2,500 pesos ($1) at Neuva eps and they gave me a 4:45 appointment.  

Laura returned to the finca about 1pm.

We stopped at the ATM for more cash (I’m stockpiling it at home) and then had lunch at Carbón de Leña.  I had the chicken breast and Teresa had an order (1) of fish and we shared a slice of Tiramisu for 23,500 pesos (about $10).  Remember there is no added tax and tipping is not customary.

We had 3 hours before my appointment so we took a bus to Hotel Porton (Calle 63 Sur #43A-11) in Sabaneta.  The trip took about 20 minutes and when you get off the bus you are right in front of the hotel.  The rooms include a double bed, wi-fi, air conditioning, TV, bathroom with shower and hot water.  Breakfast is included and it costs 120mil (about $50) for a single and 150 mil (about $64) for a double.

I asked Teresa about another hotel (La Hacienda Extremadura) and Teresa said it’s too far away.

We were back in Envigado in less than 15 minutes.

I added 20mil to my cell phone minutes.

We still had a couple hours to kill so we stopped for some ice cream for 16,500.  While there, I saw 2 young men sitting in the back with a camera attached to a pole that they used to take a picture of themselves.  Then they gave each other a kiss.  We stayed there until about 4pm and then walked the block away to Nueva eps.  

During the wait, as so often happens, I saw a young girl in a t-shirt with lots of words on it.  Finally she turned around for a second and I saw “I didn’t really kiss him …” but I didn’t get the rest.  I saw her sitting at the end of the hall but she was slouching so I knew I wouldn’t be able to see the rest of it.

At 5:05 we were finally called into the doctor’s office.  This was a pretty young doctor.  She tried to take a little history; I have no allergies and I showed her the eye drops (for dry eyes) that the Opthomologist prescribed for me.  She asked my height (6’) checked my weight (80 kg; too much), my blood pressure, looked in my eyes and at my throat.  She said I have Conjunctivitis and prescribed some drops for me.  She said to stop taking my current eye drops until I finish the prescription.

(Here are the directions for taking the drops that I translated when I got back to the finca “2 drops every four hours the first 12 hours, then every 6 hours for next 12 hours, then every 8 hours to complete five days.”)

We walked down to a pharmacy where I bought more Isoklon sleeping pills for 61,300 and the eye drops for 9,200.

We walked down the hill to Home Center where Teresa picked up some more paint, masking tape, and solvent for 88,900.  We took a taxi to the highway and after a 10 minute wait we caught a direct bus back to the finca.

We got past the killer dogs undetected.

Teresa and Laura watched Master Chef again.  Today they had to make a cake but I think they may have been given almost impossible time constraints because a lot of them had difficulties.

We finished Jesse Stone: Sea Change and then we started watching Quigley Down Under (6.8).

I took my sleeping pills at 10:30 and we went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Up for it.