Thursday, February 19th, 2015

The alarm went off at 7am and Teresa immediately said we should go to Caldas after Ramiro leaves this afternoon.  I agree and turn over and go back to sleep.

Teresa got up at 8:30 and I got up at 8:50.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I figured out it must have been Ash Wednesday because I saw people walking around town with the sign of the cross on their foreheads in ashes.  Later when we were in Exito a lady came by in religious clothing and made the sign of the cross on each of our foreheads.

Last night I called Vanguard (Zurich) and changed my address to my MBE address in Miami.  I also requested a copy of my 2014 1099R to be sent there.

The lawyer, Jim back in the States, replied to my email:

1.  I will try to email the docs by the end of today so you have them asap.

2.  There is one form that requires a witness.  A witness can be anyone.

3.  The Power of attorney for your brother would not be beneficial since you still would need to have a power of attorney notarized and witnessed.

I emailed a gringo lawyer here in Medellin (James) as to point number 3 and he replied:

Terry the process is that you go to a Colombian notary, and then we get an apostille. This will be the LEGAL EQUIVALENT of having a USA NOTARY.

I forwarded this reply to lawyer Jim in the States and he replied “An apostille would be LEGAL EQUIVALENT of having a USA NOTARY if Colombia was HCCH Member”

James here replied “They must not know what an apostille is, because under US Law this is the same thing. Did you ask them if they know what an apostille is?”

I asked Jim and he replied “I will check again”.

It sure would be nice not to have to make a trip to Bogota.

I had Teresa call Natalia because I never received confirmation for my February medical insurance payment but I feel better now that everything is probably ok.

Ramiro arrived at 12:25 with a young assistant.  I looked at the 8-10 foot railing he brought with him and it’s got a pretty good bend near one end but it might not be important for our purposes.

I called CSC and changed my address from Des Plaines, Illinois to my MBE address in Miami.  I also requested a copy of my 2014 1099R to be sent there.

Romero finished the bottom step and then proceeded to put up the railing.  At 3:15 he’s finishing the railing and still has a little work to do on the bedroom closet.  Teresa confirmed my own thoughts that we’ll leave early tomorrow for Caldas to purchase a few things and then she’ll have her nails and hair done in Envigado and about 2pm we’ll take a bus to Medellin where we’ll catch the bus to the airport to meet my brother.

At 4:15 Romero is still doing some fine tuning on the top of the stairs.  Now I can see he’s putting shims between the stairs and the top floor.  First I believe he put a thin shim between them to see how long it needed to be then he chizeled down a wider piece of wood to fit precisely.  At 5pm it looks like he’s finished with the stairs.

He moves a step ladder into the bedroom to start work on the closet but Teresa interrupts him to ask for help in putting a curtain under the sink.  He finished that in about 20 minutes.  Just before 6pm he was starting to walk out the door when Teresa stopped him and had him remove a shelf that was under the painting in front of the door.  (I thought it was a convenient place to keep stuff you need just before you walk out the door.)  He left at 6pm and I told her she was a difficult woman because she didn’t even give him any money for working here for 6 hours.  She told me he still needs to fix 

the closet and if she gave him money he wouldn’t return.

I checked my emails and I finally got a response from Jim, the US lawyer that “the title company underwriters have confirmed that they will accept it” so I won’t have to make the trip to Bogota after all!  Yay!

I forgot to mention that last night Master Chef was broadcast from Medellin.  The contestants were divided into 3 teams and they had to make different items and try to outsell each other with their products to the public.  Tonight they had to make different types of arepas.

At 10pm Teresa called Walter, the taxi driver, I believe to give us a ride back from the grocery store.

I took my sleeping pills at 11pm and we went to bed at 11:15.

T-shirt of the day: Party, sleep, repeat.