Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

I slept well until I got up to use the bathroom at 5:15.  After that I just rested until the alarm went off at 7:30.  (I did hear it start raining again and it stopped about 7am.)  Teresa wanted to wait until 8am to get up but I convinced her otherwise.

I woke up with a little lower backache.  I took 2 Excedrin Migraine with my morning vitamin so it should be feeling better soon.

2 of my pension deposits have been made to my checking account so we have money to go into Caldas today and buy food.

We put Peter in the shed and left the finca at 9:15.  We saw the neighbor Guillermo cutting plants with a weed eater as we walked past his house undetected by the killer dogs.

We were on a bus after a 10 minute wait.  On our usual ride to Caldas we saw what looked like 2 tunnels in the side of the mountain.  It looks like they must connect our road to the road that would be taken to La Pintada.  They look large enough to accommodate cars but maybe I’m wrong and they aren’t tunnels at all.

In Caldas we stopped at the BanColombia ATM machines but the doors were locked.  A guard inside directed us to the other side of the park.  It appeared to be a new BanColombia ATM location because Teresa was surprised it was there.  I took out 400mil and gave it to Teresa.  Then I tried unsuccessfully to withdraw 700mil so I took out another 400mil followed by 300mil.  I gave all but 100mil to Teresa for this month’s food.

We were at Merkepaisa by 9:55am.  An hour later we left with a full grocery cart of food for 410,958 pesos which Teresa paid for.  Even though our backup taxi driver Edgar was there for some reason we waited 15 minutes for Walter.  He drove us a few blocks away to Farmacia Pasteur where I paid 69,334 for more sleeping pills.  I was hoping they would be less expensive there, like my Tamsulosin was, but unfortunately they were more expensive than any other pharmacy.  I also picked up 5 pills for Laura for about 2 mil because she has a cold.

We stopped at a pet store where Teresa paid 60mil for a large bag of dog food – it seems to last about 6 weeks.

Instead of heading straight for the finca we drove to the other side of the highway (east, but still in residential Caldas) where Walter picked up his son.  We then stopped at a place where for 20mil Walter’s son picked up a bag of something which looked like cement.  Teresa said it was “arena” which I later found out was sand.

We drove to the side road, up the hill and down just short of the finca with the killer dogs barking and staring at us but not coming out.  Teresa and I carried down all that we could carry in one trip and Walter and his son brought the rest.  We were back at the finca by noon.

I received this week’s issue of Medellin Living and posted Freezing My Eggs at InSer Fertility Clinc as an example of the low cost yet high quality of medical care here.

Walter’s son patched a long crack that was just outside the patio.  Teresa told me she will buy some paint and he will paint the soffits of the finca.

The Colombian unemployment rate in February was 9.9%.

At 3pm I heard a little thunder but there wasn't any rain

We took a nap from 3:45 to 4:15.  Walter’s son found a wasp nest and managed to remove it and cleaned all the soffits in preparation for painting.

I gave Teresa 30 mil for the work Walter’s son did today.  I understand it will be another 130mil (or maybe 100mil) on Thursday.  Teresa gave him 60mil and I understand some of that goes towards purchasing some paint so we don’t have to buy it.  I think he’s coming back tomorrow morning and then we’re going to Envigado to pay some bills.

We started watching Super 8 (7.1) until it was time for Master Chef.

I took my sleeping pills at 10:30 and went to bed at 10:45.

T-shirt of the day: That summer feeling.