Wednesday, July 8th, 2015

After I got up for the 2^nd time for the night about 4am I had trouble getting back to sleep.  Laura roused Teresa with a question about 5am and we got up at 7am.

After I had taken my shower and had my granola with banana slices, Teresa went to take her shower but there wasn’t any water.  She looked frantically around the house for the front door keys, finally found them, unlocked the door and yelled at Don Carlos to turn the water back on.

I put on my usual “doctor’s appointment clothes” including my nice shoes, a clean shirt but jeans this time.  Teresa doesn’t like me wearing my fanny pack at such times but again I insisted.  It was a little overcast so I asked Teresa if we needed an umbrella and she said “no”.

We left the finca at 8:25 and passed Don Carlos working on the path leading to the finca.  When we got a little further I heard a disturbance and something jumped on me.  It was Malu showing her appreciation and wanting another dog biscuit.  Unfortunately she got her dirty paws on my shirt and jeans.  

Of course, now the killer dogs were waiting for us but Teresa threw a couple rocks their way and they backed off.  

We only had a 2 minute wait for a bus but as soon as we sat down in the rear I was wondering if I stepped in something because I smelled #$*%.  I saw other people holding their nose but a minute later we went around a bend and I could see the truck directly in front of us was full of two levels of pigs.  It took a while to get far enough down the highway before we were able to pass it and the smell went away.

We got off the bus in El Poblado where we took a taxi for 6mil to the Opthamological Clinic San Diego (Carrera 43 #29-35), which is right across the street (east) from Premium Plaza mall.  We were supposed to be an hour early for my 11:30 appointment but we were 2 hours early.

We each had a pastry with juice for Teresa and coffee for me at De Lolita for 18,200 ($7.20).

We checked in at a few places, paid the clinic’s 171mil ($68), and then in one of their small waiting rooms a young lady came out and put a variety of drops in my right eye.  In about 20 minutes my pupil was dilated which probably looked real weird since my left one wasn’t.

About 11:15 she led me into a separate room.  The doctor was behind what looked like a machine they use to check for astigmatism but it said “laser” on it so I guessed that was the actual machine.

She told me to look at her right ear and with my peripheral vision I was aware of some bright red lights in an approximate shape of a clover leaf.  After a few seconds I guess she activated the laser because I felt and heard a “zip” inside the back of my head.  She did this 15 or 20 times, every 4 or 5 telling me to blink.  I really felt I needed those little breaks.

About 5 minutes later she was finished I gave her the 200mil ($80) fee.  I have a followup appointment with her next Wednesday at 4pm.  She said if this doesn’t work we can do it again.  What?

We walked outside and around the building to Premium Plaza.  We had lunch at Sr. Wok, which is like a Panda Express, for 34,800 ($15).

I saw an officer on a Segway but this one looked like it had training wheels in the back.  Lol.

Teresa shopped for quite a while, trying on a number of blouses in Zara finally settling on 2.  When we were waiting our turn at the checkout she noticed one of the blouses was 79,900 ($32) instead of 59,900 ($24) so to save $8 she put it back. 

 

At 3:15 we took a taxi to Torre Medica in El Tesoro for my dentist appointment.

I asked him to check the cleaning I got yesterday and on the first tooth he found some plaque that the dentist missed.  (When I told Teresa we decided we wouldn’t be going back to that other dentist.)  Regarding my painful tooth, Dr. Rendon told me I probably had some inflamation in my tooth that since has gone away.  I resumed our discussion about dental mouth guards for sleeping and he told me he offers 3 different types for 230mil ($92), 280mil ($112) and 320mil ($128).  He actually recommended the less expensive one and said he makes it himself.  He didn’t charge me anything for this visit.

We stopped at O-Cake - American Bakery & Café where we each had a small quiche with juice for 21,300 ($8.40).

We stopped in Carulla where I picked up a bottle of Heinz pickle relish for 13,890 ($5.60) and a couple small packages of Oral-B floss.  Teresa also picked up some arepas, ham, cheese, apples and a head of lettuce.

We took a taxi to the highway and I think the driver got a little irritated when I questioned why he got off the highway.  He got right back on and saved some time because traffic was backed up on a bridge.

We quickly caught a Tratam bus so I was pretty confident we would get back to the finca before dark.  Traffic was a little heavy in Medellin but when we got into the hills traffic was really heavy due to construction on the new highway.

As we passed Don Carlos’ house, Malu heard us and came out and I gave her another dog biscuit.  She has to learn that the most she will get is one.

The killer dogs gave us a hard time as we passed but I don’t think they came out from behind the fence.  We got back to the finca at 7:20, about 30 minutes after the sun went down.

The vision in my right eye now looks as clear as the vision in my left eye although I do have floaters in each eye that sometimes have me swatting at insects that aren’t really there.  Lol

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

T-shirt of the day: If you love me let me know.