Monday, November 16th, 2015

I got up once about 2:30, heard what sounded like a dogfight about 5:30, finally waking/getting up at 9:20.

When we fed the dogs we saw that Peluche wasn’t walking on his right hind leg.  He probably got bitten but not sure if it was by Tony or one of the neighbor’s dogs.

I understood Teresa wanted to go to Caldas today to buy some needed food items but now she says because of the puente (bridge) there will be lots of people out so we’ll go early tomorrow.  Bridge means the same thing as in English but it is also used to refer to a weekend that includes a Monday holiday, what we would call a long weekend.

I’m a little late with this news, but now I understand that last Friday was the 30^th anniversary of a natural tragedy here in Colombia.

The Colombian volcano Nevado del Ruiz is an active stratovolcano with a history of generating deadly volcanic mudflows (lahars) from relatively small-volume eruptions. In 1595, a lahar swept down the valleys of the River Guali and the River Lagunillas, killing 636 people. In 1845, an immense lahar flooded the upper valley of the River Lagunillas, killing over 1000 people. It continued for 70 kilometers downstream before spreading across a plain in the lower valley floor. The young village of Armero was built directly on top of the 1845 mudflow deposit. Over the ensuing years, Armero grew into a vibrant town with over 27,000 residents. On November 13, 1985, history repeated itself for the third time in 400 years, with another eruption and another deadly lahar racing down the River Lagunillas. This time, over 23,000 people were killed, including most of the residents of Armero.

Over the weekend there were documentaries that showed people covered with mud and ash (some alive, most dead) being pulled out of the rubble.  One heart breaking part showed a young (7?) boy who was trapped in the rubble with the water level at his chin and it was obvious he was saying goodbye to his family.  Because of my limited Spanish I don’t know what became of him.

We heard some thunder in the distance about 12:30, again at 1:15 and 1:25, but no rain.

It’s obvious Colombia is going to be playing (futból) against Argentina in the near future.

After one week at the Overlord level in Chess Magnet School I’ve only advanced 11% toward the next level.

It started raining at 3:40 but it wasn’t hard and it didn’t last long.

Peluche was finally lying down but whimpering slightly so Teresa called a veterinarian that I understand lives down the hill.  She called him and when he called back I understood he couldn’t come and recommended we buy some pain pills for him.

Today was a good day for me on Chess Magnet School as I accomplished 26% towards my next promotion.

We watched a movie Laura found on the internet called Curve (5.3) that was pretty good despite its low Imdb.com rating.  We then started watching Bleeding Heart (4.9) starring Jessica Biel but it was a little slow so we gave up.  Laura found Gone Girl (8.2) 0:41 that was only in Spanish but I told them that was okay because I had just read the book.  We stopped 40 minutes later so Teresa could watch what looked like a Colombian beauty pageant.

I took my sleeping pills at 11:30 and went to bed 20 minutes later.

T-shirt of the day: Rockin’ Reunion.