Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

I fell asleep quickly and didn’t wake up until 5:30.  After a trip to the bathroom, back in bed, after a while I finally saw some light around the cracks in the window.  I checked my watch and it was 5:30.  (Huh?) Does that mean before it was 4:30?  Anyway I didn’t think I was going to sleep anymore so I got up and in the shower I had just gotten myself wet in warm water, when the lights went out.  I hadn’t even had time to touch the soap.  So I had more of a rinse than a wash.

I took a nap from 8am to 9:30 and thankfully when I got up the lights were back on.

We left the finca at 11am and got past the killer dogs undetected.  At the top of the hill we found Don Carlos and 2 other men working on the new sideroad.  Now, when I say a new sideroad I only mean 2 “lanes” for the wheels, not the entire width of the road.

We only had to wait a minute to catch a bus to Medellin.  Traffic was heavy as we got near town.  Things picked up after we got past a 2 truck accident that was blocking 2 of the 3 lanes.  We got off at Aguacatala station and after a 5 minute wait we were on Circular Sur 303 bus.  It only took a couple minutes to get to Mimbre & Rattan.  

I showed them a photo on my iPad that I had taken of my chess chair.  They showed us the 3 mimbre samples for 50mil, 90mil, and 120mil per chair.  The 50mil material was plastic so I didn’t like that.  I chose the 90mil material but then the owner showed up and informed us that that material was difficult to find so I went with the 120mil material.  Teresa thought that was too expensive but I’m thinking that Jamie will pay 50mil per chair and I’ll pay 70mil which is about $25.

I was hungry but it took me a few minutes to get Teresa out of there because she liked looking at their other furniture.

We quickly caught another Circular Sur 303 bus to Viva CC where I had Sarku’s chicken teriyaki and medium Pepsi for 12,400 and Teresa had Frisby’s Frischuleta, soup and juice for 25,900.

Because Teresa has a dentist appointment later we stopped in Exito where we bought a tube of toothpaste for 9,970 so she could brush her teeth.

We took a taxi to the Stadium where I showed Teresa the way to the Chess League of Antioquia.  There was a security guard there and I told him I wanted to ask about future chess tournaments.  First I stopped in the “pit” where I read a couple chess announcements and then we stopped in the office.  I asked the secretary if anyone there spoke English and she said no.  I asked her if Gloria still worked there and she said she didn’t know her.  I asked her if she was working there 2 years ago and she said no.  I told her that’s because Gloria was there.  I asked if she knew a man named Oscar and again was told no.  Then a man, named Omar, showed up to help translate.  His English was good but not perfect.  I learned that the “pit” is closed from tournaments for the next 2-3 months because of ongoing repairs to the pool but he told me there is a tournament this Saturday.  I asked how many games, thinking he might say 2 but he told me 5.  I asked what time – meaning what time control – and he said 15 minutes per game.  I told him I wasn’t interested in anything that fast.  I explained my difficulty getting information about upcoming tournaments by email and telephone and Laura, the secretary, gave me a small flyer with a new email address and 3 new telephone numbers.  I guess I’ll check further in January about February or March.

Omar asked me to stop in a meeting room and I understood he was going to tell me something about training with Brian somebody.  I asked him to write it down and at first I thought he misspelled the name until he finished writing Brain Wave.  He showed me where he attaches electrodes to two fingers and one to the center of the forehead.  I understand it has something to do with analyzing/measuring concentration.  

During our 2 block walk to the Stadium Metro Station Teresa was impressed that I knew my way around so well.  She asked me if I usually went out alone and after I told her yes, she told me how dangerous that is.

There was a long line at the metro station but I had my metro card and we got on a metro after only a 5 minute wait for the train.  At San Antonio we transferred to another line that took us to El Poblado then I confessed that this was the first time I’ve transferred lines going in this direction. 

We took a taxi to MBE but first I stopped at a nearby copy center where I had a copy made of my Social Security letter (2 pages) for 400 pesos.  Teresa waited there in the air conditioning while I went to MBE and for 20mil mailed my Proof of Life form to Social Security even though they said it would take a month to get there.  I also picked up a couple more monthly pension statements.

We got a call from the dentist’s office that they were running late and to arrive at 4:40 instead of 4 so we stopped next door at Naturall where we shared a juice for 4mil.

We took a taxi to El Tesoro and the dentist took Teresa in at 4:30.  While waiting (12^th floor of the tower) I checked my iPad apps and one said we were at an altitude of 5,725 feet and another 5,733 feet compared to the finca’s supposed 5,098 feet.  We got another appointment for Thursday at 3pm.

We stopped at the pharmacy in Carulla where Teresa picked up something, maybe for Laura’s cold, called Noraver and a small jar of something.  I saw her put some of the latter on her lips and then checked the jar and found it was Vick’s VapoRub.

In Carulla we picked up a 2 kilo bag of dog food, a couple packages of arepas, a package of lemons and I found a package of small dog treats for the terriers.

Outside we stopped at O-Cake where I had a 4-cheese with ham and bacon french quiche and Teresa had a cheese pastry and we each had a juice for 19,500.

I checked the altitude again and the latter app said that we were now at a height of 5,711 feet but I think we came down a lot further than 22 feet.

We waited about 15 minutes for a taxi to take us to the Poblado station.  We waited another 15 minutes for a bus to the finca.

At the foot of the hill we ran into Guillermo with his boxweiler who wasn’t aggressive at all, just curious, and I gave him a dog biscuit.  We walked up together and the black dog came out and I gave him one.  Interestingly, Guillermo called him “black dog”.

We got back to the finca to find that there was no electricity.

Teresa started asking me about some muchacho at the chess league office.  I told her I didn’t see any boy there.  She said he’s 16 years old, very smart, and the best player in the world.  (Maybe for his age.)  I told her I didn’t see any boy because I was busy talking to Omar.

I took my 2 sleeping pills at 9:45 and we went to bed early at 10pm.