Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

Despite the sleeping pills I had great difficulty getting to sleep.  I’m thinking I’ll start needing to take 3 mg (the maximum recommended) of my sleeping pills instead of just 2.  I started with just 1mg but that only worked for about 2 weeks.  Since then I’ve been taking 2mg.

We got up at 6am, I let Tony out of the shed and put Peter in and we left the finca at 7am.  The killer dogs met us at Guillermo’s house, including the puppy.  I gave the boxweiler a dog biscuit and then one to the other dog.   The puppy wanted one too and Teresa told me to give him one.  I reminded her that Guillermo said that he was sick but I broke one in half and gave him one piece.  Probably because it was so small he grabbed it and his sharp little puppy teeth got my hand a little.  The other half I tossed to the boxweiler who hasn’t learned to catch it in the air as yet so he let it fall before eating it.  After he ate it he followed us up the hill.  Lately I feel comfortable turning my back on him without fear of getting bitten.

Walter was waiting for us at the top of the hill.  On our way to Envigado Walter was singing some song and in Spanish I said “Don’t worry, I can’t sing either” and everyone had a good laugh.  We got to Nueva eps at 7:45.  It was open and I saw that their hours are 7am-7pm M-F and 7-3 on Saturday.  Teresa took number 348 and they were serving number 333.

I walked over to Bancolombia and the lobby wasn’t open but there was already a line to get in so they probably open at 8am.  The ATMs were open and I took out some cash.

Back at nueva eps I gave Teresa 600mil to make all the monthly utility payments and medications.

I called Alan and told him I would be in the park in 2 minutes.  I believe he hung up as I was saying that I was going to leave my cell phone with Teresa.  In the park I didn’t see Alan so I set up the chess board in the one clean spot I found (with no bird poop).  There was a man cleaning the area so other spots were either still dirty or wet.

After about 15 minutes I figured Alan wasn’t going to walk around and find me so I put my set away and walked toward the south end of the park.  I found Alan right away and we went back to my original spot.  We played 9 games and I won them all; I don’t think he’s played in a while.  He got a little close to beating me in one game.  I learned that his wife’s name is Yani.

Teresa came over as we were finishing the last game and told me she’s hungry.  We finished, I said goodbye to Alan and we went to Carbón de Leña for breakfast.  Teresa told me I have a urologist appointment for November 27^th at 3pm at Calle 9CSur #50FF-116 in Guayabal.  We each had the calentao (scrambled eggs, rice and beans, with a large arepa) and coffee.  Afterwards I made a trip to the restroom and again there was toilet paper but no toilet seat.

We picked up a few things from Exito and then took a taxi to the highway.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus.  In the meantime there were a couple of Jehovah Witness ladies studying their bible with brochures for anyone interested.  

At the sideroad they are tearing up more of the “new” highway across the street.  Teresa informed me they are going to rebuild the sideroad next Monday so we probably will stay in the finca so we don’t get in their way.  That will certainly help.

I started watching my alma mater the NIU Huskies playing against #24 ranked and undefeated Toledo Rockets on Slingbox.  I saw the Rockets (who must have the ugliest uniforms; they look like tweety birds) march down the field and score a touchdown.  On what I think was the Huskies first play they threw a long pass for a touchdown.  I think the score was about 17-10 in favor of Toledo when at 9pm, after watching Colombia’s La Voz, Laura wanted to watch some of The Voice from the US.  I switched to NBC but after about 30 minutes she had had enough because it seemed to be a compilation rather than a contest.  When I turned back to the NIU game it seemed like it was a biography or something else different so I finally just logged out.

Teresa talked to the kitchen cabinet guys and I understand someone can finish my chairs for 300mil which Teresa thinks is too much.  That’s only a little more than $50 a chair and I want them finished.  Maybe I can make a deal with the cabinet guys.

The Colombian Peso dipped below 2,800 to the dollar.

I took my sleeping pills (2) at 10pm and went to bed at 10:15.

I heard a lot of heavy rain overnight.

T-shirt of the day: Let’s heal the planet.