Thursday, April 21st, 2016

7 days and counting!  (I’m beginning to wonder if I’m going to be able to enjoy that day.)

It took me hours to fall asleep – too much thinking about what transpired yesterday.

Still no internet.

Next weekend isn’t going to be much fun if I don’t have an internet connection.

Teresa dug out her old cell phone but I understand there is a problem with the ringer not being loud enough.

We left the finca about 10:30.  We found Guillermo at the highway and he got upset when Teresa told him what happened.  He said in Spanish “yo conoce esta tipo” which either means “I know the type” or “I know the guy”; big difference.

We had the taxi drop us off at $efecty where Teresa had all the coins counted.

We had lunch at Carbón de Leña – chicken shish kebab for me and fish for Teresa.  In the meantime I checked my emails and I had 2 from MBE – which should be my new debit card and my Chess Life magazine.  I checked my USAA account and no ATM withdrawals were made so that’s good.  I sent a chat email to Citibank requesting they cancel my debit card – it says they will respond within 2-3 days – that’s not good.  Laura arrived and ordered fish also.  

Teresa and I walked a couple blocks away where she bought a light dress for 15,900 pesos (about $6).  I stopped at a booth and had a battery added to my Timex sport watch for 6,000 pesos.  We stopped at a cell phone store but instead of buying a new phone she just bought a sim card for it and we added 20,000 pesos worth of minutes.  

Teresa went back to the restaurant while I took a bus to MBE.  The lady there gave me my April Chess Life magazine and, instead of a new debit card from USAA, it was a letter from Mortgage Services.  Basically it said that the package I had sent had been damaged so they are offering me 1 year of free credit monitoring with Equifax.  That means we have to wait a little longer for my new debit card.

I thought opening the new card would invalidate the old one but that didn’t work so I figured I’d better cancel the old one.  Back at the restaurant I had difficulty getting into the bank website and it froze my password.  Teresa and I walked a block to an internet café so I could call the States.  The lady working there said to start the call with “0051”.  They had 3 booths and with the first one “0051 1 800 …” didn’t work but “0051 800 …” did but after I got through all the prompts the representative couldn’t hear me.  The lady sent me to another booth – there I got nothing but a dial tone while I was still dialing.  At the 3^rd boot the phone didn’t have the “ABC” clearly associated with the “2” key, etc. so I had to go back to the 2^nd booth for a clear translation.  Finally I got through but I learned that the new debit card that should be arriving soon has the same numbers on the card – just a new expiration date.  I had her send me a new card with new numbers but I’ll have to wait 3-4 weeks for it to arrive so money is going to be tight for awhile.  I also had her reset my password.

As we were leaving the internet café Teresa recommended we rent out the finca cheaply and rent an apartment in Envigado.  I was okay with that.  She told me there is an apartment available in Wilson’s building but I told her I’d like to be a little closer (and in the same elevation) to the park.  We walked literally next door to a real estate office.  She told them what we’re looking for – 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms for 1million pesos or a little more.   A guy walked us a block down the street to an apartment above a store.  The apartment was 3 bedrooms on the 2^nd floor for 1,200,000.  It looked old, the bedrooms were small, Teresa didn’t like the kitchen and I didn’t like all the noise right outside on the very busy street.  He took us to another apartment about 7 blocks north of the park (part of the address was 32D-09).  This was a 3^rd floor apartment with larger bedrooms, a large living room area, a spot for my chess table, a large balcony and a relatively quiet location for 1,000,000 (about $350 today) a month.  Teresa loved the kitchen and the balcony so I think it’s a done deal.  So there’s one bedroom for us, one for Laura, and another for guests.  Next door (ok, actually there’s another apartment entrance in between) there’s even a corner store called La Esquina Social (The Social Corner) for my brother to sit and have a cold beer.  And if he doesn’t like that, or to break the monotony, there’s another store on the other corner.  I understand we’re coming back tomorrow to sign the contract with Wilson who will serve as our fiador (co-signer).  I understand it’s in Estrato 3 so even though we’ll be paying rent and have a water bill we won’t be paying a premium like Estrato 5 & 6 would.

I’m sure the thieves will come back someday when they figure I’ve refilled my “piggy bank” but they’ll find we don’t live there anymore.

I asked Teresa what about the dogs and I think we’ll keep one – I’m vying for Peter – and she’ll give the others to Mario.  I just hope Peter’ll be happy not being free to roam around the neighborhood.  I know one thing – he’s going to get a bath (shower?) more often because he smells.

So, I won’t have to climb that hill anymore and we’re going to be much closer to everything – the park to play chess, the buses to Poblado and MBE, new (to me at least) restaurants in the area.

We got back to the finca by 7pm.

Teresa talked to Nydia and discovered the thieves held up the El Rancherito restaurant(s) and the police are coming tomorrow.  Correction, I guess we’re meeting her Nydia and going to the police station and then she’s coming with us to Envigado.

Teresa called the veteranerion (sp?) to see if he was interested in renting the finca.  I understood he wasn’t.

For some reason unknown to me Teresa connects what happened to us to the death of her son and starts crying.

If I understood correctly it was Guillermo’s brother who sent the thieves to our house.

I understand tomorrow we’re getting up about 7am and leaving at 8am to meet Wilson in the morning to sign the rental documents.

T-shirt of the day: I only drink a little, but when I do, I turn into another person and that person drinks a lot.