Thursday, July 7th, 2016

I only slept fairly well last night.  The alarm went off and immediately Teresa said “let’s sleep in and go after the health club”.  I ignored her, got up, and she was up when I came out of the shower.

We left the apt at 7:50am and walked to nueva eps where the downstairs seating area was already packed.  After talking to a few people, Teresa reported it’s better if we skip the clinic and have our tests done privately.

At Bancolombia my debit card wouldn’t work in the 1^st four ATMs.  I tried one more time on a new ATM in the corner and finally it worked.

We walked to a supermarket called La Vaquita near downtown Envigado where we picked up 155,655 pesos worth of food.  I found a box of Macaroni & Cheese that looked exactly like Kraft’s but it’s a Promos brand.  It was less expensive and if it’s good I’ll pick up some more.  (I guess later Teresa will tell me if the prices here are better than Exito.)  A girl pushed our cart of food up to the corner, I tipped her 1mil and we took a taxi back to the apt for the minimum fare of 4,600 pesos.  As usual, in cases like that I give them a 5mil bill and tell them to keep the change.

While Teresa put everything away I walked to Todo Drogas where I bought 2 packages of Isoklon sleeping pills for 68,500 each and my monthly Tamsulosin for 42,900.  Now I’m set for July.  Walking across one street I almost got clobbered by a bicycle going the wrong way down a one way street.  For some reason they have one of the side streets leading to the park blocked off.

I stopped at Exito and after a 20 minute wait I paid the epm bill (electricity, gas, water, & sewer) for this month of 43,708 (less than $15).  I asked the boy if I could also pay my Une bill and he said yes so I also paid the 64,900 for my wifi.  I asked if I could pay my Direct TV bill of 111,000 and he said yes.  For some reason he wanted me to pay another 50,000 pesos for it so I told him I would take care of that later.

Back at the apt Teresa was still at the health club.

When Teresa came back I asked her about the Direct TV bill.  She told me the extra 50mil is the installation charge that finally came through.  I guess I’ll be back in line again to pay it tomorrow.

We had a quick rain shower early in the afternoon but it didn’t last long.

I received an email from MBE that my package in Miami – the lantern oil – has been discarded because it has been there for more than 45 days.  That’s fine with me.

About 3:30 Teresa asked me why don’t I go to the park and play some chess?  I thought she’d never ask.  My first opponent was a young man I’ve seen play before.  He plays very quickly and seems pretty strong.  He beat me easily in the first game where I had black – I played too quickly.  I beat him in the 2^nd game and he seemed pretty frustrated by it – he just got up and left.  My 2^nd opponent didn’t seem particularly strong and I won a few games against him.  My 3^rd opponent – the same – he just couldn’t get anything going.  I finally left about 6:30 having won I don’t know how many games – 7, 8, 9?

When I told Teresa my results she suggested I play in a tournament at the stadium.

T-shirt of the day: Keep calm.  Ride Kawasaki.