Tuesday, November 8th, 2016

It’s finally here – Election Day in the U.S.  I’ll probably be glued to the TV and CNN (Slingbox via my laptop) this evening.

It was another (cold) military shower this morning.

I checked the contents of the Centrum Silver +50 I bought against the GNC Prostate & Virility tablets I’ve been taking and I see mostly common ingredients so when I run out of the latter approximately next February I’ll just replace it with the former.  It will be a lot cheaper and a faster than ordering a new supply from GNC in the States.

We left the apt about 11am and quickly caught a taxi to Torre Intermedica in El Poblado.  The ladies got out and I continued on to Hotel Diez.  At ground level I found the Bancolombia office open.  Inside it looked like a SS office with lots of chairs, small office on outside walls, and a “take a ticket” machine near the entrance.  I tried to watch what the 2 men ahead of me were doing when they used the machine.  Luckily a helper came along just before it was my turn.  I explained my problems (don’t speak Spanish; debit card doesn’t work in Bancolombia ATMs) and he punched some buttons on the machine and gave me a ticket.  I was A122 so I sat down to watch the large display.  There were 11 cubicles and they were serving A121 (plus 6 other alphanumeric combinations) so I was encouraged it wouldn’t be a long wait.  Five minutes later I was in cubicle number 7.  In broken Spanish I explained my situation but about the only replies I understood was that they don’t have old ATMs and I need to call my bank in the USA to find out what the problem might be.

I walked down to Parque Poblado and across the street I had a copy made of the Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form (form 1199A) I found on the internet.

Back at Torre Intermedica it was only noon so I had an apple muffin and café con leche while I waited for the ladies.  They arrived 45 minutes later and we had a nice lunch at Il Capuccino of soup, salad, chicken breast, rice and juice.

We quickly caught a taxi back to the apt.  I understood the driver was listening on the radio to the US election because I understood Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Florida, and North Carolina.

I finally decided to take a chance and I sent MT’s information to the US Embassy requesting a direct deposit of her SS.

I called USAA but the best they could guess is that Bancolombia’s software isn’t compatible with my VISA debit card with a chip.

I received an email back from the US embassy requesting phone numbers.  At least that tells me they received my email and it’s an indication I’m on the right track to getting her SS directly deposited into her Bancolombia account.

About 9pm I started watching the election results on CNN using my Slingbox.  I did have a problem with buffering this time.  When I went to bed at 11:15 things weren’t lost for Hillary but they didn’t look good.

T-shirt of the day: No regrets.  (As it turned out this wasn’t a politically correct t-shirt for this day.)