Thursday, July 6, 2017

Teresa and I were both overtired so we went to bed a little earlier than usual last night – 10:15.

I was awakened at 2am by a dog barking on someone’s balcony.  

How rude!  It took me more than 90 minutes to fall back asleep.

I got up at 7am so Teresa could make me breakfast and still have time to have her hair and nails done before we meet my son for lunch today.

I watched the first hour of the Today show and then decided to try my luck at Bancolombia’s deposit machine.

Walking down the sidewalk I noticed people moving out to the street.  I looked ahead and there was a man with a medium sized adult golden retriever.  He had a choke collar on the dog, the man was wearing gloves and the dog was trying to bite his hand and the man seemed to be encouraging it.  Some pedestrians stopped and stared and, like me, I don’t think they thought that was the right thing for him to be doing.

In the bank lobby there used to be 6 ATM machines and the new deposit machine.  Now there are 5 ATM machines and 2 deposit machines.  There were 4 men today working on 4 of the ATM machines so only one was working.  There was a short line for the deposit machine and after a 5-minute wait I deposited the extra 50mil into Laura’s account to pay for MT’s July gym membership.

I sent an email to Chess Magnet School asking them to reset my account title back to Baron.

I forgot to mention that last night I made up another batch of fresh tea.  My mistake this time is I poured much more than half of the tea from the measuring cup into the pitcher so it’s going to be extra strong.  There wasn’t enough left in the measuring cup so I just pitched it.

I made myself a glass of tea and cut one of Teresa’s “lemons” in order to add a few drops to my tea.  I didn’t like the taste and ended up throwing it away.  Teresa insists these green things are lemons but I’m sure they are limes.  It’s not the same with tea.

I received an email from MBE that I have a document waiting for pickup.

Teresa and I left the apt at 11:40, quickly caught a taxi and arrived at Mercado del Rio exactly at noon.  Jim had arrived earlier and had already toured the downstairs area.  We went upstairs to Sinko where he ordered pizza and a mango juice, I ordered ribs and a coconut lemonade and Teresa ordered salmon and a cold beer.

I quizzed Jim a little on his trip to Cartagena.  The flight was 1 hour and cost 600,000 pesos.  The city had a lot of old buildings and there were a lot of tourists.  It was also pretty hot.  Jim bought a pair of pearl earrings that he gave to us for Laura. 

Jim and I shared the pizza and ribs and I still had some leftovers to take home.

Jim went downstairs for a minute and Teresa told me Laura’s given up on Jim as a possible boyfriend as she understands he already has a girlfriend.  So she’s still looking for a boyfriend.  Teresa told me she doesn’t want her to be with a boy her own age as they are only interested in smoking, drugs, and drinking.  She says someone 5, 10, or even 15 years older would be much more interesting for her.  (Easy to see it’s a different mentality here than in the States.)

When Jim came back he brought a few fresh cookies he had bought downstairs.  We shared a chocolate chip cookie and he gave us one to give to Laura.  He kept the rest for his friends to munch on later.

I told Jim that “ahora’ seems to mean “now” to everyone else except Teresa who uses it as “later”.  I asked the pretty waitress and she said it means “now”.  Teresa asked her a couple questions and then reported that her opinion doesn’t count because she’s from a different department (state).  Sigh!

The total came to 148,593 and Jim picked up the check before I could.  That included an additional juice and beer.

We walked across the street where we quickly caught a taxi.  We got off 3 blocks away at Premium Plaza mall and said our goodbyes to Jim.  His friends went to Guatape today and he’s waiting to hear from them and then he’s going to meet them at the bus station.  Jim heads back to Chicago tomorrow around noon.

At the mall I checked in Adidas but they didn’t have the exercise gloves in my size.  As we were leaving, Teresa noticed Nike so we went in there.  At first I found a pair that fit but they were complicated to put on and take off and they were 150,000 pesos.  The salesman brought over another pair and even though they were XL they fit nice, went on and off fairly easily and were just simpler.  And they only cost 93,000 pesos.  When they rang it up using my debit card it showed COP and USD.  I complained a little but just got the “that’s the charge in equivalent dollars” explanation.  (Back at the apt again I could see that I lost 100 pesos per dollar on the transaction.)

The packaging calls them Nike Lock Down and they have:

·       Padded palm with perforation to increase breathability.

·       Dri-fit fabric/Moisture wicking fabric helps keep hands dry and comfortable.

·       Adjustable wrist strap/Secure fit and added support.

·       Extended fingers, with extended middle finger (lol)/Easy removal.

We walked out the Avenida El Poblado side and quickly caught a bus to MBE where I picked up my July Chess Life magazine.

Teresa said she was very tired so we took a taxi instead of a bus and were home by 3pm.  (A very nice treat was that the taxi driver had the air conditioning on.  I tipped him 600 pesos which was all the change I had in my pocket.)

MT came over at 3:45 and right after it started raining hard but it stopped 10 minutes later.

Teresa was going to get MT a glass of milk but I asked her if she would like a glass of iced tea instead.  She said “yes” and Teresa joined in and I made a glass for each of them – but still strong and they declined any sugar – but they said they liked it a lot.

At 4:30 it started raining again but stopped 5 minutes later.

Laura came home and showed me a “catalog” for her University.  The faculty appears to be 90% female and all appear to be in their 20’s.  I doubt there are many PHDs in the bunch.

I was looking at the receipt for my gloves and I see that I have the signed copy so they must have the unsigned copy.  I doubt that will make a difference, however.

I finished Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander and then downloaded Michael Connelly’s Blood Work: Terry McCaleb Series #1.

I watched a new episode of El Socio and then I was scanning channels and I found the series Westworld (9.0).  Yay!  I missed the 1^st half of the 1^st episode but I saw the remainder and then the 2^nd episode.

I forgot to mention that a few days ago Laura returned from the library with a couple books one of which was Proof of Heaven in Spanish by Dr. Eben Alexander.  Laura just finished it and I gave it to Teresa and told her I wanted her to read it, which she just started.

T-shirt of the day: I love sleeping.  It’s like being dead, without the commitment.