Thursday, August 3, 2017

Last night I took my sleeping pills and drops and went to bed at 11:15.  I fell asleep quickly and … slept through the night!  Yay!  I woke up at 6am and got up at 7am.  Hopefully now my eyes won’t feel like their falling out of my head for my 6:30pm chess match tonight.

I understand Teresa is going with her mother for another doctor’s appointment, later going to the gym and for another massage so she’ll be out and about most of the day today.

I watched the first hour of the Today show and then left for the internet café.  I first checked to see if the chess tournament was listed online – it wasn’t.  For an hour and 17 minutes I solved puzzles on Chess Magnet School getting me 78% towards my next promotion.  That hour and 20 minutes cost me 2,750 pesos (about $1).

As I was entering the building I found a car key lying on the sidewalk.  I picked it up and rang the apartments on the 1^st and 2^nd floor with no answer.

Teresa was at the apt when I arrived.  I showed her the key and she went to each apartment and found the owner on the first floor – he was napping.

Tomorrow’s matches are at 10am and 6:30 pm.  In between I’ll get a haircut, have lunch and find an internet café where I can read my emails.

Teresa and I waited for Laura and then left for lunch at 12:45.  We met Laura coming up as we were going down the hill.  We had a nice buffet lunch at Deli Hoy and I ate 2 small slabs of ribs.

Coming back into the apt we found a flyer that said that they will be spraying the building for insects on Saturday August 12^th.

I left the apt at 5pm, walked downtown Envigado and quickly caught a taxi to the Stadium.  Traffic was very heavy but I was just happy not to be standing in a hot cattle car (train car).  It cost me 18,000 pesos ($6).  Walking past the table tennis building there was a man with 2 dogs and the large black one ran towards me very aggressively.  I walked sideways to get away from him and the man was no help calling the dog off.  This was one of the few instances I wished I had my pepper spray with me. 

I got to the chess league an hour early and the matches started 40 minutes late - as usual. 

I counted 8 rows of tables with about 20 tables in a row.  My rating is listed as 1667 and my opponent, Andres Diaz, was ranked #6 at 1980 and we played on board #6.  I had White and I played the Smith Morra Gambit.

On the 10^th move I thought I saw a good move but rejected it.  After the game he showed me how that was a good move.  Sigh!  I resigned on my 36^th move.  I quickly caught a taxi and was back at the apt by 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: I want time to sit, read, take a nap, and snack.  Basically, I want to go back to kindergarten.