Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Monday, November 20, 2017

Last night I slept as well as usual, woke up at 7am and got up at 7:30.

At 9am I had Teresa call my dentist, Dr. Franco, and he said he would try to fit me in at 2:30.

I emailed Alex and told him to come over sometime this morning.  (Yeah, I’m skipping gym.)

Alex arrived at 10am, I plugged in my magicJack and he called Social Security.  He had a 40 minute wait.  He was astounded that the connection was so good with my headphones.  I was surprised he was able to get them at all on a Monday.

While waiting I tried on a pair of jeans he brought me.  Because he lost 20 pounds he says he’s down from size 34 to 32.  They fit me and the length appeared to be near perfect.

He talked to someone at SS and was promised that his Medicare Part B will be cancelled and he should have a full reimbursement in his January payment.  (This has been a lingering problem he’s had since he left SF last spring.)

I shut down my magicJack and put in his magicJack and it worked fine.  Maybe his problem is incompatibility with his Apple laptop.  He said Alba has an HP laptop so maybe it will work fine with hers.

We left the apt about 12:30 and walked down to Deli Hoy for lunch.  Today they had oriental chicken with pasta in addition to the usual unlimited salad and juice for 11,000.  We both enjoyed it a lot.

We caught a taxi to Poblado where Alex jumped out at Monterrey mall and I continued on to El Tesoro.  Waiting at a stoplight I observed a young gringo and gringa couple with their backpacks that had just crossed the street.  They were stopped by a couple policemen and they had just taken out their passports to be checked.  First time I’ve seen that.  Traffic was bumper to bumper up Calle 10.

At El Tesoro I stopped in a restroom and brushed my teeth but I was still at the dentist’s office by 2:25.  A young man was being treated and he left just before 3pm.  I took his place in the chair and over the next hour Dr. Rendon worked on my tooth and fitted it back into place.  (For the record it’s my molar furthest back on the top left side.)  He noticed a crack in one corner but worked for some time on strengthening it.  We know it will eventually break but hopefully that won’t be for 3-4 more years.  It’s low risk, high reward if it works as it only cost me 150,000 pesos ($50) to put back in place.  I learned the doctor leaves on December 19th for 10 days on his skiing vacation so I asked him what I should do if I have a problem while he’s gone.  He said to call him on his cell phone and he’ll give me the information for another dentist.

There was only one other person ahead of me for a taxi at the stand.  I was surprised to see the chicken again as I was waiting.  My driver spent most of the time talking to someone using his bluetooth.

I got back to the apt with no problem for 11,000 pesos.

Teresa asked me if I paid for the gym this month and how much.  I told her 200,000 pesos.  She asked why am I still paying for her mother when she can’t even go to the gym.  I tried to tell her because I didn’t pay for her a couple months ago after she had cancelled and I got jumped on for not doing it.  So I decided I would continue to pay for her until told not to.  So now I’ve been told not to.

Teresa and Laura left for the gym at 7:45 with all of my gym payment receipts.

When Teresa came back she told me that Sondra does not have cancer of the liver but doctor’s still don’t know why she’s getting stomach pains.

Laura informed me that she needs her birth certificate before she can continue at the university (CES) next year.  Her birth certificate is in San Andres.  So, in my imperfect Spanish I was trying to find out: if she’s sure that’s really necessary, can it be mailed to her from San Andres, would it be Laura or Teresa that should go, do they know if it can be obtained the same day she arrives, can she fly out of the Medellin airport or does she have to fly out of Rionegro, how much does it cost, etc.  She showed me what looked like an airline booking site but being in Spanish I couldn’t understand (and neither did she) if what we were looking at were prices one-way or round-trip.  To be continued.

I watched the first half of Monday Night Football and then started my pre-sleep rituals.


T-shirt of the day: Don’t follow me.  I’m lost too.

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