Saturday, January 20, 2018

I slept well last night despite getting up 2-3 times during the night.  After I woke up at 6:30 it took me maybe as much as an hour to fall back asleep.  I finally woke/got up at 8:15.

Today is Anniversary Day!

It was exactly 5 years ago today I arrived in Medellin, Colombia.  Why did I leave the US?  Basically, I was priced out of the market.  Why did I choose Colombia?  1) Beautiful women, 2) Beautiful weather, 3) Low cost of living, not necessarily in that order. There’s actually a 4^th that I didn’t know at the time – the people here are very friendly.  It’s been an interesting experience to say the least.  I’m sure anyone who has read my posts from the beginning would agree with that.

It was exactly 1 year ago today that Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the US.  How’s that working out for everyone?  I’ll repeat my previous predictions: 1) Donald Trump will not complete his 4 year term as president, 2) within 2 years of his leaving office, he and Melania Trump will no longer be together.

Teresa is waiting for Laura to get up to make her breakfast, she said something about meeting her friend Gloria at 11am, we have to go to Claro to get her phone number put on a monthly plan, and she said something about going to Exito.  (If she’s going to Exito why is she telling me we need to buy arepas?)  Anyway, she said she’s going to make fish for her and Laura for lunch and I guess because she’s so busy she asked me to go out for lunch today.  No problem!

During breakfast I was trying to read a Time magazine article about a record number of women running for office and my iPad kept rebooting.  I ended up having to finish reading it on my laptop.

Teresa informed me that Laura got up very early for her passport appointment so she’ll be sleeping in.

I’m still waiting for my new Cedula.  Immigration hasn’t updated their website with new cedula numbers since January 2^nd!

Today is a warm and sunny day.  In fact my cellphone’s weather prediction is for no rain for the coming 6 days.

Teresa and I left the apt at 11am.  She walked me over to Comfama where we met Gloria.    (If I knew we were coming here I would have brought my 3 used AA batteries to put in their recycling cylinder.)  I think Teresa gave Gloria some money for the shampoo and conditioner she sold.  We then walked over to the new Claro office across the plaza from Exito.  While Teresa was waiting I went to Gana and added 20mil to my cellphone.  When I came back Teresa gave the young lady her personal information and signed a form.  Teresa paid 92,900 for the first month.  I understand it will be another 12,000 to be paid by the 10^th of February and then 92,900 every 10^th of the month thereafter.  Her minutes also include 4GB of data.

Teresa headed back to the apartment and I walked the 20 minutes to Papa Johns where I had an individual Pomodoro pizza and large Coke.  Just like back home.

Outside I saw an old banner over the street that said that the Dann Carlton Biltfort was serving Christmas dinner; something to keep in mind for next year.

On the walk back I stopped at Otra Parte to be sure it is still open.  It is.  I stopped at Classic Diner to see if it was still open.  It is.  About 5 minutes later I noticed a store across the street named Gringo’s Store but I didn’t stop.  I’ll check it out another time.

I had a limonada de coco at Bartolos.  They had a large RV parked in the park for people to give blood donations.  I stopped at Exito for bread and arepas and was back at the apt by 3:30.

The Colombian Peso closed at 2,842 to the US Dollar.  It’s been getting stronger against the dollar lately, probably because the price of oil is going up.

Teresa informed me she has to return to the finca with Wilson; something about the tubes not fitting.  I told her to call me as she leaves the finca and I’ll have Laura order food and then I’ll go and pick it up.  She left about 4pm.

I watched a couple more episodes of The Walking Dead.

Laura came back at 5pm and left for the park at 5:30.  She said she would be back before 7pm.  I asked her to pick up 3 bags of milk and a 1.5 liter bottle of Coke from the corner store on her way back.

Teresa came back at 6:15 and we agreed she had time to get her nails done so she left again.

Laura returned at exactly 7pm, placed the order to Mu and we were told it would be ready in 15 minutes.  Outside we walked down the hill and quickly caught a taxi to Parque Lleras.  The driver took Avenida Las Vegas, turned east on Calle 10, turned at Carrera 35, stopped at Calle 7, I paid the driver and Laura asked him if he could wait a couple minutes for us.  We walked half a block down the hill and quickly picked up our large order of ribs for 72mil.  Back up to Carrera 35 the driver was waiting for us.  We were back at the apt by 8pm with Teresa waiting for us.

Laura said she was still full from lunch and had a little heartburn so she would eat her share of the ribs and fries later.

Teresa and I chowed down, finished most of the fries and 3 ribs each and we left 3 ribs and a few fries for Laura.

Laura left the apt about 9pm dressed up to go out to visit with her friends.

Tomorrow starting at 3pm begins the NFL Championships.

We went to bed at 11pm as usual.

T-shirt of the day: I will thrive in 2005.