Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Last night I only got up once during the night, woke up at 6:30 and got up at 7:30.

The street down the hill is usually one-way towards the expressway but today there is a traffic cop directing traffic in the opposite direction up towards Avenida Poblado.  It seems to me that Avenida Poblado must be closed off for a block and they are detouring traffic arround it.

I sent myself another $100 using World Remit and carefully documented the process before I start sending myself some serious money.  Laura will have to assist me again this afternoon in picking it up.  I’ll probably buy her an ice cream cone afterwards as a reward.

I saw an ad for a new chess book that seems to concentrate on pawn play.  It included a sample chapter that I downloaded and added to my memory drive.

After breakfast I walked down to Home Center looking for an old fashioned can opener.  No luck.  I stopped in Exito where I picked up cheddar cheese slices, arepas, a new soft toothbrush and 3 new pairs of underwear.

I walked back up the hill and looked in RiMax but they didn’t have the can opener I was looking for either.  I stopped at the copy center where I had the chess pages printed out from my memory drive.  The pedestrian walkway outside Exito was closed so I had to make a 1 block detour to get across Avenida Poblado.

Back at the apt I received a call from Teresa.  She was having a healthy waffle in the gym café when she met a gringo.  I talked to him and he invited me to meet him and some other gringos for lunch at noon at Carbon de Leña.  It was now 11:30.  I got Teresa’s okay for the change in lunch plans and soon hung up.  Laura came home and asked if she could go visit a friend in Manizales.  I told her it was okay with me and I would fund her trip to the tune of 200,000 pesos (about $75) but she would need her mother’s permission.

I got to Carbon de Leña where I met Jake, a light skinned African American former marine with the muscles to prove it.  We were soon joined by 3 other black men from various locations in the States.  We waited awhile for another one to join us but then we gave up and we all ordered.  Most of the guys ordered burgers but I ordered a Caesar salad without the ham.  (Next time I’ll try to remember without the bacon also.)  The 4^th guy finally showed up and he ordered the ribs.  When his ribs arrived he took one look at them and refused to accept them.  I had no idea why he didn’t like how they looked.  Later I figured out it was because he was expecting a continuous slab like the photo in the menu and these came in 3 separate little slabs.  After that the other guys continuously kidded him about the ribs and the menu.

I left there about 2:20 and walked across the street to the park where Chuck soon showed up.  We couldn’t find a table at Bartolos so we walked over to the bakery by city hall.

Colombia was playing Australia in what they call a “friendly” and it ended in a 0-0 tie.  How exciting!

I received a text message from Laura asking which metro station is closest to the south bus terminal.  After a little thought I correctly told her Poblado Station.  With all my exploring I know Medellin better than Teresa and Laura.

After we had coffee and a pastry we moved back to Bartolos for another coffee.  Rick Grimes soon joined us and we argued politics for awhile.  About 3:30 it started raining and finally about 5pm it let up a bit and we all made a run for it.

Teresa received a call from Laura that she had arrived in Manizales.  Teresa believes it’s about 5 hours away.

At 10pm after taking my melatonin I starting reading the free sample chapter from the chess book Small Steps to Giant Improvement.

T-shirt of the day: I like rainy days.