Saturday, October 26, 2019

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, got up 4 times during the night, finally waking at 5:30 and getting up at 6am.  (When I have liquids like soup or hot oatmeal at night I tend to get up more often during the night.)

There’s no milk in the house so either I go next door to Exito for some or I have breakfast at McDonald’s in Los Molinos.  It’s a cool morning, only 65 degrees, as I went next door and bought 2 bags of milk.  Teresa was going to make me blueberry pancakes for breakfast but then she forgot to put in the blueberries so she put a sliced banana and strawberries on top instead.

I left the apt at 8am and a metro bus arrived as I reached the bus stop.  I took the metro to Aguacatala station, walked under the bridge and soon caught a Circular Sur bus to Los Molinos.  I arrived 10 minutes early and Dario was there waiting for me.  I had the Black pieces in the first game, I played the Dutch Defense against his d4 but he checkmated me on move 23.  Drat.  I don’t think he’s been playing in years and he doesn’t seem to have lost a step.  In the 2^nd game I won a pawn early and tried to hang onto it while attacking on the other side of the board.  At one point he almost checkmated me but for some reason he retreated his Queen and I won in the endgame on the 50^th move.

He left, I made a trip to the restroom and then got in line at Frisby for their BBQ chicken nugget combo.  As I finished eating I realized I didn’t have my tech bag with me with my expensive Ray Ban sunglasses and special, but not so expensive, Shedrain umbrella.  Yikes!  I did it again?  I asked a security guard if they had a lost & found and he sent me to a nearby information desk.  The lady there sent me deeper inside the mall to an “executive tower” where a rep had my tech bag.  She wrote some long story down in a large notebook and I had to give her my name, address, cedula number, and cellphone number before she returned it but everything was there!  Wow!

I retraced my steps but got off the metro at the Envigado station and walked to the mall.  While having coffee at Todo Fresa I received a text message from Juan Carlos.  It seems he is confused about our meeting date & time so instead of tomorrow we agreed to meet today at 4pm.  I left the café just before 3pm and returned to the apt feeling overheated from the 10 minute walk in my jeans.

Teresa informed me that we are meeting Esmeralda and Alejandro for pizza if I am back by 6pm from my meeting with Juan.  She said something about today being the “day of pizza” whatever that means.  Teresa had me change into shorts and I left 30 minutes later for Otra Parte.  Juan arrived 10 minutes late with a friend John who wanted to listen into our English conversation.  (It was getting cool in my shorts and I realized I should have worn shorts in the morning and jeans now.)

I told Juan the story about my chess background, including:

I first learned to play chess at the age of 13 by an English boy named Brandan Russell.  I’ve tried finding him on Facebook but so far no luck.  Maybe I don’t have the spelling of his name right so I asked my English friend John about that and he said “my mother’s maiden name was Russell so that seems to be spelled correctly.  The first name could be Brendon, a popular name for boys with Irish roots.”  I tried that also but still no luck.

When I worked for Sears I played in the Chicago Industrial Chess League for a few years and our team was good enough to win several 1^st and 2^nd place trophies.  I also played in a few USCF tournaments but that stopped when I had kids.

After some discussion, we agreed to meet Thursday afternoons from 2-4pm at the Otra Parte library where he would tutor me for 42mil ($13) an hour. Initially, this will be limited to October 31, November 7, 14, & 21 because then he leaves for Europe to play in chess tournaments.  This year he earned one Grandmaster norm but after January 1^st he will have to start over again because he has to get 3 in a calendar year.  I understand he teaches chess at the University of Envigado somewhere near City Plaza mall.  For homework he wants me to solve a set of 498 checkmate-in-one puzzles.  That ought to keep me buy between now and next Thursday.

We were finished by 5pm so I called Teresa to inform her that I had finished my meeting and would be returning soon.

Back at the apt complex I heard a loudspeaker apparently coming from behind the pool area and could vaguely see some decorations that gave me the impression that there was some type of Halloween party going on for children.

Teresa told me we were going to Pizza Americana in Itagui so I found their address online but for some reason when Esmeralda arrived with Alejandro in her car they had changed their minds and were looking for another place.  I guided them to Na Pizza where we had 2 pizzas, an appetizer and drinks for 120mil.  At my suggestion we then went next door to Parva where we had coffee until their 9pm closing time.  Glenn texted me that there is no Ciclovia tomorrow (probably because it’s election day) so he can meet for breakfast earlier at 8am.

Back at the apt there was some type of party going on somewhere nearby (or at least someone was playing loud Colombian music) and it hadn’t stopped by the time we went to bed at 11pm so we closed the bedroom window.  I fell asleep pretty quickly so I think the noise probably stopped soon after.

11,880 steps today.

Joke of the day

A man and a woman who have never met before find themselves in the same sleeping carriage of a train.

After the initial embarrassment, they both go to sleep, the man on the top bunk, the woman on the lower.

In the middle of the night, the man leans over, wakes the woman and says, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm awfully cold and I was wondering if you could possibly get me another blanket?"

The woman leans out and, with a glint in her eye, says, "I have a better idea, just for tonight, let's pretend that we're married."

"OK! AWESOME!" the man says happily.

"GOOD...” she says, “Get your own damn blanket!"