Thursday, January 23, 2020

Last night I took a whole Zopiclona and and went to bed at 10:45.  I woke up at 3:20, got up at 4am and took another half a Zopiclona but didn’t fall backa sleep until after 4:30, finally waking/getting up at 7:30.

I left the apt at 9:15 and walked to the mall.  First I printed an Illinois federal ballot request and a copy of my blood work order.

In Exito I bought 2 500g bags of granola and walked to Todo Fresa.  I completed another set of chess puzzles – only 32 more to go – while having a café con leche for 4,300 pesos.

I paid for my coffee and made a trip to the restroom.  Coming out I found my sunglasses missing from its case.  It made sense to me I would have taken them off as soon as I entered the mall but I returned to the café first because it was closer.  A man told me the cashier had them.  I picked them up with “muchas gracias” all around and made a mental note not to set them down anywhere; better to temporarily fold them over my t-shirt or put them on my head.

I returned to the apt at 11:30 and Teresa returned 10 minutes later after her two exercise classes.

We got a call at 12:15 that the furniture guys are at the guardhouse.  Yay, much better that they arrive early.

It took quite a bit of time for them to assemble the glass table using a socket wrench with an extension.

Then when they charged it to my debit card it came up as insufficient funds.  I quickly transferred some cash from my savings account to my checking account.  Then they didn’t select pesos so there was a 3.5% additional fee.  It took them some time to cancel that transaction and figure out how to charge it to pesos, not dollars.  The difference was about $61 or 200mil; better in my pocket than theirs.

The table is beautiful but it seems a little high for the chairs.  Not too bad for me but for shorter people like MT and Esmeralda it may seem awkward.  I measured them and the table is 82cm high and the chairs 48 cm.  I wonder what the height is of the original table and chairs we saw in the showroom at Mayorca.

Another problem, Teresa kept a lot of the packing materials (cardboard & plastic) for the tables and chairs.  I’m not sure where she’s planning on storing all that since the garage storage area is full.

I left the apt at 2:45 and met Juan Carlos at Otra Parte.  We went over my games with Jose and he gave me some pointers in each.  He gave me a couple Mate in 2 and Mate in 3 puzzles to solve with 7 minute time limits.  He then set up some game positions and asked me some questions such as which player is better, which of my pieces is strongest, weakest and the same for my opponent, what will my opponent try to do and how can I restrict him.  He told me he won’t be playing in the Aeroflot tournament, something about his partner not having the money.

I left with an agreement that our next meeting will probably be Saturday, February 1^st when my brother goes to a beer festival in Medellin.

I had a café con leche in Parva while solving another set of chess puzzles.

Teresa wanted to move some things down to our storage area.  First I convinced her to take a look before bringing anything down.  It is filled with stuff for Christmas and from the finca.  I did finally convince her to throw out the old TV stand since we will probably be mounting it to a wall in the future.

In the evening, on the new table, I finished the 656 Mate in 2 puzzles and texted Carlos who asked me to leave my notebook with the doorman and then he sent me some Mate in 3 puzzles.

I watched another episode of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime.

9,236 steps today.

Joke of the day

Marathon runners in China were rewarded with a gift bag after the race.  One of the goodies was a fruit-flavored bar ensconced in its pretty English-language wrapper.  In fact, the Royal Orchard bars were fruit-perfumed soap.  According to the BBC, “Witnesses report many bars of soap, all with one bite missing, dumped on the roadside.”