Friday, July 10, 2020

Self-isolation Day 115.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

I walked my usual 45-minute route again this morning. I compared the phone number of Otra Parte against my notes and I see I transposed the last 2 digits. The correct number is 315 875 8937.  I’ll confirm that number on my walk tomorrow.

Last night I played 5 games on Chess.com, winning 3 and losing 2 and my new rating is 1281. I had the white pieces for 4 of the games which doesn’t hurt my results. I was winning the 2 games I lost but I lost on time.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show then walked to the mall. I recycled 4 plastic pill bottles and a battery. I withdrew some cash and went inside the mall. I needed to put some money in one of Laura’s girlfriend’s accounts which I figured I could do with a consignacion ATM. I managed to do that with no problem but when I tried to put cash into Juan Castro’s account I got some type of a system error. I wasn’t successful a 2^nd time either. I went into Claro where I had no problem paying for our cellphone plans. I went into Exito where I paid the Une and epm bills. I bought a bottle of salad dressing and a package of AA batteries. I tried one of their consignacion ATMs but several times it said it didn’t like my 50mil bills so I gave up. Outside at Baloto I paid the Direct TV bill. At 11am I took a taxi back to the apt.

 

I beat Teresa today in parcheesi 6 games to 4.

 

At 5:30 Teresa told me Esmeralda was coming over and we would be going out for pizza or patacones. She picked us up and parked across from Antica Pizza. The woman that used to have the stand was standing outside and we ordered patacones and Cokes. We were back at the apt by 7:15.

 

The death count in the fuel truck tragedy has now risen to 27 which probably is close to the number of people gathered around the truck.

 

President Donald Trump’s campaign office, located in northern Virginia just outside of Washington, was forced to shut down after a COVID-19 outbreak.

 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley criticized Confederate symbols before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday calling the Civil War an "act of treason."

 

President Donald Trump commuted Roger Stone's sentence just days before his longtime friend and adviser was due to report to prison, the White House announced.

"Roger Stone has already suffered greatly," the White House said in a statement. "He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!"

 

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Urgent calls for field hospitals. Cars lined up for hours at drive-thru testing centers. Bars boarded up and grocery stores enforcing masks.

Texas today resembles the state in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Except now, the outbreak is far worse.

Records for COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations are set almost daily and Texas, the state that embarked on one of America’s fastest reopenings, is in retreat. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who on Friday extended a statewide disaster order first issued in March, is now telling the public to brace for what’s ahead.

“Things will get worse,” Abbott told Lubbock television station KLBK. “The worst is yet to come as we work our way through that massive increase in people testing positive.”

 

President Trump said Friday he intends to sign an executive order on immigration within the next month that he said will include a "road to citizenship" for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. (The republican party should love that. That’s called sarcasm. Or maybe he’s just making false promises?!)

 

Arizona, California, Texas and Florida all set record numbers of daily deaths in recent days. According to an analysis from the Harvard Global Health Institute, daily deaths over the past two weeks from the coronavirus are up 79 percent in Arizona, 37 percent in Florida and 52 percent in Texas.

The mounting deaths undercut President Trump's effort to downplay the explosion of new cases by pointing to the death rate. Earlier this week, Trump had pointed to falling death counts to push back at criticism over his response to the crisis, giving the rising case numbers.

 

A Trump replay from April 18^th: Trump bragged that America has “produced better health outcomes than any other country”.

The US has 3,054,069 ð 3,128,107 ð 3,189,117 coronavirus cases with 131,979 ð 133,009  ð 133,749 deaths. New cases were flattening but now they are increasing.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 128,638 ð 133,973 ð 140,776 cases with 4,925 deaths.  Medellin has 3,404 ð 3,633 ð 3,940 cases, an increase of 305 from July 8^th to July 9^th.  Envigado has a total of 157 cases, an increase of 12 from July 8^th to July 9^th. Cases are increasing again.

 

Joke of the day

A police officer is walking his beat when he catches with his eye a trail of $50 notes leading into an alley. Curious, he immediately goes in and finds an old woman with two bags of trash dragging on the ground, one of them leaving $50 notes in its wake. 

He calls the woman to halt and approaches her.

"Excuse me Mam, but one of your bags has a hole". He points out.

The woman thanks him profoundly but he, still curious, asks:

"Hope you don't mind me snooping around but where did you get all that money?"

"Well, you see Mr. Officer," the old lady explains, "I have a lovely house at the end of the street and it just so happens to be right next to a very famous bar. I don't mind the noise but every night there are always some drunkards that piss all over my garden." She said, her voice shaking with indignation. 

"So, yesterday night I stood there with my pruning shears and whenever someone got their thingy out I'd say: '$50 bucks or I'll cut it off!'"

Laughing at the amusing idea of those scared drunkards handing over their money, the Police Officer lets her go about her way. But as she turns to go he jokingly asks:

"Is the second bag filled with money too?"

"Well, you know Officer, not everyone pays."