Sunday, December 27, 2020

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly (though there were lots of fireworks outside and people talking from their apts and balconies), and startled myself awake about an hour later. I don’t remember any other details except that was the feeling I had at the time. Thirty minutes later I was still awake so I got up and closed the bedroom window and blinds, and turned on the fan. I quickly fell asleep finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

I left the apt at 8am and met Glenn w/ Bianca at the La Frontera mall 20 minutes. We took a Sabaneta bus to Parque Poblado, from there it was just a 5-6 block walk to Ganso & Castor Manila. We shared an almond croissant over coffee then he had eggs florentine and I had my usual Acai berries with granola and fruit and Greek yogurt. The berries (at the bottom of the bowl) were still frozen so I had to wait a few minutes for them to thaw. Glenn finally found the cause of Bianca’s health problem – gastrititis, and she’s now taking medicine for it and doing much better. James should be returning to Colombia on the 1^st of January so I assume he will be joining us next Sunday.

We left about 10:15 and shared a taxi back to Envigado. They got out at Jumbo and I continued on to Viva Envigado. For the first time they checked my cedula as I entered the mall. I had a café con leche at Todo Fresa while getting caught up on my cellphone. Michael, my son’s cousin, texted me and challenged me to a correspondence chess game on Chess.com which I accepted.

As I left Todo Fresa I put the $2 bill my brother sent me in their tip jar. I told them, via my translator, that it is rare and for good luck so not to spend it.

I had to show my cedula again as I entered Exito. I picked up a few things and returned via taxi to the apt.

Chicken fajitas for lunch, yum.

I enjoyed watching the Chicago Bears defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars 41-17. Now if they beat the Packers next Sunday they will be in the playoffs and Ryan Pace, Matt Nagy, and Mitch Trubisky might keep their jobs. We had a little rain during the end of the game then the sun came out. But then it got dark and started raining again.

If it isn’t raining the plan is to go to Pricesmart.

I beat Teresa in parcheesi today 3 games to 2.

It seemed to rain the rest of the evening, although at times it wasn’t more then just drops.

On the evening news we saw that Cali won some futbol championship and thousands celebrated in the streets. No social distancing there.

 

In June, Mike Pence, supposed chief of the coronavirus White House task force put pen to paper to assure Americans that the so-called second wave of COVID-19 cases was all just a fictional media narrative. "In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a "second wave" of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown," Pence wrote in the lede of the piece.

Beyond spouting a bunch of platitudes about Trump's amazing leadership, Pence said the country was "winning the fight," cases had "stabilized," and new outbreaks were being contained through early detection and increased testing. Trump had "rallied the American people to embrace social-distancing guidelines" and, because people had done so, "all 50 states have begun to reopen in a safe and responsible manner," Pence wrote.

"The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way, and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different," he added, concluding, "We've slowed the spread, we've cared for the most vulnerable, we've saved lives, and we've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. That's a cause for celebration, not the media's fear mongering."

When Pence wrote that op-ed in mid-June, the U.S. has just passed 115,000 COVID-related deaths and was averaging some 750 deaths per day over a 5-day period. At the time of this writing (Dec. 20), the U.S. had surpassed 317,000 deaths due to COVID-19 and the country recorded a record 3,600 earlier in the week. Heckuva job, Mikey. And thanks for Wall Street Journal for lending your pages to the guy who had already botched the coronavirus response from Day 1.

 

The US has 18,780,292 ð 18,885,136 ð 19,092,658 coronavirus cases with 330,000+ ð 330,800+ ð 332,600+ deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 1,574,707 ð 1,584,903 ð 1,594,497 cases with 41,690 ð 41,943 ð 42,171 deaths. Medellin has 142,160 ð 143,224 ð 143,949 cases, an increase of 713 from December 26^th to 27^th. Envigado has a total of 12,569 cases, an increase of 80 from December 26^th to 27^th.

 

Joke of the day

A small church had a very attractive big-busted organist named Susan, and her breasts were so large they bounced and jiggled while she played the organ.

Unfortunately, she distracted the male part of the congregation considerably. The very proper church ladies were appalled.

They said something had to be done about this or they would have to get another organist.

So one of the ladies approached Susan very discreetly about the problem, & told her to mash up some green persimmons & rub them on her nipples and all over her breasts, which should cause them to shrink in size, but warned her not to taste any of the green persimmons, because they are so sour they will make your mouth pucker up & you won't be able to talk properly for a while.

The voluptuous organist reluctantly agreed to try it.

The following Sunday morning the minister walked up to the pulpit and said, “Dew to thicumsthanthis bewond my contwol, we will not hab a thewmon tewday.”