Monday, June 21, 2021

Last night I went to bed at 11pm, fell asleep quickly, and woke/ got up at 5:15.

Since I have to provide a urine and blood sample today sometime between 6 and 10am I decided to just stay up.

I left the apt at 6:45 and soon caught an Envigado bus that was only about half full. I got off at Calle 7 and walked up the one block to the Cedimed office in the Clinica de Medellin building. I had no problem paying the 144,900 ($39) with my debit card, dropping off my urine sample and getting my blood drawn. They are supposed to email me the results by tomorrow. (I’ll tell Teresa it will be Wednesday so she doesn’t hound me every minute until then.)

I caught a Sabaneta bus back to Envigado. At Carbon de Leña they had chairs set up blocking the entrance so I walked 4 blocks to El Pastelito for calentado, scrambled eggs and a café con leche. (Btw, the coffee is much better at Carbon de Leña.) While eating my breakfast a pigeon was eyeing my food and was so bold as to fly onto my table several times. I had to keep shooing it away.

I went to Parva for coffee. While sitting outside I noticed blood seeping out from the little band-aid they put on my arm. The next time a muchacho came outside I showed him my arm and he brought out a proper band-aid.

Teresa returned at noon with the June rent for the finca.

She finally contacted the urologist’s secretary and I now know: 1) I pay the doctor and he takes care of paying the other doctors, 2) I pay him in cash which means I have to send myself more pesos, 3) I can pay the hospital with my debit card the day of my surgery, 4) I may need “adult diapers” after the doctor removes my catheter – some need them some don’t; some need them for a day others for several days.

Michael resigned our game increasing my rating to 1554. I only mention that because I’m losing my other two games and that might be my high rating for a while.

After lunch I had a nap for a little over an hour.

I beat Teresa in parcheesi today 3 games to 2.

I received an email from Cedimed with the first part of my test results. There were two zip files and I started the download for them just before we left.

About 7:15 we walked down to McDonald’s. Teresa was a little concerned that she would be late for her 8pm Desafio program but I assured her we’ve done this before in less than 45 minutes. They were pretty busy as I ordered a Cheddar Melt with lettuce, tomato, and onion. Last time I ordered it there was just meat, bun and, I think, a slice of cheese. Teresa ordered her usual chicken sandwich. When we brought our order to the table neither of our sandwiches had any cheese on it. As Teresa argued with a manager I noted that the photo shows cheese on my sandwich. In the end they redid our order and even offered to console us with a free McFlurry.

I love it when Teresa asks me questions like, “Do you have McDonald’s in the US?” I told her I lived in the small town where the first McDonald’s was built – Des Plaines, Illinois. Back in the 70s I walked past it twice every weekday on my way to the train station.

Well, with Teresa’s “one and done” attitude we’re probably done with McDonald’s.

 

It was 8:15 by the time we left, not waiting for our free dessert but at least she got to see the last half of her program.

My files still hadn’t downloaded so I cancelled them. Maybe I’m going to have to pick them up in person.

I gave up reading my latest paperback, Janet Evanovich’s Hot Six. It was even on the #1 New York Times Bestseller list but I couldn’t get into it.

Today I clocked 5,867 steps.

Just before I went to bed I whispered to Teresa “We got through a day without rain”. Just before hitting the bed I popped my head outside the window and saw that the road was wet. I stuck out my hand and felt raindrops. 😊 ☹

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 11,527 ð 11,138 ð 11,243 new cases and 300  ð 300 ð 311 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday Colombia has a total of 3,917,348 ð 3,945,166 ð 3,968,405 cases with 99,335 ð 99,934 ð 100,582 deaths.  Medellin has 333,470 ð 335,467 ð 337,284 cases, an increase of 1,817 cases from June 20^th to 21^st. Envigado has a total of 26,266 cases, an increase of 46 from June 20^th to 21^st.

 

T-shirt of the day

Girls support girls.