Thursday, October 21, 2021

Recovery Day #119!

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night, woke up at 6:15am, put in my eyedrops, did my Kegel exercises, then got up at 7am.

Answer to yesterday’s photo: The dog is a chihuahua in the lady’s pink purse.

Just as I was leaving the apt at 9am Teresa reminded me she would be meeting with a girlfriend in the afternoon and I would be on my own for lunch.

On the sidewalk outside our apt I thought I was looking at a leaf but realized leaves don’t stand up on their side. It was a leaf-mimicking butterfly. I took a photo of it then moved it to the fence and it flew off. (A woman standing nearby watched all this.) As I crossed the street I saw it had landed in the street. Not exactly a position improvement. I went to pick it up and it flew into a bush on the other side.

At the mall I ran into Glenn in Juan Valdez. We discussed getting together for lunch and we agreed to meet at Jack & Roll at 1pm. I figured 30 minutes to Inter-Col, 60 minutes there, and 30 minutes back should be enough. I withdrew 2,000,000 pesos from the ATM then had a café con leche in Todo Fresa. I left at 11am and quickly caught a taxi outside the mall. I gave the driver the card with Inter-Col’s address and several times told him it’s near Unicentro mall. I knew something was wrong when I realized we were a block from Unicentro mall. I showed him the address again and pointed in the general direction of Inter-Col. After driving around, getting directions from various people (once he even parked the car, got out and went to the corner where he asked another taxi driver), we finally arrived at Inter-Col. I think the drivers outside Exito are used to picking up people with their groceries and delivering them locally. The ride cost 20mil.

I gave Daniela my SS annual benefit statement. She looked at it and told me that since we’re so close to getting a new one (in December?) that the Colombian government might want to see a statement for 2022. She told me I could find it online at https://secure.ssa.gov/RIL/SlcspViewaction. I am to email her my copy. I explained that I don’t have a MySocialSecurity account so I hope this works.

About this time, I heard someone speak English behind me. I assumed it was Gary that I met last Monday but his name was Nigel and after he took off his facemask, I was sure we’ve met before. He was born in England but lived most of his life in the US.

I asked Daniela about renewing my passport and I understand I should return next April to begin the process. I learned they don’t put visa stamps in our passports any longer. They will be digital visas that can be looked up online. I think I should print a copy for myself for emergencies.

The girls called me a Didi car that only cost me 14mil to return to the apt. (Hmmm, maybe I should download their app again.) I dropped off some things and met Glenn at Jack & Roll just as he was arriving.

We each had a cheeseburger with fries and I thought my burger was very good but very messy. (I’ll skip the bacon next time.) He wasn’t that impressed comparing it to the best places he would visit in NY. We had a short rainstorm while we were there.

We adjourned to Parva for coffee where we chatted some more. For some reason they wouldn’t let us sit inside, luckily it was no longer raining so we had no problem sitting outside. I noticed that they had a few Christmas decorations over the street. At one point Chuck stopped by with a friend and we chatted briefly. Glenn recommended I use VisaJourney to help me with Teresa’s US visitor visa application. I returned to the apt about 5pm.

Teresa handed me an envelope with a birthday card from my brother that took 1 month and 1 day to arrive from his post office outside Chicago. (It had also been opened on one side and resealed.)

According to my blog Nigel and I met several times in November 2019. My brother even met him briefly in February 2020.

Well, for the past week I’ve been able to limit myself to two ADs a day, one in the morning after I take my shower and the other just before I go to bed. That’s progress although I still leak often when I stand up. I think I’m ready to try the moderate absorbent ADs instead of the ultra-absorbent ADs at least for sleeping.

I went to the SS site and found this message:

Some of my readers wrote me they are enjoying the pictures. I’m just not used to taking them but I’ll try to improve on that.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 79,348 ð 76,496 ð 75,498 new cases and 1,557 ð 1,532 ð 1,509 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 952 ð 1,224 ð 1,498 new cases with 24 ð 21 ð 28 new deaths. Medellin has 205 ð 226 ð 221 new cases from October 20^th to 21^st. Envigado has 14 ð 14 ð 7 new cases from October 20^th to 21^st.

T-shirt of the day

Yorktown.