Friday, October 1, 2021

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Recovery Day #95!

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up at 2:15, and 5am to use the bathroom. I woke up at 6:15am, made another trip to the bathroom, put in my eyedrops, and did my Kegel exercises, still in bed, finally getting up at 6:50am.

JohnWayneGacy88 resigned our most recent game on the 10th move. I was a little surprised even though I was up a pawn. My rating is now back up to 1587.

I left the apt at 8am and on my way to Parque Envigado I stopped in a Tienda D1 where I bought a package of Natri Mediterranean Topping that Teresa requested.  I stopped in a small pharmacy called Truecare Droguerias at Carrera 42A #32 Sur-51. I showed the saleslady my box of Abbott Hiderax and got the same single word answer I’ve never understood. They weren’t busy so this time I took out my cellphone and tried to get a translation, but the background music muddled my voice. She took out her cellphone and explained they have it in another brand. She gave me a Genfar Hidroxicina for 4mil. Why didn’t anyone say “tenemos otra marca” which I would have understood?

I had a breakfast of calentao and scrambled eggs with a café con leche for 8mil at El Pastelito. The coffee wasn’t the best but it sure was hot. The closest I’ve come to American coffee. (I gave the cashier 10mil and she gave me 12mil in change. I explained I only gave her a 10mil bill, she looked in the drawer and then thanked me. (Not the first time that’s happened to me here. I wonder how much cashiers give away in Colombia every year?)

At Todo Drogas I picked up my monthly medicines and supplements for 166,100 ($43). I walked to the mall where I printed out a page of test results for Teresa. I went up to Bancolombia and after waiting in line it took about an hour to get my cash and pay my bills.

In the past I’ve done tests on various ATMs to see which bank gave me the best rate (I think they’re all the same) and which charge an ATM fee (some do, some don’t). Today I did a test between 1) sending myself cash using World Remit then picking it up at the bank and 2) withdrawing cash from an ATM. The following is a photo of my bank receipt:



According to this statement, their Currency Exchange Rate (CER) is 3,800, but when you consider it cost an additional $3.99 to send myself $700, the 2,585,525 I received equates to a CER of only 3,673. Today I made an ATM withdrawal and received a CER of 3,842. (The same CER as today’s Todo Drogas purchase.) Even if you take into consideration that USAA will add on a 1% ATM fee it still comes out to a CER of 3,804. I think I’ve been shortchanging myself for years. In the future I’ll try to withdraw the cash I need from an ATM the last day of the month and only if the ATMs are empty will I send myself cash to be picked up the next day. (Another plus is I won’t have to wait in line to enter the bank as I can use their Consignacion ATMs to put cash in the various accounts. Btw, the difference when sending $700 is about $24 at today’s CER. So I’ve been wasting about $24x12 or $288 every year.)

I called Teresa and told her I was running late because the bank was slow, but she okayed me taking time to have coffee in Todo Fresa. I picked up some groceries in Exito before returning to the apt via taxi.

Teresa beat me in parcheesi today 2 games to 1.

We had a downpour in the evening.

I still have a little burning from time to time but not as bad as before.

For the first time I wore 1 AD all day, from 7:30 this morning until 10pm at night. Not sure if I’ll do that again anytime soon.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 114,395 ð 112,798 ð 111,210 new cases and 2,025 ð 1,984 ð 1,927 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 1,686 ð 1,472 ð 1,429 new cases with 41 ð 42 ð 38 new deaths.  Medellin has 269 ð 236 ð 267 new cases from September 29th to 30th. Envigado has 11 ð 8 ð 9 new cases from September 29th to 30th.

 

T-shirt of the day

Stop deforestation.

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