Sunday, January 30, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 1:45, had difficulty falling back asleep, got up again at 4am, had difficulty falling back asleep, at 6:33 set my OneTouch alarm for 30 minutes so I wouldn’t oversleep, did my Kegel exercises, Alarmy went off at 7am (wtf?) and I got up.

Glenn and I had French toast at Sere in Poblado. (We think they have the best French toast in Medellin.) 

Glenn told me he thought he saw on Facebook that Danny’s Sugar Mamas is for sale. That was fast. He played a few pinocle games while I played a few speed chess games. At one point a young Colombian asked me if I had a chess board with me but I told him “another day”.

In the taxi on the way back to Envigado, I asked the driver how many departments (states) there are in Colombia. He had no idea. I googled it and there are 31.

I asked him how many comunas there are in Medellin and he had no idea. There are 16.

I asked how many barrios (neighborhoods) there are in El Poblado and he had no idea. There are 24.

At Viva Envigado I stopped in Dollar City but didn’t find what I was looking for. In Exito I bought a package of 10 plastic hangers, 2 bags of milk, Dove soap, and dish soap and returned to the apt by taxi.

Teresa didn’t feel like cooking so I ordered chicken using the Rappi delivery app.

 

I watched the Bengals beat the Chiefs in overtime. What a game!

I watched the Rams beat the 49ers which was a pretty good game also.

The battery on my new cellphone reached the 15% critical level at 8:30. Not bad.

I went to bed at 10:15.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 547,285 ð 534,782 ð 522,965 new cases and 2,499 ð 2,486 ð 2,526 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 29,946 ð 18,450 ð 16,119 new cases with 269 ð 272 ð 247 new deaths. Medellin has 1,885 ð 976 ð 1,090 new cases from January 29^th to 30^th. Envigado has 53 ð 45 ð 47 new cases from January 29^th to 30^th.

 

T-shirt of the day

Estes Aerospace Club.

Saturday, January 29, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10:15, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 2:15, woke up at 7:15, did my Kegel exercises, and got up.

I met Glenn having breakfast at Los Porteños. He played a few games of pinocle while I reviewed chess notes in my book.

Laura texted me asking me to add 10mil to a Tigo/Une cellphone number, specifically for data.

When I left Los Porteños I stopped around the corner at a little Gana kiosk where I added the 10mil.

I reviewed my checking account and the Mercado Madrid transactions from Wednesday finally cleared. The original USD charge was reversed but they still charged me the 3.5% commission, so I actually ended up paying it twice. Sigh!

I watched Finch (6.9) starring Tom Hanks on MTV.

It took the ladies (mainly Laura) about 2 hours to get dressed and they left just before 6pm to meet with Vicky and other family on/at Las Palmas. They were supposed to call me later to meet them for supper but they forgot and ate at Crepes & Waffles (unknown location). I had granola with a sliced banana for supper.

I started watching season 2 of Into the Night on but I couldn’t get into it.

The ladies were back by 9pm and I went to bed at 10pm.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 586,948 ð 547,285 ð 534,782 new cases and 2,499 ð 2,486 ð  new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 17,663 ð 29,946 ð 18,450 new cases with 273 ð 269 ð 272 new deaths. Medellin has 1,324 ð 1,885 ð 976 new cases from January 28^th to 29^th. Envigado has 62 ð 53 ð 45 new cases from January 28^th to 29^th.

 

T-shirt of the day

Very cool no matter what.

Friday, January 28, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10:15, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 3am, woke up at 7:15, did my Kegel exercises, and got up.

Well, the alarm didn’t go off at 7am so I guess that worked.

I left the apt at 9:30 and ran into Glenn at Los Porteños. He started a pinocle game while I made a quick trip to Pasteur pharmacy where I bought a 10-pack of MPs for 23,977 and a box of 20 25-mg tablets of Hidroxicina for 3,836 pesos. (I made the mistake of buying the more absorbent MPs, the Tena Noche instead of Tena Dia.)

Glenn told me about his difficulties getting a urologist appointment through his Sura insurance. I told him about Nightmare Alley and all the actors I recognized from other movies.

He left and I stopped to buy milk at the little grocery on my way back to the apt.

Well, I lost the 3^rd of those 3 games in 80 moves to the Russian so I had 1 win and 2 losses with the Black pieces. I was winning that game until I blundered on the 48^th move.

Colombia vs Peru started at 4pm. You don’t have to watch the match (game) to know how they are doing. The neighborhood will tell you. You just listen for the Goooooooal! You can even tell when they come close to a goal but don’t score. You can hear it. It was pretty quiet as Peru won 1-0.

We had a short rainstorm come through about 4:30.

I watched 13 Hours (7.3) on MTV.

Teresa had something to exchange in Viva Envigado so about 6:30 Teresa she left with Laura. They then called me and I took a Didi car and met them with MT at Antica Pizza.

Laura had pasta and the rest of us had a slice of pizza. The total came to 74mil ($19).

We were back at the apt by 8:45.

I was using my TENS 3000 unit and like the past couple days I didn’t feel anything on a higher setting (6-7). The battery soon died so now I know it’s not because I wasn’t placing the electrodes in the wrong place.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 619,958 ð 586,948 ð 547,285 new cases and 2,441 ð 2,499 ð 2,486 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 17,889 ð 17,663 ð 29,946 new cases with NOT REPORTED ð 273 ð 269 new deaths. Medellin has 1,533 ð 1,324 ð 1,885 new cases from January 27^th to 28^th. Envigado has 72 ð 62 ð 53 new cases from January 27^th to 28^th.

 

T-shirt of the day

Celebrate diversity.

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 3:15, woke/got up again just before 7am, brought my newly recharged cellphone back to bed, turned off the alarm when it went off at 7am, did my Kegel exercises, fell back asleep, finally waking/getting up at 8:30.

I’ve decided I would like to have my hernia surgery between the 15^th and 28^th of February. I had Teresa call Dr. Gomez’s office and the secretary said something about sending me an email in the next few days about hospital choices (and hopefully dates).

Months ago I installed the Alarmy app on my old cellphone and set the alarm to go off every morning at 7am. If I want to activate/hear it on a particular morning I would just leave it turned on while it recharged next to my bed. If I didn’t want to hear it I just turned it off before going to bed. I uninstalled the app some weeks ago but it still goes off at 7am. I thought that might stop happening when I moved everything to my new cellphone but no. I reinstalled Alarmy and turned off the 7am alarm so we’ll see if that works.

Teresa informed me Laura has another doctor’s appointment today at 3pm.

I upgraded my Keep My Notes app to the premium version for $9.

Those 3 remaining games I had where I was playing the Black pieces? I won one and lost one and thought I might be able to get a draw in this 3^rd one but I think it’s going to be a loss for me.

Laura left at 1:15 and Teresa is going to meet up with her at 3pm for another doctor’s appointment.

I believe movies changeover in Cine Colombia every Thursday. I just saw that Nightmare Alley (7.4) is playing in Viva Envigado at 5:30. I still have a free pass with lots of snacks that I can use so I told Teresa of my intentions.

I left the apt at 4:45 and walked to the mall. In Cine Colombia there was only one other person ahead of me to buy a ticket. A complication is the movie starts at 5:20 not 5:30 so time will be a little tighter than I originally planned. There was no charge for the ticket, I just had to show the Bar Code on my cellphone with the special email offer from January 5^th. Their computer only showed one other person seated in the theater so I purchased a ticket in the 2^nd row front and center.

I had to show my ticket and vaccination card to enter the theater area. The place was almost deserted with only one person ahead of me at concessions. Again I showed my email from January 5^th and they gave me a hotdog in a special little box and put that with the condiments in a small paper bag. They separately handed me a little package of shoestring potatoes that Colombians like to put on top but I handed them back and said, “I don’t need these, I’m a gringo”. I also received a little chocolate bar, a medium popcorn (salt not sugar) and a cup for my soda. At the soda machine they didn’t have any working Coke or Pepsi dispensers so I chose a Postobon manzana (apple) with lots of ice.

In the theater I took my seat noticing a couple sitting in the rows ahead and behind me. I hurried to set up my hotdog before the lights dimmed. I skipped the packages of mayonnaise and catsup and got mustard on just as the lights went down. I was halfway through my hotdog when two young ladies sat down next to me. (The whole theater and they chose seats next to someone else?) About 15 minutes into the movie one of the girls left. She came back 15 minutes later with three guys and they all sat down together.

I enjoyed the 2 ½-hour movie and was surprised by how many actors I recognized, at least by face.

When I turned my cellphone back on I had calls from Teresa and texts from Laura, “where are you?”. Again, Teresa forgot I told her I’m going to a movie. Sigh!

When I walked out of Cine Colombia I came across this little miniature golf setup.

I returned to the apt by taxi and was surprised no one was there. Teresa soon returned with Esmeralda and she approved taking our old mattress. Esmeralda showed Teresa some clothing catalogs while I got ready for bed.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 643,615 ð 619,958 ð 586,948 new cases and 2,367 ð 2,441 ð 2,499 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 19,512 ð 17,889 ð 17,663 new cases with 260 ð NOT REPORTED ð 273 new deaths. Medellin has UNREPORTED ð 1,533 ð 1,324 new cases from January 26^th to 27^th.  Envigado has UNREPORTED  ð 72 ð 62 new cases from January 26^th to 27^th.

 

T-shirt of the day

Unsteady.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 4:45, finally waking/getting up at 7:45. (Last night I made sure both cellphones were turned off.)

I met Glenn with Bianca at Los Porteños just after 9am. We had our usual croissant with egg inside with a couple coffees. He assisted me with starting a post on Facebook asking, “Where in Medellin can I find a good homemade iced tea?”.

I returned to the apt by 10:45.

Now I have a problem with the yahoo email account on my laptop. It made me change my password again so hopefully this is the last time.

Teresa and I left the apt at noon for Mercado Madrid.

Well, that was interesting. At checkout the total came to 370,503 pesos and I said the usual to the cashier, “debito, corriente, y pesos, por favor” as I handed her my debit card. I checked the receipt, saw she charged it in dollars, I circled, “USD” and “3.50% incluido” on the receipt and told her it wasn’t in pesos. She called someone on her phone and soon 2 managers showed up. (I assume they are managers because the young cashiers have blue shirts and these older ladies had white shirts.) The first manager cancelled the debit purchase and gave me a copy of the receipt. She then proceeded to read off each purchase so the cashier could enter it again in the cash register. ☹

Teresa informed me the cashier was new and asked me what the difference would be between dollars and pesos and I did a quick calculation on my cellphone calculator and it was only 13,500 pesos but I figured the girl has to learn sometime.

The new total came to 369,959 which I thought was amazingly close to the original. The cashier entered the new total into the card reader and said, “dollars or pesos” and the 2^nd manager said, “dollars” and that fast the girl pushed the button. ☹ So, they got it wrong a second time. I said to myself, “forget it, we’re not going through that again”, so I paid and we left.

As usual a muchacho pushed our cart of groceries up the hill 1 block and another block to our apt complex. He was able to deliver them to our apt door and I tipped him the usual 10mil.

I’m using my new cellphone (Samsung Galaxy A52 5G) exclusively now trying to get an idea of how long its battery lasts.

I watched The Bar (6.3) and The Town (7.5) on Netflix.

Since yesterday I kept getting errors when I try to access my Yahoo emails on my laptop. I ended up deleting and readding my account. Now everything seems to be okay again.

My cellphone battery lasted all day today. Yay! Maybe I won’t even need the battery case.

I couldn’t figure out how to turn off my new cellphone. It has something called Google Assistant (GA). The first few times I turned off my phone I just had to say, “Hey Google, turn off” and it shut down. Now when I do that it just brings up a little screen on the bottom with other suggestions. I finally figured out how to turn off GA but left it turned on when I left it to recharge.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 738,680 ð 643,615 ð 619,958 new cases and 2,369 ð 2,367 ð 2,441 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 21,219 ð 19,512 ð NOT REPORTED new cases with 237 ð 260 ð NOT REPORTED new deaths. Medellin has UNREPORTED  ð UNREPORTED ð 1,533 new cases from January 25^th TO 26^TH. Envigado has UNREPORTEDð UNREPORTED  ð 72 new cases from January 25^th TO 26^TH.

 

T-shirt of the day

I’m getting carried away.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 3:30, was awakened by the 7am alarm from both cellphones, finally waking/getting up at 8:30. (I’ve got to do something about those phones.)

I dedicated this morning to moving my notes from my Keep My Notes app on my old phone to my new phone.

First problem I ran into is I couldn’t find the hole to insert the key to open the slot to insert my SD card. I finally realized that my cellphone was in a case so first I had to remove that. 😊 I put the SD Card into the old phone (hereafter referred to simply as Old) and went to the Keep My Notes app (hereafter referred to as KMN) and did a backup. I moved the SD Card to my new phone (hereafter New) and tried a restore but it couldn’t find the backup on my SD. ☹

I looked at an online video and then started over again.

One problem I have is that I lost my “close vision” after I had my vision corrected 10 years ago which makes things like putting the SD card into the tray that much more difficult.

 

I put the SD Card into Old and this time did a System backup only choosing the KMN app.

Another complication is putting the little SD card and Sim card together in the tray without them both falling or jamming the tray when I put it in the phone.

I used the Restore function in the KMN app and figured out how to point it to my SD Card and then it created the backup, I moved it to New and was able to do a Restore. It took about 2 hours and about 4 tries but it finally worked

I now have all my notes in my Keep My Notes app from the old phone.

Only 76 degrees at 1pm.

I left at 1:15 and  the ladies left a few minutes later for El Tesoro. (Apparently, Laura is getting some type of blood serum treatments.)  I’ve been wanting to try the ribs at Jack & Roll. I showed my vaccination card at the entrance and had my choice of tables inside. Because I’m not that used to my new cellphone I had difficulties downloading and opening their menu using their QR code. About 10 minutes later the waitress got tired of waiting and gave me their wifi password. That helped a lot and the waitress also helped me get to the correct menu. I ordered their Mini Ribs which were pretty good although I wish they had a better BBQ sauce. Also, most of their fries were cut so short I had to use a fork to dip them in ketchup.

After lunch I went to Parva where I bought a loaf of bread to go and had coffee there. About 4pm I checked my The Weather Channel app and it expected rain for the next few hours so I packed up and left.

There were a few drops as I left but I stopped at the local grocery store and bought 2 bags of milk before returning to the apt.

It wasn’t long after that that it started raining pretty heavily.

I’m getting lots of requests to enter/change my password. I think it’s because I’m accessing websites/apps/email using a new device.

I watched the highlights of the Chiefs vs Bills game from yesterday.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 693,272 ð 738,680 ð 643,615 new cases and 2,168 ð 2,369 ð 2,367 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 28,027 ð 26,087 ð 21,219 ð 19,512 new cases with 217 ð 237 ð 260 new deaths. Medellin has 1,914 ð UNREPORTED  ð UNREPORTED new cases from January 24^th TO 25^TH. Envigado has 198 ð UNREPORTEDð UNREPORTED  new cases from 24^th TO 25^TH.

 

T-shirt of the day

Did you receive my virtual hug?