Saturday, August 10, 2024

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, got up once at 4:45am, couldn’t fall back asleep, got up at 5am, went back to bed at 5:30am, woke up by alarm at 7am. Not too bad but I took half an Excedrin migraine anyway.

8:15 to 8:45 I had breakfast in the restaurant. They didn’t have rice & beans today so I had scrambled eggs, granola cereal and coffee. I did see them offering those “hockey puck” arepas so I guess someone eats them.

While the front desk wasn’t busy I withdrew the 450,000 pesos I had left there on Monday.

The next round is at 10am this morning, the USA men’s team plays for the gold in basketball at 1:30 so I’ll have to fit in lunch before that because the next round will be at 4pm.

I left the hotel at 9:40 and before crossing the street to the stadium I observed a lady sugar coating churros. I came across this “cattle crossing’ outside the stadium so obviously, there’s a game today.

I asked a young lady who is playing today and she replied, “Atletico Nacional” at “3:30 en la tarde”. I’m guessing the area will be gated off so I’ll have to leave earlier and take the long way around to my 4pm game.

I came across these silletas (flower arrangements) outisde one of the smaller soccer fields.

I had the White pieces against Santiago Lopez Cardona. (My opponent was 4 minutes late so I chatted briefly with Edelson in the meantime.) They posted some ratings and my opponent is 1738 and they have my rating as 1667. Santiago had the nerve to play my defense, the
Dutch defense, against me. I knew how to attack it and got an early advantage. He played quickly and seemed bored or distracted and he resigned on the 25^th move.

I was done by 11am. I took a slightly longer way back to the hotel and took this photo of an outdoor exercise yard.

It took a few minutes but I finally figured out how to login to my DAZN account to watch the Bears vs Buffalo game. I missed the Bears first series but saw them stop Buffalo with a 3 and out. 😊

I watched the beginning of the game I missed during halftime of the live game.

For “lunch” I finished the Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels (with my Coke) Glenn gifted me. I hope I don’t have heartburn later.

The Bears beat the Bills 33-6 and looked good doing it. The Bears only got 2 field goals when Caleb Williams was in, the rest was the backup quarterback and the defense.

I left the hotel at 3:15 and started walking the long way then halfway around it appeared to not be as closed as I thought. I cut corners the last half and arrived at 3:35 for my 4pm match.

I had Black against Robinson Navia Coy rated 1687 and he arrived 5 minutes late. It must have been around 5pm when a storm came through and we lost the main lights but could still see well enough with the emergency lights. At a couple points I heard cheering from the Stadium so A/N must have scored once or twice. My opponent got in a little time trouble but I neglected to trade pieces at a critical point and ended up getting checkmated on the 37^th move.

It was still raining and felt cold when I left at 6:15. I stopped on the way and bought 3 churros. They had a display of them outside covered in transparent plastic but no one was there. I went up a few stairs to a trailer sized room with a few tables, all taken, on the left and the kitchen on the right. I asked a lady how much for 3 churros and she replied, “seis mil mi amor”. Hmmm! I handed her 10mil, she handed me a bag with 3 churros (in a paper bag inside a plastic bag) and squeezed my hand as she handed me my change. ???

Back at the hotel, only one churro seemed to be fresh, the other two seemed to have been made another day.

I learned from Jimmy that the men’s basketball team won the gold medal in their win against France.

Tomorrow’s games are at 8:30am and 1pm ☹ so I’d better wake up a little earlier tomorrow.

 

T-SHIRT OF THE DAY

Sometimes talking to your sister is all the therapy you need. Sometimes after talking to your sister, you need therapy.