Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 9pm, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 5am.

I found this comment from one of my blog readers who goes by the name of Expat: “You don’t say what you are doing about insurance cover. The auto insurance cover offered by many US credit cards often has small print to exclude you from coverage if you are an overseas resident.”

The usual plan is for Teresa to go to her 7am gym class then return to the apt around 8:15 to make me breakfast. We’re switching that around a bit today because I’m up so early.

I left the apt at 6:30 and at this hour found Smartfit a little busier than usual. I completed my workout then moved to Ganso y Castor where I had a ham, cheese, and tomato omelet and 2 lattes for 49,800 pesos ($11.50). 

I replaced the missing peanut and the squirrel took it when I wasn’t looking so I replaced it again. Workers were carting away the last of the Christmas decorations:

I was just about to leave when Teresa called and informed me she was hungry and asked me to meet her at Los Portenos. I moved there and she arrived a minute later. She had a couple fried eggs and a latte and paid for it with her own money. I returned to the apt for my shower while Teresa stopped off at Ara to buy a few groceries. (I’m wondering where she gets her cash?).

I copied USAA’s Guide to Benefits to my USB drive for later printing.

Talking with Teresa I got more details about her embassy “interview”. It was a real assembly line operation. There was a line of applicants and the embassy rep only looked at their passport and his computer screen. Most of the time he just said, “no, siguiente” (no, next) and the line moved on.  The rep wasn’t interested in seeing the stack of paperwork they brought with them and those that wore high heels, he couldn’t even see them because he was apparently standing on a riser looking down on them through a window. Teresa was then asked if she wants to go to Chicago followed by the questions I had mentioned earlier. He said “aprobada”, handed back her passport with the piece of paper and it was the next woman’s turn. Teresa was #15 in line and she didn’t see any of the other women in front of her get approved and of course she doesn’t know if any after her were approved. MT believes she got approved because she’s married to a gringo but I said it might also be because we’re not young like the other applicants.

Teresa got a call and told me my package is in the porteria. I went down right away to claim it. The box contained 6 bottles of Calendula flower capsules, September & November issues of Chess Life magazine, and 3 envelopes. The envelopes were nothing important and I just threw them away.

I left the apt at 2:30 and took a Sabaneta bus to the used bookstore where I exchanged paperbacks for 4mil. I stopped at the copy center where I printed the first 5 pages of the USAA Benefits Guide about their Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver. I stopped in Todo Drogas where I purchased a couple of medicinal items. I stopped at the luggage repair place, Carrera 43 #33 sur 19, to replace one of the broken carabiners on my laptop bag. (I accidentally broke the plastic thing years ago.) The girl checked something (probably someone) in the back and told me they didn’t have a plastic replacement but showed me a metal one. I told her that would work fine. She asked if I wanted to replace both of them so they would match and I gave her the go ahead. She returned 5 minutes later with the repair and I paid 40mil ($9.30). I continued on to Eduardo Madrid for coffee.

I don’t know if I should mention this. It’s one of the downsides of being old (or maybe having urinary incontinence). I made a trip to the restroom and used the urinal and after I was done, I found I had dribbled all over the front of my shorts. (The same thing happened to me yesterday to a lesser extent.) I took a seat and had a latte and when I left 90 minutes later at least the wetness was no longer noticeable.

ONEIPAMETATO1453 (1489) was beating me and I was just trying to force a draw so I wouldn’t lose so many rating points. He checked me all over the place and when he finally couldn’t check me again, I checkmated him in 4 moves raising my rating 5 points to 1584. Now I’m losing another game to Mr_Blamo and I’m trying to force a draw in that one also. I think he just made a mistake which may cost him the game.

My next move in our vacation planning is to call USAA to see if a resident of another country is eligible for their car rental discount and insurance coverage.

Teresa and I made plans for Sunday. We’ll take a Didi and pick up MT and go to Terminal Sur where we’ll take a bus to El Retiro for the day.

My no-see-um bites only bothered me a little for 72 hours even though I can still see them and I haven’t had any new skin lesions for the past few days so I’m happy about that. Maybe the latter is due to a change in the weather, for the better?

I finished reading Lee Child’s Persuader Jack Reacher #7 on my Kindle.

Tomorrow I’ll try to download a free book using my new library card.

 

JUST FUNNY