Friday, October 31st, 2014

Happy Halloween everyone!

I fell asleep rather quickly, got up at 2am, woke up about 5am when Laura called for Teresa but I don’t remember her coming back to bed, got up about 6am, and finally woke/got up at 9:15.  Once I did hear the two remaining dogs growling at each other but at least there wasn’t the constant barking I usually hear in the morning when Carlos starts working at 6am.

At 9am I had an arepa with scrambled eggs with ham and a cup of coffee for breakfast.

Now we’re waiting for Une to show up to fix the Wi-Fi once again.

We removed the mattress from our bed and permanently removed the piece of “plywood” underneath it because Teresa claimed the mattress was sliding on it.  It’s not really plywood it’s more like balsa wood, very thin and similar to what those cheap model airplanes are made of.  I don’t know why Jesus put it there in the first place.  I removed the staples from it and Teresa took it out to store in the shed.

While watching the Today show Teresa noticed that some Colombian singers are going to be appearing in a special tonight that I believe she would really like to see.

I counted my prostate vitamins and I have 37 left so that’s enough for 18-19 days.  The first time it took 4 weeks for my order to get here but that’s because I didn’t send a copy of my order to MBE.  I hope I can speed that up by sending a copy to MBE about a week after it ships.

When I get Wi-Fi again I’d better order more vitamins right away.  

The dogs went nuts and a few minutes later an epm guy stopped by on his motorcycle and talked to Teresa.  I understood the conversation had something to do with the new shower heater and he left a piece of paper which had 40 kilowatts written on it.

At 11:45 the carpenter, Ramiro, called and he won’t be able to come to build the closet until next Friday or Saturday.  Sigh!  I’m still living out of my suitcase and both of us can’t wait until I get my closet built so we can get organized.

At noon Teresa and I had a bowl of granola.

I took a nap from 1:30 to 2:30.

At 3pm Une called but I pushed the wrong button and accidentally cancelled the call.  I tried calling back the same number but just got a busy signal.

At 3:30 the dogs started going crazy but it was just Carlos.

At 4:30 a man from Une called and I understood Teresa gave him directions to the finca.  After she hung up I understood he is in Caldas now so he could be here in 20 minutes by motorcycle.  When I told Teresa that, she corrected me that they were at El Rancherita (and therefore much closer) and that there were 2 of them in a car – one for the street and one for here.

At 4:45 we heard a minor commotion so we walked up to the neighbor’s house with 3 of her Terriers following us.  It seems like one of the Terriers always stays back to guard the house.  At the neighbor’s all his dogs came out – this is the first time I’ve seen the third – even though the neighbor called his dogs off.  I kept the Doberman busy most of the time by waving a stick in front of his face with my can of pepper spray in my right hand.  There was a real battle among the dogs whenever 2 paired off against one thereby having a temporary advantage.  I heard a few whines as I’m sure there were a few bites exchanged until we got far enough past the neighbors house that the killer dogs retreated.  That was when I noticed that all 4 Terriers were with us.  I guess the 4^th came when it heard all the commotion.

The Une guy came inside for a few minutes but soon left as it seemed like everything was OK.  He looked quickly at the outside wiring and then headed down the hill to check things out.

I stayed in the finca and checked my iPad for an internet connection every few minutes.  Settings said I had a connection but whenever I tried to update my Currency Rate I got a “Currency rate update fail” message.

Interestingly I see I got 4 emails yesterday between 3:15 am and 6:56am so it must have been getting internet for at least a brief time.

At 6:45 Une called and I understand something is broken “downstream” and they will be here sometime tomorrow to fix it.

We made popcorn and watched the horror movie Hostel 3.

We went to bed at 10:45pm.

T-shirt of the day: Better days are coming.  Saturday.  Sunday.

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

It took me a little while to fall asleep but I didn’t wake up until Laura was about ready to leave for school – 5:15am.  After a trip to the bathroom I was able to fall back asleep rather quickly.  I woke up next around 6am when I heard one of the other Fox Terriers growling at Peter.  After a little while I fell asleep again and finally woke/got up right after Teresa at 8:45 so it was a good night’s sleep.

I had scrambled eggs, a buttered arepa and coffee for breakfast.

Teresa told me Laura came home with the electric bill last night.  It’s only 54,598 and is due by November 4^th.  I also have to pay my health insurance by the first of the month so I talked to Teresa and we decided we would go to Caldas tomorrow and I can make my medical insurance deposit at BanColombia and pay the electric bill.

I have two new mosquito bites – both near my chin.

I had read that you should connect the cable before turning on the laptop and TV so I tried that this morning and it still didn’t work.  I’m going to have to google some more because there must be something I have to do on the laptop to direct the display to the HDMI port.

Teresa showed me a couple of extra robes she had and I picked one out for me to use.

Hmmm.  This morning I have a network connection and it says I have internet access but I keep getting “Server not found” when I go to Google.com or Yahoo.com.

I did a little more investigation in Internet Explorer and was able to direct my laptop to the TV by clicking Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, and then under Display clicking Connect to a Projector, and then Duplicate.  I showed Teresa some pictures “on the big screen”.

Now I’m confident, once I get an internet connection again, that I can show Netflix movies on the large screen TV.  BTW, I just measured the TV and it’s about a 40” diagonal screen.

Just after noon I called Jhon so he could explain to Teresa the problem and he asked me first to try other browsers.  I did and neither Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, nor Google Chrome work.  Now Teresa has to call Une once again to schedule another service call.

I got Tony and Luna to sit pretty quickly for a couple dog biscuits each.

For lunch Teresa made me a bowl of chicken soup with garbanzo beans, 4 ribs with rice and juice but I wasn’t able to finish it all.

I discovered History Channel and watched some interesting programs.

Luna keeps coming in the finca and lying on the couch because she can squeeze through the bars of the front door.  As soon as Teresa catches her, because Luna won’t listen to me, she shoes her back outside.

Teresa and I took a nap from 3 to 4 pm.

This time Teresa was able to get through to Une.  (I believe you have to go through the same push button system here as you do in the States.)  I understand Une will be here sometime tomorrow so we have to be here until they come and go. 

Teresa asked me for another 110mil for Carlos and that led to a little meeting to discuss our finances and the timing:

110mil to pay Carlos tomorrow (Friday)

106mil to pay my health insurance tomorrow (Saturday at the latest)

700mil to pay the carpenter (Ramiro) on Saturday

I knew I had the 700mil for the carpenter but I wasn’t sure about the rest.  I checked and we can pay for everything with just enough left over for us to get to Caldas on Monday to get more money at the ATM.  Teresa said I can give Laura the money and deposit form and she can stop at BanColombia after school tomorrow.

Laura came home about 6:30 and I gave her the bad news that we don’t have Wi-Fi and the good news that I can now project to the television.

About 7:15 while Teresa was mopping the floor she called out “raton” which means mouse.  She motioned over by the storage chest she has in the dining room against the wall.  I went over and moved my toolbox which was next to it and turned on my “torch” and by then she had figured out that the fishing line she had given me weeks ago that I had put in my toolbox was wrapped around her mop.

I rewound the fishing line on the spool and we taped the end of it so it won’t accidentally come loose again.

The 3 of us put Luna AND Tony out in the shed for the night so hopefully Teresa and I can sleep late tomorrow.

We went to bed at midnight.

T-shirt of the day: Jap hunting season.  Open Season.  No limit.

Wednesday, October 29th, 2014

I had great difficulty getting to sleep – not until 3:30am and then I got up at 4am to go to the bathroom.  Woke up briefly when Teresa got up and again at 6am when the dogs started barking because Carlos was back at work trimming the garden.  

We had several calls from Une early in the morning and I finally got up at 8am when the Une guy arrived.  

I had a small bowl of cereal for breakfast.

The Une guy finally finished and left at 11am.  I have internet again!

Teresa told me Carlos killed a cobra and I asked her if she meant a snake and she answered yes.  I wanted to see it so I put on a jacket to cover more of my skin from the mosquitoes and we went out into the “garden”.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t find it again but I understood it was only about 6”-12” long whatever it was.

For lunch I had a bowl of soup, a chicken leg with rice, a little avocado and juice.

Teresa told me that the closet guy should be here Saturday to make my closet.

I connected my laptop to the TV using the HDMI cable.  I figured out how to direct the input on the TV to HDMI 3 but I haven’t yet figured out how to send the Netflix movie from my laptop to the HDMI cable.

My son wanted to send me a gift certificate for my birthday but I asked him to send me the old Super Nintendo set with the Super Mario Bros cartridge.

Teresa locked up Luna in the shed so she won’t wake me up tomorrow morning.

We went to bed at 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: Budapest, Hungary

Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

I fell asleep quickly and only got up once during the night.  I heard Laura at 4:20 and a little later I was aware of Teresa getting up to help her get ready for school.  Around 6am I heard Luna barking nonstop again for quite a while before I was able to get back to sleep.  Once again, Teresa seemed to be impervious to the noise.  

We both woke/got up at 7:30am.  We left the finca at 8:45.  I could see that Carlos had dug a trench next to the hill for the water pipes to sit in.  We got past the neighbor’s house before the dogs came out and they quickly gave up pursuing us.  I saw Carlos coming down the path with a wheelbarrow.  I waited to watch the dogs’ reaction and they seemed to be afraid of it but Teresa said they are used to Carlos.  I asked her if they aren’t used to her but she says they don’t like her.  They don’t like me either.

We only had to wait 5 minutes for a bus and 10 minutes later we were in Caldas.  It seemed like Teresa got us off the bus a little early.  After we got off and were behind the bus to cross the street, the driver called to us because I forgot to pay.   After paying we walked to the ATM where I took out some more cash.

We walked to the panaderia whose name is aymará deléitate and has existed since 1983.   I had my Nook with me and saw that they had Wi-Fi so I asked the waiter for the password but for some reason I didn’t get it.  Maybe it’s for the owner only because its name is aymará administracion.  

I had a cup of coffee and Teresa had an arepa de chocolo, a chicken pastry that she shared with me, and coffee for 8,700.

We walked over to the grocery store, Merkepaisa, where we bought more meat and other food stuffs for 123,361 we will need before our next big shopping trip next month.

We waited 10 minutes for a bus and were at the road to the finca 10 minutes later.  I had 5mil ready to pay the driver but Teresa said it would only cost 2,600 so I put my bill away.  But when she handed him the 2,600 he said there is a minimum but he let us go this time.

We were attacked again by the killer dogs.  I’m running out of Pepper Spray but I’ve learned not to turn my back on the Doberman, just keep backing up slowly so I don’t fall down.  The owner even yells at him and he retreats for a moment but then comes back at me.  We were back at the finca by 11am.

We took a nap starting at noon with Teresa getting up at 12:20 to watch the news and prepare lunch and I got up 10 minutes later.

At 2pm I had a different lunch than I’ve had before.  It was shredded chicken on an arepa.  I understand it’s supposed to be eaten with the hands but the arepa was so thin and there was so much chicken piled on that I had to eat it with knife and fork.  It was very tasty but there was so much chicken left over that I needed another arepa to finish it.  I also had a glass of juice.

Laura came back at 2:30.

Teresa and I took a nap from 3:30 to 4:30.

Teresa made popcorn and we watched Sandra Bullock in The Blind Size that got her nominated for an Academy Award.  Then we all started watching The Perfect Plan but we lost the signal for about 15 minutes.  At the end of the movie I saw the English title is Inside Man.  

We went to bed at 10:30.

T-shirt of the day: Broken Mirror

Monday, October 27th, 2014

I got up twice during the night possibly because I had coffee late last night.

Around 6am the dogs started going crazy with nonstop barking, probably because the man is spraying the road with Roundup.  (I guess Teresa has gotten used to all the noise because she was still sleeping (not moving and breathing softly.)

At breakfast (calentao and coffee) it was nice to be able to read the newspaper on my iPad but it seemed like I lost my internet connection.

After my shower I logged onto my laptop and while I could get a network connection I was unable to get internet access.  I looked at the router and only 2 lights were on and I remember I need 4.  I unplugged it but that didn’t help things.  I recall having this problem before when I first got one of my routers back in the apartment.

At 11:30 the man, Senior Carlos, came up the path with a large plastic container on his back and matchete in hand and the dogs went crazy again but they didn’t attack him.  He talked to Teresa a minute and then headed up the trail probably to spray the weeds.  Five minutes later I heard the killer dogs going crazy so I guess he reached them.

Teresa tried making some calls about the stove top but I understand she couldn’t reach anyone.

At 1:30 I had a nice lunch of salad, ribs, rice, soup and juice.

At 2:45 I still didn’t have an internet connection.  I tried disconnecting the router and waiting 15 seconds before reconnecting but it didn’t work.

Teresa made a couple calls and they said to wait 30-60 minutes and it should be working again.

I tried again at 4pm and it still doesn’t work.

I took a little nap from 5 to 6pm.

At 6:30 Teresa finally got through to Une and I understand someone will come out Wednesday morning to check things out.

For dinner I had a large piece of breaded chicken and a cup of coffee.

Laura came home at 7pm and I gave her the bad news – no internet.

Teresa and I watched The Creature from 8 to 10pm.  I watched a little of a series called Third Eye while waiting for Teresa to get ready for be.  What’s interesting about this program is that while it has Spanish subtitles the original language isn’t English.  My best guess is its Dutch or Danish or something similar to that area.

We went to bed at 10:15.

T-shirt of the day: Westchester Irrigation

Sunday, October 26th, 2014

I was awakened just after 5am by one of the Fox Terriers, probably Tony, the youngest, barking nonstop for 5 minutes.  I have no idea why.  When he stopped it took another 15 minutes for me to fall back asleep.  

We were awakened next at 7:20 by a phone call.  While I took a trip to the bathroom I understood Teresa was giving directions to the finca to Une.  When I got back she told me they would call again but I wasn’t really able to get back to sleep.  They called again at 7:45 and I understood she gave directions to someone else at Une.

We heard the dogs barking at 8:15 and it was 2 men from Une.  First they checked inside to see where the router would be connected and it looks like they will be using the telephone outlet.  Then they headed down to the main road, I assume to start laying cable.  And it’s raining.

I had a quick breakfast of granola and café con leche.

I checked Direct TV and see that today’s Bears game is on channel 687 at noon.  What’s interesting is I checked yesterday and couldn’t find the game at all.

At 11am the Une guys came back up the trail through the garden.  Then they ran wire from the dining room upstairs to the loft area.  

They finished and left at 11:55, just in time for me to see the beginning of my game.  

The netword name is ALZATE_ALZ and the password is Teresa’s Cedula number.

The Bears got killed by new England 51-23.

I watched some YouTube videos on my iPad on how to protect oneself from aggressive dogs.

I ordered the Windpro Vented Auto Open Jumbo (#2471) umbrella from Shedrain and a 4-pack of Pepper Spray from Amazon.

I sent an email to Margarita Montes about my unpaid Une bill.

About 8pm I had a toasted sandwich and cup of decaf coffee.

I recreated IMDB’s list of The Greatest Movies of all Time.

We watched a horror movie from 10pm to midnight.  It was pretty good because it had an interesting plot (and some female nudity) but I didn’t notice the title.

We went to bed at midnight.

T-shirt of the day: I’m serious, but don’t call me Shirley.

Saturday, October 25th, 2014

Two months until Christmas.

I got up at 3:45am and again at 5:45am.  I finally woke/got up at 9:15.

I made waffles for Teresa and I.  Actually only one waffle and she ate one of the four pieces without any syrup.  I waited until 11:45 for Laura to get up so I could make one for her.  Unlike Teresa, Laura ate half a waffle with lots of syrup.

At 12:30 Une called and Teresa said they will be here tomorrow between 7am – noon to install Wi-Fi.  Yay!

Today must be cleaning day because Teresa and Laura took all the chairs apart and wiped every surface.  They even took down a painting hanging on the wall and dusted the back.  I’m glad women have that gene and not men!  Lol.

Teresa showed me my shoes that she cleaned off for me.

At 4:15 I heard the dogs going crazy so I looked outside and saw a man coming down the path on horseback.  I called for Teresa and went outside.  The man’s name is Carlos and he is the one who cuts the plants in front of the finca.  I gave him 50mil which I understand is for him to buy roundup to kill the plants on the path leading to her finca.  I noticed the dogs were still going crazy and it didn’t appear to be the horse.  I looked up the path where the dogs were looking and I saw the man’s dog.  It was a large dog but appeared very gentle and wasn’t concerned about the 4 Fox Terriers.

After he left Teresa pointed out some plants in the distance and said “Nosotros hacer una casa prefabricada para arriendo nos pagan $500.000” which I understand to mean “We can make a prefabricated house that we can rent for $250”.  Is she trying to tell me we can make a house out of the plants and then rent it?  This is another example of understanding the words but not the meaning.  I had her write it down and I asked her to wait until tomorrow when I can run it through the translator.

About 5pm I had 3 ribs, rice and Chinese salad with a glass of milk.

About 7pm it started pouring again so we turned off the TV and disconnected the electronics.  The thunder was so strong that Teresa let all 4 dogs stay inside until it stopped at 8:30.

Teresa called the closet guy and he says he will be here sometime next week.

I have a new mosquito bite.  Why?  Because I petted a horse?

We went to bed at midnight.

T-shirt of the day: One of a kind.