Monday, February 9th, 2015

Happy Birthday Jim!  Today is my son’s 28^th birthday.

Last night I was on the computer while Teresa watched some TV program that I understood was about prostitutes.  This morning she told me that it showed women in their 70s and 80s working as prostitutes in Germany, Italy, and Colombia.  She asked me if I remembered the man who delivered our liquid propane tank.  She said his mother (grandmother?) is 90 years old and still enjoys sex with men younger (there probably aren’t many left that are older) than herself (and not for money).  We had some good laughs imagining those situations.

My eye is still red and Teresa said it might be “confuntibitis” which, after I entered it in Google Translate, I understood she meant “conjuntivitis” which in English is “conjunctivitis”.  We’re going to stop and see a doctor about it this afternoon.  We may have to leave our hotel visits for another day.

We left the finca at 11:55 and I took 1 ½ dog biscuits with me along with 2 umbrellas because the sky was so overcast.  The killer dogs heard us but by the time they got to the trail we were past them and even the doberman didn’t approach us.

We caught a direct bus after a 10 minute wait and took a taxi up to downtown Envigado.  I paid my 2,500 pesos ($1) at Neuva eps and they gave me a 4:45 appointment.  

Laura returned to the finca about 1pm.

We stopped at the ATM for more cash (I’m stockpiling it at home) and then had lunch at Carbón de Leña.  I had the chicken breast and Teresa had an order (1) of fish and we shared a slice of Tiramisu for 23,500 pesos (about $10).  Remember there is no added tax and tipping is not customary.

We had 3 hours before my appointment so we took a bus to Hotel Porton (Calle 63 Sur #43A-11) in Sabaneta.  The trip took about 20 minutes and when you get off the bus you are right in front of the hotel.  The rooms include a double bed, wi-fi, air conditioning, TV, bathroom with shower and hot water.  Breakfast is included and it costs 120mil (about $50) for a single and 150 mil (about $64) for a double.

I asked Teresa about another hotel (La Hacienda Extremadura) and Teresa said it’s too far away.

We were back in Envigado in less than 15 minutes.

I added 20mil to my cell phone minutes.

We still had a couple hours to kill so we stopped for some ice cream for 16,500.  While there, I saw 2 young men sitting in the back with a camera attached to a pole that they used to take a picture of themselves.  Then they gave each other a kiss.  We stayed there until about 4pm and then walked the block away to Nueva eps.  

During the wait, as so often happens, I saw a young girl in a t-shirt with lots of words on it.  Finally she turned around for a second and I saw “I didn’t really kiss him …” but I didn’t get the rest.  I saw her sitting at the end of the hall but she was slouching so I knew I wouldn’t be able to see the rest of it.

At 5:05 we were finally called into the doctor’s office.  This was a pretty young doctor.  She tried to take a little history; I have no allergies and I showed her the eye drops (for dry eyes) that the Opthomologist prescribed for me.  She asked my height (6’) checked my weight (80 kg; too much), my blood pressure, looked in my eyes and at my throat.  She said I have Conjunctivitis and prescribed some drops for me.  She said to stop taking my current eye drops until I finish the prescription.

(Here are the directions for taking the drops that I translated when I got back to the finca “2 drops every four hours the first 12 hours, then every 6 hours for next 12 hours, then every 8 hours to complete five days.”)

We walked down to a pharmacy where I bought more Isoklon sleeping pills for 61,300 and the eye drops for 9,200.

We walked down the hill to Home Center where Teresa picked up some more paint, masking tape, and solvent for 88,900.  We took a taxi to the highway and after a 10 minute wait we caught a direct bus back to the finca.

We got past the killer dogs undetected.

Teresa and Laura watched Master Chef again.  Today they had to make a cake but I think they may have been given almost impossible time constraints because a lot of them had difficulties.

We finished Jesse Stone: Sea Change and then we started watching Quigley Down Under (6.8).

I took my sleeping pills at 10:30 and we went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Up for it.

Sunday, February 8th, 2015

I slept well, finally waking/getting up at 9am.

I still have some irritation and maybe a little discharge from my left eye. 

Teresa continued painting chairs.  She ran out of paint and she wanted to go to Envigado to buy more this afternoon.  Since we’re going there tomorrow I convinced her to wait until then.  She tells me we will also go to Sabaneta to check out the hotels for when my brother arrives but we’ll leave the Laureles hotels for another day.

I bought an e-card for my son which he should receive tomorrow on his birthday.

For lunch I had spaghetti with ground beef which reminded me more of goulash but I liked it a lot.

While Teresa was spray painting the chairs I played some Michael Jackson and Jennifer Lopez music videos on Youtube for her.  She had enough spray paint (2 cans) to put one coat on the table and one of the chairs.  She set them up with the glass top and red place mats and I told her I thought I was in Paris.  Lol.

I logged into the US Netflix site but the two movies I attempted to watch with Spanish subtitles I could only see with English closed captioning.

Just before 5pm it started raining so hard I unplugged the TV and my laptop.  It stopped by 5:30.  Teresa told me it’s raining hard in Envigado and Laura is waiting for it to stop before she heads back to the finca.

Laura came back about 6:30.

Teresa and I watched another hour of Shooter and then she turned on some news program at 8pm.

After that we finished Shooter (7.2) and then watched an hour of Jesse Stone: Sea Change.

At 10:30 I took my sleeping pills and we went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Party 24/7.

Saturday, February 7th, 2015

I got up once about 3am, took another sleeping pill and didn’t wake up until 8am.

I made waffles for the three of us with only a few chocolate chips in the mix for Laura and I.  I’ve figured out I can put the correct amount of mix in each quadrant if I use the ¼ cup.

Laura left at 10:30 and got to her English lesson early about 11:30.

Lunch today was meatballs, rice, and salad.  I had a glass of milk in lieu of my usual glass of juice.

Teresa called someone and I understood that when we were in San Diego CC a few weeks ago she left her purse there to be repaired and today she was inquiring as to whether it was ready or not.

I took a nap from 2:15 to 3:15 and Teresa took one from 4 to 5.  A good rainstorm came through from 3:30 to 4.

Teresa started painting the kitchen chairs that I brought with me.  She’s changing the color of the legs from dark brown to white.

We finished watching The Siege (6.3) and then we watched 3:10 to Yuma (7.8).  Of course she’d already seen Enough (5.5) with Jennifer Lopez so we watched The Echo (5.7) and then started Shooter (7.2).

I feel some irritation on the outside edge of my left eye so I may have an eye infection.

I took my sleeping pills at 10pm and we went to bed at midnight.

T-shirt of the day: Friends don’t let friends twerk.

Friday, February 6th, 2015

I got a good night’s sleep thanks to the 2 sleeping pills when I went to bed and another when I got up about 3am.

We called my brother using magicJack and decided to find a hotel in Sabaneta for us all to stay at his first night.  The next day we will visit Envigado and later in the day take a bus to Caldas where hopefully Walter can take us all the way up to the finca with my brother’s suitcase.

Later in the week we will take a day trip to La Pintada which is another town about 2 hours away.

My brother asked me to check out two hotels in Laureles:

Ø      Solar Hotel Casa Laureles at Calle 35 #78-66

Ø      Casa Hotel Sol de Laureles 92-110mil a night for 1 person which includes breakfast

We’re going to check them out on Monday.

It rained a little this morning which drove the temperature down.  I put on a t-shirt under my top and added a sweater.

Teresa gave 20mil to Don Carlos to do something with some plants.

I checked the US movie releases and I would like to see Project Almanac (6.6) and Jupiter Ascending (6.2) also looks interesting.

Locally, Taken 3 (6.1) is playing at Mayorca at 2:50, The Imitation Game (8.2) is playing at Los Molinos at 3pm, and American Sniper (7.6) is playing at several theatres but the start times are too late.

Teresa made spaghetti with meatballs for lunch this afternoon.  It wasn’t exactly as I remember but it was still very good.

We watched Master Chef again and this time they had to make something with either meat or crabs but they were limited to only 6 other ingredients or spices.

I took my sleeping pills at 11pm and we went to bed at 11:30.

T-shirt of the day: Let’s do something fun.

Carbón de Leña takeout menu

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

I fell asleep after maybe 30 minutes and didn’t wake up until 4:15.  After a trip to the guest bathroom, because Laura was showering in the main one, I took another sleeping pill before going back to bed.  I woke up at 8:15 when I heard Teresa getting up.

It’s raining lightly so we decided to get ready to leave at 10am but if it’s still raining we won’t leave until 11am.

On my iPad I saw a video about a barber who gives “old man” haircuts to kids who misbehave.  Lol.

I checked the MBE website and I see my vitamin supplements and documents are now In Transit.

It appeared to stop raining about 9:30 but it doesn’t look like Teresa is in any hurry to leave.

I see quite a few TV commercials offering to teach you to speak English – EnglishNow for example.  I even see them with booths in the shopping malls.  Of course the universities teach English and there are independent teachers like Jhon.

We left the finca at 11am and the killer dogs heard us.  The doberman came out and I tossed him a dog biscuit which at least gave us time to get away.

We waited about 15 minutes for a bus to Envigado and took a taxi up to the downtown area.  Teresa called Vicky and learned her husband Albero will meet us in Envigado at 3pm to return 250 of the 500 mil that she owes me.  On the way Teresa talked to the driver and we learned there are no hotels in Envigado but there are near the park in Sabaneta.  First I took some cash out of the ATM and we went to Nohelia where Teresa and I got haircuts for 47mil.  That took about 90 minutes.

We walked over to Carbón de Leña where I had a hamburger and 2 glasses of Pepsi and Teresa had their fish for 23,500.  We stopped a block away where I had a laminated copy made of my Cedula and I bought a large notepad for a total of 6,900.  We paid the Direct TV bill of 59,400 and the Une bill of about 64mil at $efecty.  I think Teresa didn’t believe the amount we paid to Direct TV so she called Elisa and talked to her about the amount.  

Teresa and I stopped at Felicia Travel where we talked to a lady there that spoke a little English.  She told us about a 5 day, 4 night All-Inclusive trip to San Andres, including airfare, transfers, 3 day tours, hotel, food and drink, all for about 1,200,000 pesos per person.  She pointed out two hotels - Calypso & Bahia Sardinas - on the beach.  

We went back to $efecty where I paid 79,983 for the electric bill.

Teresa talked to Vicky a few times and the latest meeting time we got was 3:30 to 4pm at BanColombia in Envigado.  Since it was only 3pm I asked her why don’t we meet at Exito Envigado instead.  She called her back and we made that arrangement.

On the way to Exito we stopped at a fabric store and Teresa bought a few yards of cloth that she paid for.  (Back at the finca she quickly made it into a simple blouse.)

At 4:15 we decided to go into Exito and pick out the few things we needed.  We gathered vinagrete (sp?) dressing, arepas, and coffee and at 4:30 Albero finally called to say he was waiting for us at Mimo’s.  We left our basket with an employee and went out to meet him and he gave me 250mil.

We went back into Exito where we found our basket and picked up a pound of ground beef (carne molida) and Teresa paid 91,768.  For the first time I noticed on the bill that they separate the cost of supermarket items from the cost of textiles and varieties.

We took a taxi to the highway with our 3 bags of groceries and after a short 10 minute wait we were on a direct bus with seats in the back.

As the bus approached one spot I saw a police car, 5 regular policemen and one in a Smoky Bear hat.  The bus stopped and the latter got on the bus.  I questioned Teresa what this was about and she said it was probably to check IDs (Cedulas).  I felt fortunate I had not only a copy but the original with me today.  That’s when I noticed the large dog come ahead of him down the aisle sniffing the floor.  Two aisles before us he turned around and headed back out of the bus.  The whole process, most likely checking for drugs, only took about 2 minutes.  I saw a similar checkpoint about 100 yards further down the road but we didn’t stop at that one.

I thought more about a trip to San Andres and decided that it would take all my available savings and I don’t want to do that now.

As we approached the top of the hill I saw the doberman and he threatened us as we approached.  I tossed him the other dog biscuit I had with me and we walked past him as he started consuming it.  We met the neighbor and maybe his wife and I told him I want the dog to be my friend.  I think he said we’d better get out of the area before he finishes the dog biscuit.

We were back at the finca with the ground beef 90 minutes after we picked it out back in Exito.  I don’t think they would find that amount of time without refrigeration to be safe in the US.

Master Chef was interesting tonight.  One at a time the chefs were given a bowl of borscht (Russian soup) and they had to identify the ingredients and what it is.  

T-shirt of the day: I love you ice cream.

Wednesday, February 4th, 2015

I slept from 11pm until 3:45 just before Laura would get up.  I slept more or less until my cell phone alarm went off at 6:30am.  Teresa got up 15 minutes later.

I took my shower, had cereal for breakfast and was ready to go by 7:45.

I wanted to confirm everything with Teresa before we left.  I thought we were also going to Envigado today but she told me that would be tomorrow.  I listed the places we would be going to in Caldas today and she said we would be paying the electric bill tomorrow in Envigado.  Five minutes later she listed all the places we would be going to in Caldas and she mentioned paying the electric bill.  I questioned her on that and she changed it to Envigado.

As we were leaving at 8:15 she told me I forgot the electric bill.  I reminded her we will be paying it tomorrow in Envigado. And I thought I had a bad memory!

As we passed the neighbor’s house the killer dogs barked at us behind their fence.  We had to wait about 20 minutes to catch a bus to Caldas.

First we made a stop at the ATM so I could take out more cash then we walked up to Merkepaisa.  Because vegetables are on sale today that area of the store was a madhouse with people trying to choose and bag their vegetables and stockers trying to get past them in the narrow aisles to put up new stock.

We finally got out of there just before 10am after Teresa and I had a miscommunication over who would pay for it.  Now I understand that because I only gave her 500mil on the first of the month and she purchased some groceries last weekend and all the meat yesterday, she didn’t have enough cash to pay the 344,100 pesos today so I paid for it with my debit card.  (We settled that after we got back to the finca.  I gave her the 500mil and took back 345mil.  From now on I’ll give her the full 1 million pesos at the beginning of each month.)

Walter was waiting for us with his taxi and we made one stop so we could pay another 100mil towards the exercise machine.  I guess Laura forgot to do that a few days ago.

At the finca he drove all the way down the path until we got to where it’s covered with rocks.  Between the 3 of us we managed to carry everything down in one trip and I gave him 20mil.

I had Teresa call a hotel in Manizales.  Now I have to put her in touch with my Spanish speaking brother so I can find out what she learned.

I hadn’t been upstairs in the loft in several weeks so I followed Teresa when she was going up again.  She has it pretty well organized with a card table in the middle.  I asked her why she didn’t have a lightbulb in the socket above and I understood she wasn’t sure the lightbulb she has worked.  I took out a working bulb from another socket and tried her lightbulb and it worked.  I then put it in the socket above her head but it didn’t work.  I asked her where the switch is and she didn’t know.  We looked around but didn’t find one that worked on that socket; another thing for the electrician to look at when he finally arrives.

One of my readers recommended a sleeping pill he named Zipicloma.  I assume that’s the Spanish name for Zipiclone.  According to Wikipedia (quote sources removed) “Zopiclone (brand names Zimovane and Imovane) is a nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic agent used in the treatment of insomnia. It is a cyclopyrrolone, which increases the normal transmission of the neurotransmitter GABA in the central nervous system, as benzodiazepines do, but in a different way.
As zopiclone is sedating, it is marketed as a sleeping pill. It works by causing a depression or tranquilization of the central nervous system. After prolonged use, the body can become accustomed to the effects of zopiclone. When the dose is then reduced or the drug is stopped, withdrawal symptoms may result. These can include a range of symptoms similar to those of benzodiazepine withdrawal.
In the United States, zopiclone is not commercially available, although its active stereoisomer, eszopiclone, is sold under the name Lunesta. Zopiclone is a controlled substance in the United States, Japan, Brazil, and some European countries, and may be illegal to possess without a prescription.
Zopiclone is known colloquially as a "Z-drug." Other Z-drugs include zaleplon (Sonata) and zolpidem (Ambien and AmbienCR) and were initially thought to be less addictive and/or habit-forming than benzodiazepines. However, this appraisal has shifted somewhat in the last few years as cases of addiction and habituation have been presented. Zopiclone is recommended to be taken on a short-term basis, usually a week or less. Daily or continuous use of the drug is not usually advised.^”

After reading that I don’t think it’s something I want to take without a doctor’s prescription but I thank him for thinking of me.

We started watching The Siege (6.3) and stopped again at 8pm to watch Master Chef.  The chefs had to make what they said was mousaka but it looked more like pastitsio (Greek lasagna) to me.

I took my sleeping pills at 10:15 and we went to bed at 10:30.

T-shirt of the day: A rolling stone gathers no moss.