Monday, January 4th, 2016

I got up once at 4:45am, again at 6:30, finally waking/getting up at 9:15.

Teresa talked to the vet who lives down the hill and we have an appointment tomorrow morning to take Tony to be fixed.  She also talked to someone in Martha’s office and my papers are ready but our appointment is for tomorrow.  I don’t know if that appointment is for Martha’s office or immigration in Belen.

I understand Don Miguel will be finishing trimming the garden instead of Chucho.

Teresa filled an empty margarine container with water and placed it with half a banana on a pedestal newly set up a few yards up the trail for birds.

Because of all the recommendations I made while going through the ChessMagnetSchool lessons Harlan Lee promised me a free membership in their sister website ChessLecture.com that specializes in video lectures.  It cost me $99.99 so I hope he’ll follow through and reimburse me.

The same time Teresa was telling me we have a 1:30 appointment tomorrow I received an email from Immigration about the same appointment.  I have to bring my passport so that means we have to go to Martha’s office before to pick it up (with the new visa).  We’ll probably leave after breakfast, pick up the passport from Martha, have lunch somewhere and be at Immigration by 1pm (30 minutes early as requested).

Harlan Lee emailed me that they reimbursed me for my charge.  I don’t see it yet in my checking account but probably tomorrow.

I’ve gone through a few video lessons and they really look great.  I just wish I could play more often.

I took 2 sleeping pills at 10:30 and went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Trust me.  I have like 10,000 followers.

Sunday, January 3rd, 2016

Last night I fell asleep quickly and I’m not sure what woke me up at 6am – the barking contest or my full bladder.  While I was up I disconnected my charged cell phone and set the alarm to 7am. 

At 7am Teresa begged to sleep some more so I reset the alarm to 8am.  At 8am she asked to sleep some more so I just went back to sleep.  She got up at 9am and I followed shortly after.

We left the finca at 10:20 and got past the killer dogs.  I think it’s time to stop calling them killer dogs; I think I’ll call them G-dogs - for Guillermo’s dogs.  On the way down the sideroad we saw a large green snake ahead of us but by the time we got to its spot it had already disappeared into the jungle.  While waiting for a bus to Caldas I counted 16 buses on the way to Medellin.  L  After a 25 minute wait a Caldads bus finally stopped for us.

At Merkepaisa Teresa picked up meat, fruits, vegetables and other things.  Walter arrived a few minutes later.

On the way up the hill the “garbage” used to fill in the holes in the sideroad stopped the taxi from proceeding.  He backed up, Teresa and I got out and we walked up to the 2^nd turn in the road.  (Btw, because the taxi was stopped on a slope when I got out gravity closed the card door and I think he admonished me for slamming it.)  He was able to get the taxi up to our turn, we got back in and he proceeded the rest of the way up the hill.  Going down only the black dog came out barking at us.

For today’s Bears game I went directly to Slingbox using Google Chrome, did not set it to full screen and managed to see the whole first half without any problem.  I had no other tabs open and didn’t use my iPad at any time.  The Chicago Bears were losing 10-0 at halftime.  I had my traditional hamburger and Pepsi at halftime.  To begin the 2^nd half I set the game to full screen and it froze after a couple minutes.  I went back to small screen and finished the game with it only freezing one other time.  The Chicago Bears lost to the Detroit Lions 24-20 but now they have the 11^th pick in the 2016 NFL draft.

We finished watching The Punisher (6.5) on Netflix.

I watched some of the Minnesota Vikings vs Green Bay Packers game.

We started watching Side Effects (7.6) on Netflix.

I watched the end of the game – Minnesota won 20-13 vs the Packers!  Yah!

I took 2 sleeping pills at 11pm and went to bed at 11:40.

Saturday, January 2nd, 2016

I got up at 3:30, again at 7:30 finally getting up at 8:30.

We left the finca at 11:50 and got past the killer dogs undetected.  It looked awfully quiet there.  At the highway while we were waiting for a bus Guillermo appeared from across the highway carrying a large Styrofoam cooler.  He talked to Teresa for a while and I understood that the boxweiler killed the puppy, the way predators kill their prey, by grabbing them by the throat until they asphyxiate.  He also said something about last Wednesday cars or dogs weaving along the highway but I didn’t understand everything.  Our bus came after a 20 minute wait.

About 5 minutes later it started raining hard and we didn’t have an umbrella.  I understand we left the small red one on the bus and the larger one is still back at the finca.  Instead of getting off the bus at Aguacatala station we went to the end of the line to the south bus station.  This is when I found I couldn’t open my Nook book; battery is probably too low.  At Frisby Teresa had the Frischuleta, soup and juice.  I helped her with that and I also had a Friburrito and Pepsi for a total of 38,800.

By the time we left the bus station it had stopped raining.  We took a taxi to Calle 50 and Carrera 47 where Teresa picked up some face cream.  Across the street were 6 barber shops in a row (what a country).  We stopped in one and I let Teresa have her way with my haircut.  My beard is a now smaller and shorter.  After cutting my hair the barber opened a new blade for final trimming around the edges.  The entire procedure took 20 minutes and cost me 8,000 pesos (less than $3).

We walked about 3 blocks west to Avenida 80 and about 6 blocks south to Calle 44 (San Juan).  I stopped at the internet store to print something but it was closed.  We walked to Viva CC where I left Teresa downstairs to have a set of finca keys made for me.  I went across the street to Mall Laureles where I told the man who organizes Santafe tours that there would be 6 people wanting to go there on Saturday, January 30^th.  I also picked up another one of his flyers.  The price is still 60mil (about $20) which includes transportation both ways, tour of a bridge on the way, lunch there, and use of their facilities which includes a pool and jacuzzi.  Not a bad deal.  They leave Medellin at 10am and leave Santafe at 7pm.  I walked across the street to Hotel Golden Palermo where I picked up their business card.

Back at Viva CC Teresa informed me they weren’t able to copy her keys for some reason.  She waited at Nohelia to have her nails done and I picked up a complimentary 2016 calendar at Western Union.  Upstairs in Exito I dropped off a used battery and some partially used medicine I no longer needed.  I picked up 2 packages of underwear (3 pairs in each) and a bottle of Pepsi for tomorrow’s game.  (We had finished the other bottle a couple days before.)  I asked a saleslady where I could find a bottle of strawberry syrup (salsa de fresa).  She asked me if I meant fresco and I said no, fresa.  After we went back and forth a few times I took her over to the strawberries and she finally understood.  Sigh!  She showed me a plastic package of arequipe and asked me if this was what I wanted only with strawberry inside.  I told her yes but the bottle is made of harder plastic.  She asked someone else who got on her cell phone.  I told her I would keep looking while they are checking and right away I found the bottle – Smucker’s Strawberry Syrup – all in English.  Checkout lines were pretty busy and after a 10 minute wait I paid 104,820.  I picked up a large mango, banana, and papaya juice for 6,400 ($2) which I took downstairs to share with Teresa.

We decided that after she had her nails done we would go to Pizza Americana for pizza.  

Finally she got her nails done and as we were walking through the parking garage she saw a kiosk selling shrimp cocktail and of course she wanted one.  I was concerned she would spoil her appetite for pizza but she said I could order one just for myself.

(It was 6:40pm and believe it or not an hour later we were on a direct bus back to the finca.)

As we were walking out of Viva mall we saw it was still drizzling and we forgot to buy an umbrella.  After a few seconds thought I gave her 50 mil and told her to go buy an umbrella at Exito and I would go downstairs and have a hotdog and then we would leave directly for the finca.   She said we could meet at Mimo’s (ice cream shop) after we had both finished.  At Dogger’s I tried their hamburdog hoping it might be something like a Chicago all beef hotdog.  Not.  It also included a bag of chips and medium Pepsi for 9,900 ($3.25).

Upstairs at Mimo’s Teresa showed up empty handed after a minute wait.   She said the lines were too long to purchase the umbrella besides it had stopped raining.  We walked across the street and immediately a private car arrived (con effectivo) which took us to Aguacatala station for 4mil.  There was a very pretty young lady there waiting for a bus.  After about a 10 minute wait, at 7:40pm, we were on a bus back to the finca.  There were a few pretty young ladies on the bus and others got on at several stops.  What a country!  

It still wasn’t raining, we got past the killer dogs undetected and were back at the finca by 8:30pm.

The plan tomorrow is to leave early (8am) for Caldas, have breakfast there and buy meat, fruits & vegetables at Merkepaisa.

I took 2 sleeping pills at 11pm and went to bed.

T-shirt of the day: You’re my inspiration.

Joke

You know the joke about the nurse that gets everything wrong?

A doctor is complaining that he told her to give the patient in Room 4 three pills, and she gave the patient in Room 3 four pills, and just as he’s talking about her, he sees her chasing a naked patient down the hall, holding a pan of boiling water.

The doctor says, “Look at that! I told her to prick his boil!”

Friday, January 1st, 2016

Happy New Year everyone!

Among today’s new movie releases I would like to see The Hateful Eight (8.1).  Locally, there isn’t much playing that’s good.

At 1pm Teresa warned me it looked like rain.  By the time I brought in my towel it was raining so I went out again and brought in the dog’s blankets.  The rain only lasted a couple minutes.

Teresa called me outside and showed me 2 very pink pigs outside the finca/farm just below us.

There was a single change today to 3,179 Colombian Pesos to the dollar.

We watched Hostage (6.6) and then we started watching The Punisher (6.5).

I took 2 sleeping pills at 10:30 and we went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: I’m the future.

Thursday, December 31st, 2015

I fell asleep quickly getting up once at 4:30.  I had trouble getting back to sleep.  At 6am the dogs started barking.  At 6:30am the cows started mooing.  Teresa got up sometime around 8am, and I finally got up at 9:30.

After my shower I reconnected the router and even though I had a wi-fi and internet connection all I got was “server not found”.  I waited a while and tried again and finally it worked.

I called my brother and we discussed the plan for his visit at the end of January.

I made Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for lunch.  It’s supposed to contain 3 servings.  Teresa sampled it, really liked but didn’t eat more because she had a late breakfast.  I think I finished about ¾ of it and Teresa used a bowl to cover the remainder.  It contains a lot of sodium so we won’t be having it too often.

Teresa took a nap from about 2 to 4pm.  As soon as she got up she declared that she didn’t want to go out today.  She did finish the macaroni & cheese and told me we need to buy more.

We watched Man on a Ledge (6.6).  I think I may have seen this in the movie theater a few years ago.

I’m not sure if this is a weekend close or not but the Colombian Peso hasn’t changed from 3,174 for awhile.

At 6pm it started raining but ended shortly after.

Teresa reminded me that Ruby is coming for a visit tomorrow.

Teresa received a call from Ruby who informed her that she is partying so much tonight that she won’t be visiting tomorrow.

Fireworks started continuously about 11:30.

I took 2 sleeping pills at 11:45 but the fireworks were so loud that I took another at midnight.  We went to bed shortly after and I was surprised when the noise stopped right at 12:15.

T-shirt of the day: Sorry people, I can’t.  But don’t worry, it’s just today.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2015

After lying in bed awake for about 20 minutes I got up and took another sleeping pill.  I fell asleep quickly and didn’t wake up until 6:30 finally waking/getting up at 8am.

I see my social security deposit has already been made to my account so now I don’t have to worry about not getting my payment on time because they didn’t receive my Proof of Life form.

We left the finca at 12:05 and got past the killer dogs undetected.  By the time I got to the top of the hill I think I had 4 new bites on my arms.  We only had to wait 5 minutes for a bus to El Poblado.  On the way the dentist’s office called to ask if we could come early.  We got to El Tesoro by 1:15 and waited in the dentist’s office until 1:45 when he showed up.

After more of Teresa’s cleaning was finished at 2:45, we made another appointment for 2pm on January 12^th and went to the food court.  At J&C Delicias I had spaghetti with meat sauce and Teresa had the surf & turf arepa and we each had a mango juice for 60,200 including tip.

While waiting for Albero Teresa went into Zara to check out their clothes and I went upstairs to use the Citibank ATM for a change.  After a few minutes I realized I was going in the wrong direction and had to backtrack.  I had trouble with the Citibank ATM – it didn’t seem to want to recognize my card.  I went downstairs and waited in line for about 5 minutes to use the Bancolombia ATM.  When it was my turn it didn’t want to accept my card.

Back at Zara Teresa was talking to Albero.  He gave me the 500mil that they had borrowed and I gave it to Teresa to buy food for this month.

Teresa went into Fedco where she bought some makeup on sale and I tried a different Bancolombia ATM.  This time I was successful in making a withdrawal.  

We stopped in Carulla where I picked up a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and a bottle of Pepsi for next Sunday’s game. Teresa picked up some hamburgers and powdered milk.

While she was paying for everything I stopped at a kiosk where I had 4 pages of the October, 2014 Chess Life magazine printed in color.  Now I have a new opening to study.

Teresa went to bed at 10:15.  I took 2 sleeping pills at 10:30 and went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Say no to drugs and yes to pizza.