Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016

We left the apt about 10:30.  Today I took my lock with me (I’ve been practicing the combination the last couple days so I wouldn’t forget it).  I was happy to see it fit through the holes on the locker.  Mine is easy to spot because it’s the largest, the only lock that has a combination, and it’s purple.

I first did 20 minutes on the treadmill and then while waiting for one of the machines a man said to me in perfect English that he would be there for another 10 minutes.  I said I would come back and he said good idea.  When I went back he introduced himself as Oscar – he was born in Cuba, lived in Miami before moving to Colombia.  He introduced me to another man – Jose – who, while Colombian, had worked in New York and also spoke very good English.

After an hour I was tired and sore and we headed back to the apt.  We stopped at Exito and picked up a few things.

After lunch I walked to the pharmacy to pick up another box of sleeping pills – I only have 2 pieces left.  When I got there the lady told me they are out and to come back tomorrow.  I stopped at the park to observe a few chess games.  I heard a cheer and walked over to a throng of people.  There was a man with a large camera recording another man interviewing bystanders with occasional cheers.  My best guess was this was a Colombian pep rally.  I saw approximately 500 plastic chairs set up in front of a large screen TV.  I’m sure that’s for tonight’s game.  I predict Colombia will beat Chile tonight but then lose to Argentina in the championship.

I forgot to mention I was going to have nacho chips and Mexican salsa at halftime last night but I couldn’t get the friggin’ salsa jar open.  I know I don’t have very strong hands and it still wouldn’t open using various tools.  Teresa showed me a 2^nd jar that I forgot I had bought that she kept in the refrigerator (which you really don’t need to do until it’s open).  Tonight I tried to get this jar open and finally, with the aid of one of the tools my brother had brought me, I got it open.  Neither Teresa nor I found the medium hot salsa very hot.

In tonight’s match Chile scored 2 goals against Colombia in the 1^st half.  At halftime I had chips and salsa but then the match was delayed due to a storm coming through the Chicago area.  I remember a forecast of storms for the Chicago area when I watched the Today show this morning and I knew the Colombia match was in Chicago tonight but I didn’t put 2 and 2 together.  Anyway, finally Teresa told me that the 2^nd half of the match has been delayed until tomorrow.  After a 2 hour delay they finished the match with Chile winning 2-0.

Now, Colombia plays the US again on Saturday for 3^rd place and Argentina plays Chile on Sunday for 1^st place.

I ordered Chess by Laszlo Polgar from Amazon.  It’s a book that my brother gave me years ago but I sold it before moving to Colombia. 

Tuesday, June 21st, 2016

Happy belated Summer Solstice (1^st day of summer)!

I received an email from Barnes & Noble that soon I’ll be receiving an electronic credit because of some class action settlement with Apple.   Sounds good to me!

I received an email from Yahoo that someone in Russia tried to access my email account.  If they’re only guessing they will never figure out my password.

I left the apt at 12:30 and first stopped at the Tourism office outside the library.  Of course they were closed from noon to 1pm.  I stopped at the little hardware store and the lady redid the one building key that doesn’t work.

I walked to the metro and got off 10 stops north at estacion Hospital.  I knew the building must be close by but I took a taxi to find out exactly where it was.  I think the taxi driver didn’t know his way around because I could read the streets better than he.  After circling around we finally got to the correct building – I spotted the correct address, he was still looking but it only cost me 5,000 pesos.  

Dario has an auto parts store – per Colombian tradition there’s another one right across the street.

We played 3 games and the one with the white pieces won all 3 games which is my sly way of saying that he won 2 games and I only won 1.  I’m going to have to go back to my studies with Chess Magnet School.  That’s when I won 10 games in a row against him.

I told him I would call him next week about playing again.  I asked him how to get back to the metro and he said to go 1 block north and 3 blocks east.  I walked through an ESSO service station and in the first block I saw a mall – Aventura C.C.  One of these days I’ll take the time to explore it a bit.  The metro station turned out to be 1 block north and 1 LONG block east.  I took notes so I’ll be able to walk back to his business in the future without the need for a taxi.  It’s actually probably 1 hour door to door; next time I won’t leave the apt so early.

When I arrived back at Envigado I stopped at Exito and picked up butter (actually it’s margarine – I think butter is seldom used here), mayonnaise, and a package of nacho chips (for tonight’s game).

I tried the new key to enter the apt building but it still didn’t work.

At 7pm I showed Teresa how to make BLTs.  I had picked up some good white bread the other day and I toasted it a little.  I made sure she and Laura had a bite and they both liked it so much Teresa made another for herself.

I told her as soon as we buy some cheddar cheese I would show her how to make bacon and egg, grilled cheese sandwiches.

I searched my son’s Slingbox TV directory and found the US vs Argentina match on 6 channels.  I checked them all and found one in English (channel 408).  Argentina is a VERY good team so it will be interesting to see how the US does against them.  Look for Lionel Messi to have a good game.

It looks like the match starts at 8pm so I’m going to connect my laptop to the TV and watch it on the big screen.

Well, at the half it’s Argentina 2, US 0.  I’m getting a good picture even though I’m watching the match in full screen.  The only problem I had watching the match was the final score – Argentina 4, US 0.  Not unexpected as I believe Argentina is ranked #1 in the world.  And Lionel Messi scored 1 goal and had 1 assist.

T-shirt of the day: Not today!

Monday, June 20th, 2016

Well, the fireworks were still intermittent last night when I went to bed at 11:15.  I woke up once about 3am and heard them again – not sure if that’s what woke me up.

I received a Happy Fathers Day email from my son with the news that he’s coming for a visit at the end of August.  He also has a couple friends arriving a few days later.

Well, today I got my introduction to the health club.  We left the apt just before 11am.  At the club we gave them our cedula numbers, they took a fingerprint and we signed a form.  Once inside first I used the treadmill for 20 minutes then I followed Teresa around as she used various machines.  An hour and 10 minutes later I was exhausted.  I weighed myself and I’m currently 78kg (or 172# to you non-metric folks).  If I remember correctly this is what I weighed when I left my desk job back in 2008.  I joined the health club and 6 months later I was down 10#.  Teresa wanted to talk to someone so I told her I would meet her back at the apt.

She says she wants to return every day but I think that’s a mistake because it doesn’t give your muscles time to recuperate unless you’re going to concentrate on different muscle groups.  I plan to go on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Teresa sent me to Exito to pick up eggs, milk, laundry detergent, toothpaste (Colgate), and arepas.  While there I also picked up Sensodyne toothpaste and bacon.

When I got back I found we didn’t have any mayonnaise so I won’t be able to make BLTs.

I had Teresa call Dario and we made plans to meet at his store tomorrow at 2pm and we can play chess for 2 hours.

T-shirt of the day: Pizza is cheaper than therapy.

Sunday, June 19th, 2016

Happy Father’s Day!

We had nothing to eat for breakfast so Teresa sent me to Exito.  I got there at 8:50am – I knew it didn’t open until 9am on Sunday.  After it opened I grabbed a couple bags of milk, a banana, and a box of Fitness cereal.

Back at the apt we had a quick breakfast of cereal and left the apt at 9:30.

  We got to Mall Laureles (Calle 37 #80-36, Local 127) at 9:55.  I went inside the office and told the owner we have 3 more people to go to Santafe today.  

While waiting outside I was about to tell Laura that I’ve spent a lot of time in this mall when I heard my name called.  I looked in the adjoining drug store and who did I see but Harry Kamp (aka Dirty Harry).  I hadn’t seen him since I moved into the finca.  He gave me a business card and asked me to call him so we could get together sometime for drinks.

Our van left at 10:15.  30 minutes later we stopped for 20 minutes at a roadside diner called Parador Rancho Alegre where we each had a almojabana and either hot chocolate or coffee.

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0LEVyE1Q2hXvY8Am0VXNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGZyA2NocmYteWZmMzAEZ3ByaWQDRkpMbnZpdk9TU3FwQUNKWkswenNiQQRuX3JzbHQDMARuX3N1Z2cDMTAEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMTAEcXVlcnkDYWxtb2phYmFuYQR0X3N0bXADMTQ2NjQ1MDgzNw--?p=almojabana&fr2=sb-top-search&fr=chrf-yff30

We arrived at the hotel – Hosteria de la Plaza Menor at noon.  It has swimming pools and hammocks and we just hung out for the afternoon.  Teresa put on some lotion, drank a couple glasses of carrot juice, spent some time in the sun and by the end of the afternoon had a decent tan.  I swam in the pool a couple times and otherwise just relaxed.

They also have an ala carte menu with cocktails, liquor, beer, coffees, drinks, snacks, spa services and a variety of other things (fan, towel, aspirin, cigarettes, etc.).

Resort entrance

Looking towards resort entrance from inside

Rooms

Children's play area

Main swimming pool

Ala Carte menu page 1

Ala Carte menu page 2

Tables with hammocks behind

At 1:30 they served us a nice lunch of soup, salad, meat or fish, potato, rice, juice, and dessert.

Later in the afternoon we had an ice cream snack.  It’s all a pretty good deal for only $20.

They usually leave for the trip back to the city at 7pm but Teresa talked to everyone in our van and we all agreed we would like to leave a little earlier.  I paid an additional 18,000 pesos for the ala carte items we purchased, I tipped our waitress 10,000 pesos and we left at 6:15.  At 7pm we stopped again at the same restaurant.  I thought we would have a real dinner but Teresa just ordered 3 small Cokes and a dozen almojabanas.  I gave the cashier 20,000 pesos and she gave me 15,000 in change.  I didn’t think that was enough so I brought it to Teresa’s attention.  She didn’t say anything but later I learned that another couple got stuck with the remainder of our bill so we owe them something.

We got back to Mall Laureles by 7:45 when it was starting to sprinkle.  We walked over to Viva CC and I went up to Exito where I picked up a medium hot bottle of salsa and a package of Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix.  (In the book I’m reading I learned that Betty Crocker was a fabrication of General Mills.)  Exito closes at 8pm on Sundays so I got through checkout just in time.

I heard some cheers and saw a crowd of people watching the DIM vs Junior championship match – Medellin was ahead 2-0.  We walked outside and there weren’t any taxis waiting for Exito customers to emerge.  We walked across the street and after a 5 minute wait caught a taxi.  At the first stoplight the young driver handed me a sucker and in broken English said “Happy Fathers Day”.  I said, “Awww” and wished him the same.  We heard more cheers, horns honking and fireworks so I guess Medellin won.

We were back at the apt by 8:45pm.

T-shirt of the day: Wake up!

Saturday, June 18th, 2016

I see that the US plays next Tuesday night in Houston.  I assume that means Colombia will play Wednesday night in Chicago.

The Colombian Peso closed at 3,006 to the US Dollar.

The ladies headed to the health club while I went to the park to play chess.  On the way I noticed 4 young girls (about 4’ tall) walking around in what reminded me of French police uniforms.  In the park none of the cement boards had chess pieces with them.  (I think I was too early.)  On my way back to the apt I picked up a free copy of a newspaper called “adn” that a lady was handing out at the corner then I stopped and bought 2 credit card protectors – one in red and the other in blue (he didn’t have any in white).  The blue one is for my USAA debit card that I sometimes carry with me and the red one is for my emergency Citibank card that I will keep in Wilson’s apartment.

Back at the apartment I picked up my Nook and headed for a local bakery where I had a café con leche and pastel con arequipe for 2,700 pesos (about 90 cents).  This was the first time I could remember that my café was more coffee than milk.  While sitting there I felt a bird’s wings brush my shoulder and then I saw a young dove on the ground at my feet.  I think it just flew out of the nest and wasn’t quite strong enough to fly yet.  It walked to a corner where there was a 3’ high wall and it eventually jumped/flew to the top and then glided down to the other side.

Of course the “adn” newspaper had an article on Colombia’s qualifying for the semi-finals and another article that DIM (the other Medellin football team) is playing Junior tonight for the league championship.  The paper said there will be 1,200 policemen at the game for security purposes and there will be 3 large screen TVs showing the game in Parque Laureles #1, Parque Poblado and Parque Desos.  The most interesting article was titled “Clave para leer mas” (Key for Reading More).  It mentioned something about using Blendle to read individual articles from The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and Barron’s (among others) for 9 to 49 cents each.  I googled Blendle and found, from Wikipedia: Blendle is a Dutch online news platform that aggregates articles from a variety of newspapers and magazines and sells them on a pay-per-article basis. The key differences to similar websites are the participation by otherwise commercially unrelated news services in a single platform and the ability for registered users to easily pay a small price per article. It has been called an "iTunes for news" in various media.

I see they are still in Beta mode but I gave them my email address in order to reserve a spot in line.

More information: Blendle offers users access to articles of newspapers and magazines which can be purchased individually, although entire issues can be purchased as well. The transaction of the former is seamless; it automatically occurs when the user opens an article. The price is then deducted from the user’s account balance, to which they added funds prior to the transaction. The service immediately reverses the transaction when the user closes the purchased article quickly after opening it or requests a refund which is only available for 24 hours after purchase.  Purchased articles can be accessed at no additional charge.
The prices are determined by the publishers and range between €0.09 (snippets) and €1.99 (feature stories) and are often around €0.25, 30% of which is paid to Blendle. Users can top up their accounts manually or set up an automatic top-up.

I believe that strange symbol is for Euros which equates to 10 cents and $2.25 for the above.

We left the apt about 7:30 and walked about a dozen blocks to a restaurant where Teresa and Laura ordered chuzo and I ordered empanadas.  Laura and I had a Colombiana to drink and Teresa had a couple rums with water.  It started raining but only lasted a couple minutes and then started up again.  We actually had 3 orders of empanadas we all shared and one time the dish even included a couple mozarella sticks.  The total check came to 45,000 pesos (about $15).

We took a taxi back to the apartment and the rain stopped just after we returned.

T-shirt of the day: Shut up and kiss me.

Friday, June 17th, 2016

Tonight is the Colombia vs Peru match, I think it’s supposed to start at 7pm and I see it’s on 3 channels.

I received an email from MBE that my package has arrived in Medellin.

Laura left about 10 for the health club.  Soon I was changed and ready to go myself.  I was waiting for Teresa to finish getting lunch ready and then we were going to leave.  At 11 she announced that the preparation was taking longer than expected so we will go to the health club tomorrow.  I told her you mean Monday and she replied no, tomorrow.  I showed her the slip of paper that showed at the bottom:

HORARIOS: Lunes a Viernes de 5:00am a 9:00pm.

Sabados y Domingos de 7:00am a 1:00pm.

15% de descuento de 9am a 4pm de lunes a viernes.

She was putting the last 2 sentences together and I was putting the last sentence separate from the other two, especially since on the paper itself to the left of the first two lines are their telephone number and website address.

We agreed that we both liked the table and chairs we saw yesterday until Teresa called and found out that its price is 1,300,000 pesos (about $433) because it was made in Vietnam.

Among the new US movie releases I would like to see Central Intelligence (7.0), Raiders: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film ever Made (7.3), The Last King (6.2), and maybe Swiss Army Man (7.2).

As far as what’s showing locally, I’m having trouble with the local movie websites – both my laptop and iPad show the ticket prices but not the movies playing currently.

I ran www.speedtest.net on my laptop and these are the internet speeds it detected for our wifi network:

9:40am: Ping = 43ms; Download = 5.22 Mbps; Upload = 1.08 Mbps.

12:30pm: Ping = 10ms; Download = 5.13 Mbps; Upload =1.06 Mbps.

10:30pm: Ping = 8ms; Download = 3.45 Mbps; Upload =1.09 Mbps.

5Mbps doesn’t sound very fast for my afternoon football games.  If it appears I have a problem during the August preseason games then I’ll have them bump up the internet speed.

I had Teresa call Dario about when he would be available to play chess.  He told her to call him the day before and he’ll know if he’s available or not.

I left the apt about 3pm and walked to the bus stop a block from Parque Envigado.  I let the first Envigado bus go by because I thought I was supposed to take a Sabaneta bus.  When the 2^nd Envigado bus arrived I asked him if he’s going to Parque Poblado and when he said yes, I got on.  The fee was 1,900 pesos and I took a seat in the back near the open windows.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take into the account that the sun was on that side but it still was bearable.  Also, the bus rider had a radio station on that was playing American music but it was too loud because I was sitting right under the speaker.

I got off just before Parque Poblado and stopped at Mail Box Etc.  I received a large package with my TV headphones and a UPS package that I was sure didn’t contain my chess magazine.  (It contained more real estate papers that probably need to be apostilled.  Later I noticed the date on them was from February 25^th so maybe these are old papers.)

On the way back I got off the bus a few blocks early only to find out it was actually 6 blocks early.  (I’ll time it better in the future.)  On my walk back I discovered a restaurant that serves hot fresh Belgium waffles for about $3 which includes fruit, maple syrup and ice cream.

While I was making my run to MBE Teresa was getting her nails done so I stopped at the beauty shop and let her know I was back and heading to the apt.

I unpacked my box and saw that the rechargable batteries need to be charged first for 16 hours.  They didn’t make it real clear how you charge the batteries but I think I figured it out.

When Teresa came back she told me the whole country is excited because Colombia is playing in Copa America tonight.

The match started just after 7pm and it was 0-0 at halftime.  After regulation it was still tied 0-0 and Colombia won 4-2 on penalty kicks.  I could immediately hear shouting outside the building followed by car horns honking and fireworks.  So, both the US and Colombia are in the semifinals.

T-shirt of the day: I told my psychiatrist about you.

Thursday, June 16th, 2016

So far it’s a beautiful sunny day.

This is a noisy country with construction, barking dogs, roaring motorcycles, squealing brakes, loud music, car alarms, honking horns, men walking the streets yelling out what their selling (like avocados), firecrackers, and vehicles with loudspeakers mounted on top.  And in our apartment building, whistling birds.  Not all at the same time, however.  Luckily, most days, at least near us, all of these things go away by 11pm.

We left the apt about 11am and while Teresa ducked into a shop to ask a question I went next door and added 20mil to the cell phone.  We walked a few more blocks to Comfama – a 4^th floor health club.  We got a tour of the facilities – similar to what I’m used to in the States but on a smaller scale and much more crowded.  They have a weight area, machines area, treadmills and exercise cycles.  There are small lockers near the entrance but I don’t know if you have to bring your own lock.  My Master Lock certainly appears too big for it.  They have bathrooms with a couple showers.

They gave me a slip of paper with their fees – regular monthly membership is 70,100 a month but we signed up for their Hourly Special for a 15% discount.  We can use the facilities from 9am to 4pm Monday thru Friday for 42,100 a person (about $14).

We walked to the garage restaurant where we all had lunch.  I wasn’t particularly hungry yet but I did finish my salad and about half my grilled chicken breast.

Teresa stopped at the tailor’s where her friend works.  I understood from the sign she had outside that her mother just died and the service was going to be today at 4pm.  I believe here they bury the dead the following day.

We walked back to the apt where we took a short nap.

Teresa asked me if I wanted to go to mass before the mass.  It took me a while to understand that she was asking me if I wanted to go look for the table (mesa) before going to mass (misa).

We took a taxi to an area where there were a number of antique/junk stores.  (After that we were going to go to the mass for her friend.)  We were looking for a table for the television but Teresa kept finding chest of drawers and I kept telling her this piece of furniture is for the bedroom.  We did find a nice table and chairs that are more suitable for the apt than what we brought from the finca.  We ended up being too late for mass.

We took a Metro bus and I guess Teresa wanted to see what route it took.  I wanted to get off before we went down the hill but she didn’t so I knew we would have to walk back up.  Since we were so close I insisted we stop in and check out the library.

She sat at a couch while I explored several levels.  I saw lots of rooms with computers but only one room with not an impressive number of books.  I sat next to Teresa on a couch and we struck up a conversation with a nice young man sitting behind us.  He is a psychology major at the University of Antioquia and he speaks a little English.  He loves reading and we quizzed each other about a number of books – he’s more into Earnest Hemingway and poets while I’m more into fiction.  He and Teresa exchanged phone numbers because Laura also wants to major in psychology and she’s currently studying English.

We walked up the hill and stopped at an Exito where we picked up a few things.

I watched the US vs Ecuador match which the US won 2-1.  That should qualify them to play in the semi finals.  Colombia plays Peru tomorrow night.  I’ll probably be hearing some fireworks after that match.

T-shirt of the day: I’ve been shopping all my life and still have nothing to wear.