Sunday, May 6, 2018

I slept through the night finally waking at 5:45 and getting up at 6:30.  After breakfast we took a nap for about an hour.

At 12:15 it started raining.

The Colombian Peso closed for the week at 2,819 to the US Dollar.

I just watched TV and went through a chess book all day.

Teresa told me that for Mother’s Day she wants to return to the restaurant – Tagliata – where we had dinner the last night before my brother and his girlfriend left.  She doesn’t want to go on Sunday, as it will be too busy, not even Saturday, but Friday night.  I told her to call and make reservations.

It was raining again as we went to bed.

T-shirt of the day: Dear past.  Thanks for the lessons.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Also known as Cinco de Mayo.

I only got up once during the night but woke up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep finally getting up at 6am.

After breakfast Teresa went for her 9:15 doctor’s appointment and I took a nap.

When Teresa returned she informed me she also has high cholesterol and will be taking the same medicine as I (but double the strength) and has a June appointment with the same nutritionist.

Chuck and Darnely arrived at 1pm.  Teresa finished up the sauce while I made garlic bread using pan de maiz.  I cut the slices about an inch thick, put a little butter on and then put the garlic spread on top of that.  About 10 minutes in the oven and they were slightly crispy.

We had a nice lunch of spaghetti ala Juanita (with meat sauce) and garlic bread.

Teresa and Darnely chatted at the kitchen table while Chuck and I chatted in the living room.  Chuck gave me 20mil to buy Condoritos on Fridays as they return to the States on May 13^th.  He also gave me an extra set of house keys for safe keeping.

He asked me what he could bring for me when they return and I said more root beer and 1 bag of salted-in-the-shell peanuts, please.  When they return it should definitely be football season.

Teresa begged me to go to the pharmacy to get her cholesterol medication so she could start taking it tonight.  I left the apt about 6pm and bought it for 20,500 pesos at Todo Drogas.  I noticed they are open on Saturday until 7:30 and they are even open on Sunday.

Back at the apt Teresa suggested picking up ribs from Mu but when it took a while for Laura to respond at MT’s apt she changed plans and we went to Bocados Bar for dinner.  It was only 73mil for grilled chicken breast for the 4 of us.

T-shirt of the day: Your best teacher is your last mistake.

Friday, May 4, 2018

I slept well only getting up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:30am.

It looks like it rained most of the night and now we have the Metro buses going down the hill with their squealing brakes.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show and then left for the gym.  I was fortunate to pick up a Gente newspaper at the Gana store near the park.  Early each month I recycle my old water bottle and buy a new one from their machine for 2mil.  But today they didn’t have any water, only lemonade and it was 1mil more than I had with me.  Andres came over and told me that they have a new machine that gives free drinks for the next 7 days but as we were approaching other ladies informed us that it wasn’t working so I used the water fountain.  I completed my exercises at the gym in 2 hours. 

Among new US movie releases Overboard looks interesting, although I know it’s a remake and it only earned an IMDB rating of 3.5.  At least it isn’t another stupid (my opinion) Marvel superhero movie.

Bad Samaritan sounds interesting but it only got a rating of 6.0.

Locally, A Quiet Place is playing at 6:15 in El Tesoro.  I wouldn’t mind seeing it again if Laura is interested.  Avengers: Infinity Wars has taken over most of the showtimes here.

Teresa and I took an after lunch nap from 2:30 to 3:30.  I left the apt at 4:30 and had a couple things printed at the copy center.  I stopped at the bakery for a café con leche for 1,800 pesos.

Back at the apt I started going through one of my new chess books.

Laura left the apt at 7pm and picked up pizza for us at Antica Pizza.  Afterward she left to visit with friends.

T-shirt of the day: Still living with my parents.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

I slept pretty well last night despite getting up 3 times.

Teresa and I left the apt at 9:30 and took a taxi to Mayorista.  First we stopped at El Langastino where she bought a large piece of salmon.  We paid for it and had them keep it for us until after we finished our grocery shopping.  We walked over to Euro and I helped Teresa find some things.  In a center aisle I noticed a display of some hard to find imported items – Welch’s Concord grape jelly, Knotts Berry Farm strawberry preserves, and Vlasic dill pickles.  I bought each of them since I never know when I’ll see them again.  They also had Planter’s Crunchy Peanut Butter but I already had that.  They also had Kraft Cheez Whiz but I took a pass on that.

After paying we loaded all our stuff into an old car.  When we got over the bridge leading to Envigado his car died in traffic.  He couldn’t get it restarted and ended up pushing it across a cross traffic lane and onto a spot under the Avenida Las Vegas bridge.  We flagged down a taxi and transferred our bags to it.  We arrived back at the apt by noon.

Teresa made a nice lunch of chicken fajitas.  Afterward we took a little nap of about an hour.

About 3:30 I left the apt, stopped at the ATM for a withdrawal, deposited the additional 63mil into the R.E. agency’s account, paid the utilities bill at Cotrafa, and picked up my month’s medications at Todo Drogas.  I bought another 100 Centrum +50 tablets and got another 30 tablets free.  Woo hoo!

I passed through the park and past Bartolos on my way to the copy center.  I logged onto their computer to print Laura’s letter from my email account.  I couldn’t figure out how to print and the young girl came over and showed me how.  She just cut and pasted it to a Word document and then printed that.  After paying for that, I stopped at the bakery and edited Laura’s letter.  Walking through the park I saw Chuck at Bartolos with Darnely.  They told me that today is their 6^th wedding anniversary.  How romantic, he took her to Bartolos for dinner.

We talked for awhile and about 6pm Darnely went to the church for mass.  It started raining and soon it was pouring.  Willy, the Belgian, then joined us.  About 7:15 the rain stopped and I said goodbye and headed back to the apt.

I showed Laura my changes and we applied some of them to her letter.  I decided it would be better if it wasn’t too polished.  That way it would be cuter and wouldn’t misrepresent how good (or poor) her English is.

It started raining again at 8:30.  Well, we are entering the rainy season of May, 2^nd only to October.

I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner.  I told Laura that lots of American children eat this for lunch.  She didn’t want to try it because she had just brushed her teeth but Teresa tried it and proclaimed it delicious so I have at least one convert.  I’ll start using the jelly on my toast and muffins in the morning.

T-shirt of the day: Go where you feel most alive.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Well, I slept throught the night not waking up until 5:45 finally getting up at 6:15.  I, and my eyes, feel great!

It’s obvious we got some rain overnight but I didn’t hear anything.

I received emails from Envios Market that I have a document and package waiting for pickup.

I completed most of my exercises at the gym in an hour and 45 minutes.

I met Chuck and Darnely at the copy center where we had his form printed out. Darnely signed it and we gave it to the girl to fax to the US.  She said it went ok but when I looked at the receipt it showed “communication error” and “0 paginas” sent.  I mentioned this to her and she agreed that it hadn’t worked.  The second time was a charm.  I said goodbye to them and headed back to the apt.

I thought after my shower we would first go to lunch and then to the bank but I understood Laura has an au pair appointment at 3pm so she wanted to do the bank first.

Laura and I went to the bank and we had to wait 90 minutes for me to pick up my money.  Just to save about $20?  Either I do this days earlier in the future or I forget about using World Remit and go back to using ATM machines.  Again the teller asked me “why?” I sent the money to myself and this time I had a better answer than to avoid ATM fees.  I said the money is to pay for the apartment and my health insurance.  After I got my cash we stepped outside and I deposited the cash into the appropriate accounts for the apartment and my health insurance.

By this time it was 2:15.  We went to La Casita Parilla for a quick lunch, caught a taxi at 3pm and were at the au pair office by 3:30.

I understood Laura and the rep filled out some general information forms and others for medical history and childcare experience.  I asked about getting the “before July” discount and I understand Laura just has to have everything in place including passing her English interview by then.  I think Laura chose an availability date of July 16^th.

A little after 5pm Laura told me they are almost finished and I could go if I wanted as she was going to visit with friends afterward.  I picked up an envelope and a package at Envios Market.  The envelope was junk mail – my first? - an attempt to get me to subscribe to Smithsonian magazine.  The package was a chess book I ordered.  I walked over to the ATM machine in Clinica Medellin to get some small notes but it was out of order.  I caught a bus back to Envigado that was almost “cattle car” full.

I was back at the apt by 5:45.

I soon realized that I forgot to include the rent increase we just incurred this May.  I’ll take care of that tomorrow.

Laura came back at 8:30.  Later she asked me to take a look at the profile and letter she put together.  I asked her to email it to me.

T-shirt of the day: Who is that girl?

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Today is another Colombian holiday – Labor Day aka May Day aka International Workers’ Day – one of 18 that Colombia has each year – second highest number of holidays in the world.

I did not sleep well last night, in fact I might not have slept at all.

I cancelled my chess meeting with Jose because not only am I tired but I’ll probably crash later.

I tried to take a nap after watching some of the Today show.

Chuck emailed me his form and I downloaded it to my flash drive only I’m sure all the internet cafes will be closed today for the holiday.

12:30 and it started raining hard.  An hour later it lessened some but still continued.  I’m supposed to meet Chuck in the park for coffee around 2:30 or 3pm.

The rain stopped completely and I managed to meet Chuck in the park a few minutes after 2:30.  He was with Willie and a young Colombian named Alejandro.  After a little bit Alejandro left and then Willie.  Chuck and I walked over to the bakery for coffee and, for me, a churro. 

We met a couple from Ohio named Shelly (Shirley that’s right; sorry, inside joke) and Chet.  She’s an endodontist and he’s an eye specialist.  They are staying near the Vizcaya mall in El Poblado but are looking seriously at getting an apartment next year in Envigado.  I mentioned my tired eyes that only produce 20% of the necessary tears and Chet told me about a simple procedure called Punctal Plugs.  Per the internet Punctal plugs are tiny, biocompatible devices that can be inserted into tear ducts to block drainage. This increases the eye's tear film and surface moisture to help relieve certain forms of dry eye. Also known as punctum plugs, lacrimal plugs or occluders, these devices often are no larger than a grain of rice.

Chet said this is a simple procedure that can be done in the office.  I’m going to have to talk to my ophthamologist about this procedure.  My next visit should be in a couple months.

I made plans to meet Chuck at the copy center tomorrow after my gym workout.  I’ll use my memory drive for him to print his form.  Then Darnely can sign it and they can fax it to their lawyer.

An acquintance of mine, Gregg Opelka, had another article printed in the Wall Street Journal called Of Dogs and Men.  He sent it to me as a pdf file but I have no idea how I could include it in my blog.

Using World Remit I sent myself $630 (+$1.99 charge) to pay for the apartment and my health insurance.  First time I’m trying such a large amount.  Before I was sending a small amount - $100 – just to make sure I had the procedure down.  The advantage is that it only costs me $1.99 while using the ATM I would have to pay 12,600COPx3 plus another 1% for my bank.  That should save me approximately $18 every month.  The disadvantage is waiting in line for 30 minutes or so for my turn to see a cashier at the bank.

Upon further review I was thinking that maybe I don’t need to buy a new battery for my laptop since I never use it without the power cord anyway.  I wonder what will happen when I disconnect it and move it from the computer room to the dining room table.  Will it do an automatic reboot?

T-shirt of the day: Smiling is the best exercise.

Monday, April 30, 2018

I slept reasonably well, waking at 6:15 and getting up at 7:15.

I did all of my exercises in 2 hours at the gym.  So far no pain using the leg curl machine with 65#.  I can feel it in that area but no pain.

Laura was leaving to go somewhere and Teresa asked me for 5,000 pesos for lunch for her.  I literally had no cash so Teresa took 5 1,000-peso coins out of our piggy bank.  I’ll be going to the ATM later.  It turned out that Laura only went to buy a avocado but I have no idea why it took her an hour to return.

And then she left again.

I was going to go to Monterrey for a new battery for my laptop but there is an episode of El Socio on at 3pm that I haven’t seen before and at 4:45pm there is a 2-hour program about Bernie Madoff that should be interesting.

After lunch I made a quick trip to the ATM for some cash.  It’s nice that my pension money comes in on the last day of the month.  I’ll probably have to wait another day or so for SS to arrive.

About 6:30 Laura returned with MT and they watched TV together in the evening.

I received an email from my friend Chuck.  He has a legal form that he needs to print, sign and fax back to the US ASAP.  I asked him for some additional information.

T-shirt of the day: Not need makeup.