floundersgreatadventure

Another day of Christmas shopping and from what I have heard they got everybody’s presents EXCEPT MINE. Now I know its Christmas season, good will to men and all that so I really don’t want to upset anyone but if they don’t hurry up and get my present soon I’m going to some serious damage to the Christmas tree. On another topic Jeff says that the town looks a little dirtier then usual Ruby says it because everybody is out partying every night. I remember those days when Jeff would go out to work one day and come home the next night, and this is when he didn’t drink, I can imagine what he was like when he did drink. When they got home Ruby went out again with Vanessa to shop that mean they were buying Jeff and John’s presents NOT MINE so I wasn’t in the mood to play with Jeff while Ruby was out. It started to get late and Jeff was getting hungry Oh wait a minute Ruby is here and opps she’s on the phone. Jeff does look very happy fortunately it Christmas time and Jeff like presents. The weekend is coming and Ruby has about ten aunts and cousins coming sat afternoon .At least I can climb under the bed Jeff has to sit and smile and be the host HA ,HA,HA I can’t wait. Well Ruby’s off the phone and Jeff’s dinner is on the way so I think I’ll go and run around a little bit make some noise and take a nap.

Yesterday Jeff and Ruby went to Medellin to do their banking and some Christmas shopping. ATTENTION SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT MEDELLIN WAS JUST VOTED ONE OF THE TOP FIVE BEST DECORATED CITES IN THE WORLD. He that’s pretty cool Apparently there is more to see then just the river Jeff and Ruby will being going back to check it out after Christmas when there  aren’t so many people and the traffic dies down to normal. Now where was I oh yes they went to do Christmas shopping they found the computer fans they were looking for at this mall that’s nothing but computer stores and because they were buying two they managed a slight discount.  While there John called and invited them to a vegetarian lunch, Jeff was not too excited about this but agreed to come along. They found this little out of the way place that John new about. Jeff hadn’t planned on ordering anything but decided to try a veggie burger (the one in the US taste like old paper). Well he got a pleasant surprise it was quite good it was very good; he asked John if the ones in the markets were as good and got a resounding no. I guess in that way veggie burgers are very similar to the US you can’t get a good on exempt in certain places .Oh,Oh I hear Hari coming have to go he’s my buddy Jeff and I have to go play. Being a Grancat is a lot of work and a lot of fun. I might be back later.

Now that they have been to the river the number of places to visit and write about is shrinking so Jeff is thinking what I should do with my time. He suggested I write a book now that’s not a very good idea. First who’s going to read a book by Flounder last name The Cat, secondly what kind of book to I write ? I mean just about every theme known to man has been used love stories, action, mystery spy and the list goes on. The plots are all similar so you have to find a hook the twilight series just took the book Dracula, which was a tragic love story, and made the characters a little more sympathetic and carried the thyme along further. Another example is Ian Flemings James Bond series I mean the plot is the same save the world get the girl it lasts because it was one of the first of its kind. If you look at the books that are out there now you’ll be able to recognize a plot or character you’ve read about before if you write about history you have to be able to wait about ten years between books and then you can write about someone again. Jeff always complains about the lack of imagination in movies, TV, and books now I don’t know anything about that I do know that it gets harder and harder to do something that Jeff and Ruby haven’t seen before so I can keep them guessing what’s next. I believe the longer you live and read the more likely you are to feel this way I think that’s why humans for get things and Elephants start to look sad and bored as they get older. Well there getting ready to go back to Medellin to do some Christmas shopping and they better get me my present. After all times getting short and if they forget I’m sure I can come up with something spectacular for revenge. Ok scratch time I’ll get back to you later.  Oh before I forget here’s some more pictures

Ok its mall visit time I don’t know if all the pictures will fit I might have to put them up a little at a time. Now first you need to know that this is a very expensive mall that most people in Bello never get to see, but just like in America you can find everything here minus the brand name a lot cheaper in town. Before I go further I should say that the history post I put up before was pretty much word for word from Wikipedia on line encyclopedia. I told Jeff he should use quotes or footnotes or something and he said it made him seem like he knew what he was talking about, that was just before he pushed me of his boney lap and I scratched his leg. Now back to the mall, it’s a very pretty place they even make the Hamburger joint Archie’s look elegant with wine bottles on the table s and table linen. They probably tripled the price just like they did with everything else in the mall. The only reason they were there was to see a snow display they were supposed to have set up somewhere .They never got to see it because Nachos daughter showed up with her new puppy and they had to sit outside and watch it run around and poop for twenty minutes ( see I told you cats were better). They  found a place that sold model trains and thought the price was ridicules at about $1500 for an Ho set not so when Jeff got home he looked up the set on the internet in the US and found the discounted price was $3268.42 But he still not going to buy it. This end of Medellin has a lot of American brand names not just in the mall there was an Office Depot on the road as well as other stores and the mall had several names of clothiers (which of course Jeff can’t remember now, but he remembered the trains) .After a ride in rush hour traffic, which resembles New York a little too much, they got to the river about 5 minutes to six and exactly at six the lights went on. I must say although Ruby seemed to think they weren’t quite as well done as the last time she saw them which was 2 years ago they were pretty cool according to Jeff. They had a conversation with a couple of police officers about their concern for his camera because they were about to cross a patch where there were no lights and under an over pass. Ruby made Jeff put the camera away, he had no objection as there was nothing to photograph anyway, and of course there were no cops to be seen under there. Ruby thought there would be more lights strung across the river so she had Jeff bring his long lens and of course they decided to keep the light more on the bank of the river so you guessed it wrong lens. But I think judging from the pictures that it was still pretty special. So here are the pictures meanwhile I’m going to find a sunbeam to lay down in to rest my weary bones so I can raise hell tonight ciao.

Well we got threw a whole day without rain don’ know how long that will last there was some thunder and lightning around a while ago. Jeff, Ruby, John and Hari went to the stadium to walk around and see the lights. I should point that it more than a stadium it more like a sports complex. It has exercise equipment at various spots around it has a soccer stadium and several small soccer fields around as well as a full practice size one. There are volley ball courts and a basketball arena several play areas for kids and a skate board area as well as a BMX area (the last two need a little fixing up). The place was rebuilt a few years ago it had been left unused for about ten years due to a political dispute between Bello and Medellin. The place is really busy on Sunday people come to hang out, bring their dogs (UGH) . But anyhow they did a really nice job of decorating it for the Holidays and Jeff finally got some pictures of course they weren’t the best has he was told to leave his good camera home by you guessed it Ruby. I let him post the pictures and wait a minute guess what it’s raining @#$^%$#@. Well let me go to bed and pray it’s not raining when I get up.

OK I must apologize for my rant last night I’m better now the sun is shining  at least for now Jeff and Ruby went for a walk I got to sleep in the sun for awhile, life is good. So let’s see what can we talk about now? Somebody write and tell us what the weather is up there so we can gloat. I mean it might be raining a lot down here but it’s still better then cold and snow. I heard some guy was shooting at the V.tech. Campus again we don’t have many gunfights down here. The rebels buy all the good guns the cops get the old ones and you don’t want to be stopped carrying a gun or knife down here. We do have a lot of campus unrest it’s sort of a tradition down here I don’t think the kids like the colleges closed for such a long vacation because the parents want them to go to work. Jeff said when they were walking he saw several street crews working and he said it reminded him of the US one guy sweeping and seven standing around watching. Ruby says they take turn that way everybody keeps their jobs; I don’t think Jeff was buying it though. The mall was busier than usual, I guess because all the schools are closed for vacation and just like the US kids like to go to the mall and hang out with their friends. Nothing big is planned for the weekend which suits me fine I just want it to be nice so Jeff and Ruby will go out somewhere and leave alone to lie in the sun and chill. Jeff’s listening to WDHA radio out of Dover N.J. on the computer not exactly my type of music, I prefer something more on the mellow side, but it is American music and beggars can’t be choosers. Well if it does rain again I won’t have to write about it you’ll hear the explosion in Canada. Ok natures calling I got go poop see you later

It”s Thursday 10pm and it started raining at 6:30 again and it’s still raining I’m going to throw a cat fit I can’t take it any more I’m going to scratch dome furniture, knock over my food, Empty the litter box on the kitchen floor, howl and run around the house all night, and then I’m really going to get pissed off. BYE

So they went to Hader’s house last night and of course sense there was supposed to be a lot of celebrations outside it rained. The rain started as a light drizzle around 6PM and by 7Pm was a full fledged storm it continued to rain until sometime after 1 AM ( I went to sleep so I don’t know when it stopped ) Ruby and Hader both said it never rains at this time. The pictures show how people tried to cope with the rain but still try and party. This is supposed to be a big time for kids a lot of dancing in the streets instead people are just pissed off. The next big night is Dec. 24 if it rains that night I have no idea what people will do. I’m here from conversations Jeff and Ruby have that this is very strange weather for this time of year. Maybe it’s that Global warming thing? Jeff said that because we live in a big valley he could see the clouds come down into the valley gross it then run into the mountain on the other side and just keep going around the valley. It must keep it up until they run out of moisture, whatever makes s it rain it sucks and a real downer to the holidays. They held a parade in Medellin last night they saw some of it on TV you had to feel sorry for the people in the parade as well as those who stood and watched. It also is not good for the economy, sense most businesses are dependent on people walking by or in the case of restaurants eating outside. Some places deliver but when you put food on the back of a motorcycle it probably won’t arrive dry and soggy pizza sucks. Well I hope the sun comes out soon I need my Vitamin D and my tan is beginning to fade. I’m off to take a cat nap I had to stay up and make sure everybody got home OK last night and then that dam lizard came out and wanted to play (yawn) Ok that’s it I’m out of here.

It’s the eve of the feast of The Immaculate Conception tonight making tomorrow a holiday in Colombia. Tonight everybody will place colored candles into paper lanterns they used to put them in these paper hot air balloon things and then let them fly, But I guess they started to many fires because the towns have stopped that know. Colombia is mostly Catholic But there are a lot of Christian and Jehovah witness as well as the occasional Mormon around The one thing you won’t see, at least in Medellin is Muslim or Jewish. There are quite a few Krishna’s Ruby son and daughter in-law among them. The church up by the main square in Bello is usually decorated outside for Christmas but this year it’s not and either is the inside. Other church’s are lit up outside we haven’t found out why this one is not. You know you always here in the US that the Catholic Church is running out of money to support their charity work yet here like there they build these elegant building master pieces that sit on prime real-estate and cost a fortune to build and are, at least down here built in poorer neighborhoods. I bring this up because Jeff has always had a problem with religions even Krishna’s. The membership is usually poor and leaders live very well. Ok I’ll stop the rant before Jeff get’s out of control. I will just add this if you can find it there’s an old movie starring Anthony Quinn Called Shoes of the Fisherman watch it and get back to me. So tonight we’ll be trying to get some pictures of lights in the area around home later in the season we’ll be going to Medellin to see the famous light display on the river. Sense Jeff and Ruby will be leaving early I better go and get my dinner, I don’t like eating late it upsets my digestion and the one thing you don’t want  be around is me with an upset tummy.