floundersgreatadventure

Today is Easter Sunday and down here it ended the holiest week of the year at midnight last night as all the Catholic Churches celebrated the Resurrection with fireworks. Today there are still a few processions wondering thru the streets. There is a Catholic Church about every three or four blocks in this area and like all other religions if your going to go to church only once in awhile this is the day because you can get a clean slate until next year at this time. There is soccer today, which surprised Jeff since everything has been close or running holiday schedules, Nacional is playing and john is going to watch so there’s a good chance of them losing. Jeff’s bank screwed up and cancelled his bank cards so for the moment he has no access to his money they say they sent him new cards but who knows if he’s going to get them in the mean time he has to use his credit card. He also thinks he might be flying into Miami for a day or two too get a new bank since Hsbc SUCKS. Whatever this is Flounder saying CIAO from sunny Medellin HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE.

Well I’m back and I’m still not happy about having to get up early to do this I might just star writing this the night before. This is for all those crazy March Madness people like Jeff that live for this time of year and make all the brackets. They Study stats turnover ratios all that crap and then you get a week like this where all but 1 no 1 loses and you realize it’s all just pure luck. Somebody will have this all picked on a bracket and go around bragging how smart he is but trust me he has hundreds maybe more brackets probably in different names with all kinds of combinations it’s all just luck when this happens and picking Louisville to win it all as the only remaining no1 takes no skill at all. Jeff has Duke winning it all and that’s no stroke of genius since they were ranked no 2 and always play best at tournament time. Down here it’s still a religious weekend with just about every Easter themed movie playing; we’re talking about going back to the fifties and sixties with movies that have been re-colored. So I spend my time with Jeff who spend his either writing or reading so you can see why it’s so hard to figure out what to write about anyhow this Flounder down here I Medellin saying CIAO.

He what you mean it’s time to get up it’s a holiday go away don’t bother me you say me readers want to hear from me and they don’t care it’s a holiday. Ok here goes hi this Flounder  I ain’t got nothing to say CIAO.

I’m not sure you’ll get to see this post today there’s a giant cyber attack going on and you may or may not notice it. For us it means we can’t access our bank on the net and things like Facebook and Email are a lot slower than normal. I guess attacking the internet is like climbing a mountain for some people they do it just because they can and they don’t care about the rest of us trying to contact a friend or do some banking. But of course, we all think that these denials of service attacks shouldn’t be punished that severely because they just cause a slight in connivance. But let’s say the attack affects emergency phone service and your having a heart attack but your wife can’t get through to the hospital to get an ambulance for you and you die, guess it was a little more than a slight in connivance now isn’t it. Cyber crime is getting bigger everyday now me being a cat I have absolutely no idea what this is all about, but Jeff is really pissed off because they keep telling him his credit card is invalid so they can’t do anything until this is resolved. I really don’t care about this unless they run out of cat food then they better find these people and hang by their you know what’s. Well that’s out of my system now so once again this is Flounder saying CIAO.

Some people want to compare Colombia to the America of 1950 and they are right in some ways. There is still great opportunity for young people to advance in their country maybe even grow up to be the president. It’s much harder to that in America now it takes a lot of money as well as other things. Housing in Columbia is now starting to spread out like America did the difference is the housing is not real high quality unless you stay in the city where now their building up instead of out. There are areas of Colombia where you can leave your door unlocked at night and your neighbors will watch out for you. People do know there neighbors and it’s considered impolite not to say hello to people in you neighborhood. Crime on the other hand is very similar to the fifties with gangsters controlling neighborhoods and teenage gangs roaming the streets the big difference down here is that you don’t wander far from home once the sun goes down. All and all if you live in the city it’s different down here because people still look after one another but this is beginning to change unfortunately. In Colombia you can leave your bike out for a shrt period of time and your neighbor will watch it for you in the US put your bike down and go inside and before you can open your door someone has stolen your bike and no one has seen anything. There are a lot more comparisons one could make but for now this Flounder saying CIAO.

 Today is a World Cup qualifier soccer match for Colombia and Venezuela the game will take place in Venezuela I hope Colombia wins but I know nothing about the Venezuela team. Colombia is in second place behind Argentina in their division. The US plays Mexico in Mexico I’m not sure if that game is today or not. The US does not have a lot of success playing in Mexico but I hope they can win this one. The women’s basketball tourney is continuing and Jeff’s bracket is already done. The men’s tournament starts back up this weekend with the round of sixteen, Jeff has one bracket that’s doing fairly well but we’ll see. The weather down here has been over cast and rainy for awhile now Ruby says it the rain season but just like every where else if you poor and live near a river your screwed, that’s because the housing can’t hold up against strong winds and flooding rivers and since the infrastructure of the country gets disrupted by these storms it take awhile for serious assistance to get there but people down here are used to it and are very resilient the only problem I have is one I see in a lot of countries. If you know it floods or is prone to bad storms why live there, in some cases a mile can make the difference between a flooded living room and a dry one. Well enough of that this is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin

Today is a holiday in Colombia like I explained yesterday this Hole Week and down here it’s a big deal. Yesterday Ruby and Jeff took part in a procession up our little mountain Jeff made I as far as the apartment wished Ruby well and went inside. There are times when he can be a real wimp and he embarrasses me. But getting back to today just about all the offices and such are closed a lot of the little shops in Bello are closed too it’s going to be real slow so people take advantage and take a break. I really haven’t paid attention to what might be going in the US right now so there really isn’t much more to say Oh wait a minute if you guys look at the picture accompanying this post see if you can see the resemblance to Nacho in the faces LOL. Now I have to say this is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia.

I decide that today we would take a look at the week ahead and see what’s coming up down here and up there. Down here it’s the beginning of Holy Week which down here is a much bigger thing than in the US Latin America has more Catholics then the rest of the world but together’ so you can see this is a big event. There will be very little work done although the stores will be open must office workers will be going in late if they bother to go in at all. Monday is the first official holiday of the week followed by Maundy Thursday, Good Friday then Easter Sunday and the following Monday is Labor Day down here. This is similar to Christmas week when people just the hell with work and party this week though they will be spending a lot of time in Church. In the good old USA it will start off the first week of spring with about 5inches of Snow in New Jersey and as I look at the temperature it will be heavy and wet then the Basketball tournaments will continue as well as the NBA. Most of the rest of the world sort of takes the week off Sports wise this week. Well that’s all I got so this Flounder saying CIAO.

Colombia won 5 to 0 over Bolivia yesterday the US won over Costa Rico and they did it in a major snowstorm. Now I’ve seen soccer played in rain and very cold weather but I’ve never seen it played I the snow and from the photos I’ve seen I don’t know how they did it. Anyhow it looks like Jeff’s two teams the US and Colombia will get a shot at the World Cup in 2014. The NCAA women’s basket ball tournament stars today and the men’s continues, Jeff hopes to be able to watch at least a couple games the weekend but it depends on Tennis and Rugby being televised and you right Jeff doesn’t care about either one. Well Jeff getting ready to vacuum the house right now and I’m going to find a nice safe quite place to hide CIAO.

Well March madness is underway if you like basketball even just a little bit you have to get excited with this time of year. College basketball is far more exciting than the pros for most fans Jeff included he just wishes there were more games on TV down here. But he filled two men’s brackets and one woman’s bracket just like every other year he never does well but it makes him happy to do it. Not many people down here are into it they love American Football and Pro basketball they really don’t get enough exposure to the college games to realize how much more exciting they can be. Today they’ll all be glued to their TV’s to watch the world cup qualifier between Colombia and Bolivia not much else will be seen or talked about today even the News no matter how important will be of concern for the average Colombian later this afternoon. Jeff will be watching just like everyone else he actually understands the game now and enjoys it when it’s played at a high level. As for me I’m going to curl up on my couch and take a nap hoping the guys in the living room can keep the noise down to a low roar CIAO.