floundersgreatadventure

Today’s the day big soccer game tonight between Nacional and Santa Fe we have to root from Nacional since they’re from Medellin and Santa Fe is from Bogota. I can only hope they actually score a goal this time the last game ended in a 0-0 tie, this one can’t if it’s tied at the end of regulation I think they play two extra periods and then go to penalty shots. Which means someone has to screw up, and that’s really not fair to somebody that’s given there all for 120 minutes or so, but in a championship there has to be a winner and a loser. The sad fact is nobody will remember how great the two teams played or the really special plays they will only remember the guy who missed the shot either the Goalie who fails to stop one or the player that misses his shot. Well I should go and get some rest now till tomorrow this is Flounder saying CIAO from MEDELLIN.

You how we always try to do some news every once in awhile but we just realized we don’t really get a lot of news about Medellin, it’s mostly about Bogota. The main TV channels down here for news are Caracol and RCN and they are both located in Bogota. The news from there does cover the rest of the country except there’s very little about Medellin. That mean either there’s very little crime here or nobodies reporting on it, we think nobody is reporting it. One reason could be criminals are keeping it from being reported thru intimidation of witnesses and such the other reason could be there still trying to restore Medellin’s image after Pablo Escobar destroyed it. I don’t know what the reason is but when you watch the news it looks like half the cab drivers and politicians in Bogota are drunks and should be allowed to drive a car never mind a taxi. There also seem to be a lot shootings and kidnappings going there. I sure Medellin didn’t all of sudden get innocent in the way things are done, I’m sure there is still plenty of crime down here since when you look at the police they don’t seem to care much for enforcing the local laws. This could be blamed on the fact that the jails are extremely over crowded if you saw a picture it would look like an old tenement from the 1800’s. Part of the problem is they bring their own clothes and toiletries into the prison. When I see picture I get the feeling that the crime rate is higher inside the jail then out. Well I probably pissed off a few more people today so I’m out of here this is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.

You know miscellaneous means? It means I have no idea what to write about today so we’ll just sort of wing. Nacional and Santa Fe tied 0-0 yesterday, and that seems to be what Nacional is best at. In the big trial in Florida which I have to admit I very little about the defendant was acquitted this was a very intense case, where a white neighborhood watch person shot and killed an unarmed black teenager and that’s about all I know about this case. The major league baseball all- star game is this week (guess what I don’t care) I did mention that Hari’s birthday is Wednesday and just so happens is the final of the two games between Nacional and Santa Fe. It’s a gloomy Monday weather wise down here at least right now but who knows what will happen in the next 5 minutes. That’s how fast the weather can change down here. Hader stopped by yesterday and as always we were glad to see him he a cool guy. Well unless I start making stuff up that’s all I got this Flounder saying Ciao from Colombia.

Well I didn’t make it back yesterday but I’m here now. Today Nacional and Santa Fe play game one of a home and home series for the championship. Today’s game will be in Medellin and Wednesday game will be in Bogota. One of the unique things is there will be no Santa Fe fans at today’s game there is too much threat of violence. It would seem that Medellin and Bogota don’t like each other very much. There will no Medellin fans at the Bogota game for the same reason. The championship will be decided on the combined score of the two games. I for one am not sure that I was Medellin I would want to win the champion ship in Bogota. Wednesday is also Hari’s birthday he will be turning 3 and there will be a party next Sunday for him in the Party room of our building. We’ll have plenty of picture of the little darling then but the sad thing is there not going to let me go. Hari and I will celebrate during the week this Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.

You know the only thing bad about living down here is we’re subject to the exchange rate of the Peso as to how much extra cash we have every month. Jeff follows the rate during the week and he’s come to the conclusion someone loves to play. You’ll the peso jump maybe twenty to the dollar when the exchange open then around 12 or 1 it will drop as much as much as 25 before climbing back up to where it was. That’s caused by somebody investing millions of dollars in pesos and dollars. That’s more money than Jeff and Ruby and just about everybody else we know has made in their lifetimes. Ok Jeff and Ruby are leaving to go shopping right now I’ll be back later this is Flounder saying CIAO for now.

Well we were watching the news last night and they kept showing this horrible accident in Bogota where a bus supposedly lost its brakes on a hill and killed some people. I say supposedly because in the video the bus goes airborne and demolishes a car, and then hits another with the same results. The vehicles looked like they had already been crushed at the junk yard. The video also appears to show the bus traveling at a high rate of speed; speed and alcohol seem to be the main cause of accidents down here. Unless you’re out in the country on one of the new highways the rest of the roads are not built for any kind of speed. Getting back to the bus they’re equipped with standard transmissions same as cars and have parking brakes. They’re trying to tell people what a great job he did avoiding pedestrians, but I think that he could have used the trans and engine to try and slow the vehicle unless he was already going to fast or he panicked and hit the accelerator instead of the brakes. Whatever this was a horrible accident and enforces the old axiom SPEED KILLS. This is a non bus riding Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia

First we passed the six hundred mark in posts yesterday we’re still about 24 behind the one a day average, don’t know if we’ll make it this time. Let’s talk about old stuff or unique stuff Jeff is always looking for strange stuff for sale and so far he hasn’t found anything special for sale he has seen old typewriters and phones and stuff in a museum setting but not for sale. The artisans down here are so good that they produce a thousand of something by hand and they will all look the same. It’s not that Jeff wants to buy it (Ruby would call it junk and say no way) he would like to just be able to handle it. The problem seems to be that the stuff that was real quality is still in use somewhere you know people aren’t rich down here so if they don’t use it they’ll throw it out give it to their kids. Well I’m done this is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia

Jeff Me and Ruby were watching the news this morning and a couple of thing s got Jeff upset. First this ex senator down here Piedad Cordoba is shown leading a group of people in a Viva La Farc cheer of course she deigning that’s what was being said. She claims it was Viva La Paz and both and I can read lips and that ain’t what she said. She has been instrumental in getting prisoners released by the Farc. Now I know you just don’t go down to the corner and ask to speak to a member of the Farc leadership Jeff believed from the star she was a sympathetic collaborator with the Farc (that’s fancy for spy). Now for the second thing the US monitoring or spying on Latin American countries, this is nothing new. Jeff believes that they have been monitoring conversations down here since the days of Pablo Escobar. American find it hard to believe that their government would spy on them, come on now people Kennedy sent CIA agents onto college campuses during the Viet Nam war to spy on the anti war movement. That resulted in the CIA being told to stay out of domestic issues and they did right (LOL). It has been widely written that J. Edgar Hoover past head of the FBI tapped Kennedy and other Presidents Phones. Do you think all this stopped just because he or Escobar is dead? They had this technology in place and it was very advanced for the time and you bet they kept on using it. The governments of South America have always tried to spy on each other just like the rest of the world you don’t think Colombia is doing it as it tries to rid itself of the Farc. Ok Jeff and me are probably on someone shit list now so I’m just to say this is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia.

I just started paying attention to the news about the peace talks between the Farc and the Colombian government. As I understand it besides giving land back to the poor people they want a voice in the government. Well it would seem when the government does give land back somebody comes long and kill the people and as for the voice in government earn it. I say earn because to the best of my knowledge this is a democratic country with free elections so all they have to do is have sympathetic candidate and let the people choose. Now maybe it’s the fact that they don’t think that they could win an honest election and they would rather have the government give them a voice. If they want peace there fighters, who are mostly working for drug traffickers at his point, should surrender their arms and allow themselves to be interred while the government checks to see if they committed a crime and to retrain them for something else besides killing. As for their leaders in Cuba if they want to let them have amnesty that’s OK if they want to lock them up that’s cool to. But this picky little shit has to stop either they want peace or they don’t. Once again this is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia.

Ok so both Jeff and I are getting lazy so sue us. In sports yesterday Nacional won to set up a championship game with Santa Fe John says neither team deserves to be there but that’s the way it is sometimes in sports. There was a big car race in the US at Daytona speedway in Florida Jimmy Johnson won with Tony Stewart second and as usual there were plenty of wrecks. Jeff and Ruby went to the Santa Fe mall in Medellin it has lot of American stores but the prices are about triple what it would cost in the Us for clothes and shoes. But the fast food prices aren’t that bad of course the menus are somewhat different and the meat may not be the same but you can find McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC. They ended up getting a four back of Cinnabon classic Cinnamon muffins and you want to talk about sugar shock. It also along with McDonalds the busiest place in the mall, you see no one like to cook on Sunday down here. Well I got to go run around a little I managed to steal a little of that last bun and I’m really wired so this is a shaky Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.