floundersgreatadventure

This morning Jeff and Ruby went to The hospital where Ruby’s going to have the hand surgery to meet with the surgeon and fill out all the paper work so were ready to go on Thursday. But now I want to talk about a TV phenomenon called Duck Dynasty it’s about a family that has gotten rich making duck calls. To me glorifying hunting for sport is just wrong I mean cats don’t hunt for play we hunt to eat and that’s OK. But this family pretends to be a bunch of dumb hillbillies so first you’ll watch their show and then but their stuff. I had Jeff go to a hunting and fishing store website, the store was Cabelas, and look for these duck call it turns out that they do carry a few and there inexpensive and cheap looking. I guess their theory is only make them to last on season so people will have to keep buying new ones. As for the show even Jeff’s niece who is living in Japan at the moment watches this show we tried one night and made to the first commercial and decided that these people need to cared for by professionals and I don’t mean hunters. If haven’t at least tried to watch a episode it’s on A&E in the US and down here but don’t look for rewarding TV but maybe you’ll get lucky and get a funny moment or two. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia

Yesterday was Hari’s big birthday bash and as I understand it was a lot of fun. One problem though Jeff insists his camera recorded video but he can’t find it on his camera so he missed some good photos when he thought he was videoing them. He might be upset about that but I’m really pissed because he didn’t bring me any cake, he going to pay for that. This week should be exciting Ruby is having surgery on her left hand on Thursday and its El Jefe’s birthday on Saturday and everybody is moving this weekend. Nacho is moving back to his old neighborhood, Hader is moving into Nacho’s old house and Nelida is moving into a new place as well. Things won’t be slowing down anytime soon with Camilo’s Birthday and Jeff and Ruby’s anniversary they better save enough money for cat food and cat litter or there will be hell to pay. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.

I’m sitting here at the computer sipping Jeff’s coffee trying to wake up, there was a party for the bus drivers across the way it stated at around 7:30 last night and ended at about 8:00 am. It’s amazing how people down here can have a reputation for being so nice, when all they care about is themselves. Jeff has met several Americans living or visiting down here and they all have the same complaint and it’s how rude the people are. If you’re walking down the street carrying a package and someone is coming from the other direction it becomes a contest to see who will give way and invariably it’s the person with the package that ends up walking in the street. If your riding a bus let’s say during off hours and you arrive at the last stop usually the Metro station people will run you down to get off before you and the same applies to boarding or exiting a train. The only thing good you see is that the young men will give up their seat on the Metro for an older woman or man. Kids will sit there and laugh while looking right at you. People down here haven’t learned that if you have managed to get to a position where you can have a nice house in a nice neighborhood, you don’t continue to throw your garbage in the street or nearby water way. Jeff say’s he saw the same thing in the US after the race riots of the sixties when people who had been displaced were placed in new buildings with affordable rent and in two years they looked like the old slums. Down by the Exito there’s a bunch of fairly new looking buildings but if you pass them on the right day every balcony and window will have laundry hanging from it making a rather unattractive sight. Well that’s enough complaining for now today is the big birthday bash for Jeff and Ruby’s grandson Hari so I’ve got to go and get ready This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.

Well this is about guns I don’t like guns but I’m a cat and we naturally don’t like guns. When Jeff was 12 you could go into any sporting goods store and buy a rifle or shot gun no registration required and Jeff father bought him a single shot 22 cal. Winchester bolt action rifle. He was pretty good with it, actually he was fantastic with it, he joined a NRA rifle shooting team at the local YMCA. He immediately got a reputation as someone who didn’t miss he won all his matches but he loved when he beat the little rich kid with the shooting jacket and target sights on his gun. The kid complained the Jeff had miss the target on one round but the spotters said the bullet passed thru the same hole. To prove this Jeff reeled in his target and put a plain piece of white paper behind the hole, he let the rich kids old man check it out he then sent the target back down range and proceeded to put his shot threw the exact same hole as before. The point of this story isn’t about his expertise but the fact that he could easily buy the gun and then take a city bus to the range with the gun in a box and no one would question the 12 year old Jeff. The other thing is we didn’t have armed robberies or as many gun related crimes it just wasn’t done. Somewhere along the line our society has flipped out and is in need of serious therapy. That’s it I’m out of here this is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia.

OK we’re going to have more than one post today because I had a lot of trouble with the one I was writing for yesterday. Today is Colombian Independence Day on July 20th 1810 Colombia declared its independence from Spain its independence was officially recognized on Aug 7th 1819. Obviously there have been a lot of changes down here and things are better than they were back then but a lot still has to be done if the present government wish’s to maintain control. Thing have gotten better for the lower classes in some areas but not in others as can be seen by the recent protests around the country. There is a great deal of similarity in some of as they involve the coal mine workers. These are the protests that have blocked some roads and caused major confrontations with the police. If Colombia isn’t mindful of these peoples complaints it has the potential to turn into another Venezuela although as is usually the case no one believes that it could or will happen. Anyhow HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY COLOMBIA this is a very happy Flounder saying CIAO for now from Medellin.

Well the game is over and Nacional won we must give credit where credit is due they did win. I ‘m not sure when they’re going to stop parting and I don’t know when the league starts up again so for now that’s it for soccer in Medellin as for the rest of the country now they have to prepare for the world cup in 2014 first they must make sure they qualify then they have to see how far they can go. They do have two world class players in Falcao and James both have played well on the world stage. Getting back to Nacional Jeff will now have to put up with John and the fact that just about everybody in the family roots for Nacional except Jeff and Hader who root for Medellin. I guess they like rooting for the underdogs it will be a long off season. Although if you look at Nacional never beat Medellin this year so we at least can say that. That’s it for me the Nacional folks kept setting off fireworks all night so I’m bushed and going to take a nap this is Flounder saying Congratulations to Nacional and CIAO

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.