Monday March 18, 2013

Monday March 18/13  update #396

Bella was off real early this morning but did not have a good experience at all.  Being second in line at 6:50am got her an appointment at 10am which allowed 15 other people in front of her.   That is a way to get a person in a good mood.  Then, all of a sudden, the documents she had with her Wednesday, and were all acceptable then, are suddenly not acceptable today there will be more delays because they keep giving conflicting instructions.  Letters have to be re-done, translated, notarized, and ready on the specific day that they may, or may not, again accept your documentation.  Believe me, the 3 Stooges are running the asylum over there.   We have an “in” with the head lady here, which is not helpful in the line-ups, and she is definitely going to get an earful about their ridiculous procedures!   I have never seen Bella so livid.

I meanwhile was off early to the Fuji store to get my commissioned print printed, 40x60cm for $11.  They sure do a bang-up job at the Fuji store, highly recommended.   While there, my cel phone rang and it was Melinda fro Hearts Of Gold asking if I could meet her at California Kitchen to do measurements and room planning for the Auction on April 13.  I said I would make it.

There is a photo of a boy on the upstairs wall that captivated me because I was certain someone was trying to recreate a baby photo of Elvis.  However, you can see for yourself that this is probably not the case…

I then stopped at the jewelry market because my magnetic bracelet broke again but I was too early and my repair lady wasn’t there so I will have to tend to that another day.   I was almost at California Kitchen when I realized that I had left my flash drive and keys at the Fuji store so I had to backtrack and then rush to make my appointment with Melinda.

The room at CK is a bit smaller than I remembered it, about 16’ x 40’ so that is going to cramp our style somewhat if we have too many donated items.  After measuring all the presently available tables and the wall lengths, etc we determined that we will need about 13 more 6-foot tables to do what we need.  I have to leave that in the hands of the “powers-that-be” with the chequebooks.

Then I had to tag up with the Banco Pichincha people to see about getting some “e-Key” card to enable us to do Internet banking again.  After waiting for ½ hour to talk to one of the Private Banking folks, they said I only needed to go to the teller to get it done, so another ½ hour later everything was accomplished.   Then I had them transfer some money to our Insurer’s account to pay for our house insurance.

Next I walked in the rain under my umbrella up to Ray and Carole’s place past Tres Puentes to deliver the completed print.  Carole had loved my emailed proof so much that she had sent it to a bunch of friends and relatives in the US with glowing compliments about my work and now they all replied, (except one), that they want to come and visit!  Someday I am going to have to learn to charge a proper fee for my work.  I am sure I did this one for about 50c an hour.

I then walked back in the rain and tried to call my insurance agent, since I was only a few blocks away, but she didn’t respond.  She only works in the office, very part-time, and we have to fit around her schedule.  She had promised that a man from her office would deliver the documents, and apparently tried, but couldn’t find our place.  We probably weren’t home anyway that day and the bozo didn’t bother calling for directions.  What a colossal waste of everybody’s time…

I took a few shots while wandering through downtown.  You will notice a couple of shots of the cathedral taken from different corners, showing completely different skies.  Welcome to Cuenca.

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.  Please see all new photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/