Visited Old San Juan, Completed Dream Workstation With Treadmill

10:54 AM (of Sunday, March 14th 2021)

Today is Saturday, March 13th 2021 and it was a very eventful day today. Yesterday, March 12th, was my dad's birthday, but we couldn't do much that day because I had work for most of the day and then we had some shopping and stuff to do that evening.

Today was a Saturday and a very free day, so we could do whatever we wanted. I played Beat Saber for around an hour in the morning just to pass the time for the stores to open up. My dad wanted to go to this restaurant called Barrachina which was the first place in the world to serve the Pina Colada. It's this pineapple with alcohol drink that is very sweet and tasty. My dad saw some videos some cool places to visit in Puerto Rico, and that was the place he wanted to go to.

So we ended up going there, taking an Uber and me paying a $10 tip.We took like 5-6 Ubers today and I tipped everyone on average around $15. Anyway the guy dropped us off at this place called Old San Juan, and it's this very historical looking city. It looks sort of like a city in Spain, the ones where there are those tight alleyways all over, tight roads, and old design buildings.

There was a bunch of graffiti everywhere in Spanish. Bad graffiti too, not artistic looking ones, just a bunch of graffiti on a bunch of buildings everywhere as if everyone just spray painted some text. Anyway we walked around the place for a while, there were a bunch of other English-only tourists too, taking pictures at the sights here and there. We arrived there at around 10:30 AM and Barrachina would only open at 11 AM, so we had a good look around a few places.

There were a bunch of stores we went to and checked out such as jewelry stores, souvenir shops, clothing stores, etc, while we waited. Again the place was packed with English speaking tourists, which is quite the contrast from having been with mainly Spanish speaking people for the past week or two.

We went to Barrachina when they opened, there was a small line outside and we waited a few minutes before we got in. Probably 10-20 minutes. When we got in we were seated, and asked to scan this QR code to view the menu. We both got vegan appetizers and one main meal for $15 that we split between us because the waitress said it was a large amount enough for two people, and yes it was. We also ordered four pina coladas between us, two of them without any alcohol and two of them with alcohol. It was all good, as pictured.

After that the next plan was to find a treadmill for me. I haven't written yesterday's entry yet, but I was able to complete my standing desk setup. I think it was yesterday, we bought three small foldable tables, and I put one monitor on each and a laptop on the last one, and put them on top of my current table, and that's how the standing desk was completed. The last thing I needed to complete everything now and finalize my "dream" setup would be a treadmill.

We saw a treadmill that would fit at this place called Plaza Del Sol in Bayamon when we were staying there last week, and it was a small enough treadmill that I knew it would work. It's pretty much the smallest treadmill you can imagine, smaller than every single treadmill at any gym by a lot. This treadmill could actually fit in the back of a car unlike the other treadmills which are too large to. I don't get why most treadmills are so massively huge either. They don't really need to be. This was a small enough treadmill that two people are enough to carry it. Unilke those massive normal treadmills which need like 5 people to carry, or even then that might not be enough.

Anyway we told our Uber driver were were looking for a Machina Statico de Correr o Camina, which is Spanish for treadmill, literally Stationary Machine for Running or Walking. He said "Why are you going to Plaza Del Sol? That place is small. Go to Plaza De Las Americas, it's the biggest mall in the Carribean", so that's what we did. We took his advice, and I changed the destination from going to Plaza Del Sol to Plaza De Las Americas. He kept on going about how big it was and how everything was there. Literally everything was there, he said.

We ended up going to Plaza De Las Americas and it was massive. A very big and long three story mall, it would take a while to walk from one side to the other. He dropped us of at Sears which I thought would have the treadmill. They had exercise equipment such as a stationary climbing machine, a few stationary bikes, workout bench, rowing machine, and more, but no treadmill. We asked at the front desk for a Machina Statico De Correr o Camina, and they said they didn't have it. What!! Literally the most popular of all these workout machines, probably, and they didn't have it. Sears.

So we walked around in the mall for a few hours, checking out different stores, trying to find a directory but one was not available. Apparently they used to have directories all over, but since it was a touch screen and people kept touching it, and the current pandemic going on, they removed them all. So we just wandered aimlessly going from store to store. Eventually we found an information desk and they said only Sears would have a treadmill. I told them we already checked and they didn't have it, so they said then they don't have it. So much for Plaza De Las Americas having everything.

We got another Uber to go to Plaza Del Sol the Uber driver again wondered why we were going there. He said that mall had nothing in it, and it was too small. But I Told them I knew it had a treadmill I wanted, and so we went there. I asked the Uber driver if he could wait for us for a few minutes while we got the treadmill and help us bring it back home, and he said sure. I added a third stop in Uber and after dropping us off at the mall, we went to the "As Seen on TV" store which is the place that had the treadmill.

The guy said they were all sold out, and the last model they had was the one for display. Normally they would sell for around $350 each, new, but since this one was used by random people, hundreds of random people, maybe thousands, for months, he sold it to us for $230. What a good deal. He lent us this trolley while we brought the treadmill back to the Uber driver's car, and with difficulty, we were able to get it in. I repeat, with difficulty. It didn't come with a box and it came fully assembled, so we just had to fold it and fit it in as best as we could, which was fine .Except the handlebars on this machine were super long and they had a hard time fitting..

Also that store had another treadmill too, a Pro version of this same treadmill we bought, but that Pro version was way larger and we didn't need it to be that large, so we really wanted this smaller one. This small treadmill is really good enough.

On the drive back home our driver told us stories of his past job which was an Army infantry soldier. He served for 25 years and was sent all over the world. He got shot a bunch of times, over 50 times, luckily most of those bullets went to his bullet proof vest and his arm or leg. There was one bullet that grazed his skull he said. He also told a story of this ten year old kid that was walking a camel, who asked them to come over. One guy, his friend, was like okay, thinking the kid just needed some water or whatever, and the kid ended up pulling out an AK-47 and killing his friend. So he said no one there could be trusted, not even kids or women.

He told us these cool stories. He also told us that the city in which I was going to buy a home in, sucked. He did not recommend Bayamon after having lived there for 30 years. He said too much crime in that area, which is why every window and door is boarded up. I told them the condominium building I was going to be buying a place in, and he said, oh, that place is good. So he said the city was bad, but the building I was getting a condo in was not a bad place. He's been there a few times since he had friends that lived there and so on. The security there is super tight.

You need access to even get in the property grounds, and then a key to enter the building. Then the doors inside the condominiums, in the hallways, they have bars in front of them too. So much security. Literally a cage right in front of your door. Imagine if you had to go through a cage before you went inside your hotel room, it's basically like that. Even after going through all that security, there is even more security just to get through your own door. That's insane.

So we brought the treadmill back home and set it up. It works! It's awesome. If possible, I would remove the handlebars on this thing, but I don't think that's possible, so I will just keep them. Coincidentally, it overlaps the big table and then the smaller table which is on top of the big table, overlaps the treadmill's panels. So it's a perfect fit. If none of these things overlapped, the treadmill would have to be pushed back a little and I might not be able to reach the computer from that distance. Since these things overlapped, I could reach my computer while walking on the treadmill. Perfect fit.

After that we went to Best Buy again, to look around again. I didn't write yesterday's entry yet, but I bought a bunch of stuff from Best Buy yesterday such as a surge protector with a bunch of ports, a Fitbit, some home security items, and a shaver so I could shave my beard and shave my own hair.

We went to Wal-Mart afterwards and bought some more items and food. We bought around $50-$60 of beans and rice, along with the $30 of beans and rice we bought the other day. 16 bean mix and brown rice, and we bought enough for me to last months on this. Seriously. I can't imagine ever finishing all this food even after 5 months. We also bought some other dry storage foods such as salsa, some nuts, some dried herbs and spices seasonings. I can pretty much live at home without leaving for months on end with the amount of food that we bought.

We also bought some other essential items such as soap, some revitalizing lotion because I have over 50 mosquito bites on me now, and some window blinds we use as make-shift mosquito tents that we tape on top of doors. We bought a bunch of stuff. Literally everything I would ever need for months.

Throughout the day I took over 21,000 steps which is quite a lot, but there was a lot of walking today because we went everywhere. I also only had 1 hour of sleep last night, because I fell asleep while watching a TV program on my computer, and when I woke up by accident, I couldn't go back to sleep. There were people wide awake at 1 AM and playing music or video very loudly. Like I mentioned everyone is close to each other here, as in all the buildings are basically directly touching, and everyone's windows are always open, there is no sound buffer that blocks any sort of sound anywhere, so I can hear music basically all the time from neighbors. I can hear them chatting, I can hear them yelling, even though we are in a closed community.

At night is no exception. So even though I walked 21,000 steps today, and supposedly I need to be sleeping a long time due to fatigue from walking that much, I only had an hour of sleep and I'm typing this up the next day from that treadmill, still taking steps, still walking. My only complaint is that my feet hurt. I need to lie or sit down every now and them from walking too much. Other than that, this is my dream setup. I'll update other events in my journal soon.