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| Hibiscus blooms, daily in the yard. |
It’s 11:30 am Thursday. The humidity is so thick you can see it, although the temperature is a little cooler, instead of yesterday’s high of 99F, 37C, today it may top off at 90F, 32C, providing us with some much-needed relief.
We’re ready to go. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we’re not packed yet. Only a sense of urgency, time being of the essence, will motivate us to begin packing. But, we’re ready to go.
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| Bougainvilleas create vines to support the bunches of flowers as they grow heavy. |
Living outdoors is not for me. Tom has been more resilient about living outdoors than I, as we’ve spent 16 hours a day living outdoors for the past three months, baring our time on safari, our time on holiday, and when out and about.
This morning while making my tea, a large ant with wings was crawling on my hand. Many months ago, I’d have let out a little shriek throwing my hand into the air to get it off of me. Now, I merely watched it for a moment, flicked it off with my finger, and gave not a thought to where it may have landed. Is this good or bad?
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| Coconut trees in the yard. |
Last night as Tom sat with my feet in his lap, he noticed a hole in my sock commenting, “You should throw those socks away. There’s a hole.”
I laughed, “Are you kidding? These are the only pair of cotton socks that I have left that cover my ankles to keep the mosquitoes from biting.”
Our clothes are beginning to wear out. My everyday shoes are worn and misshapen, the shoes I find most comfortable. The four pairs of Clark’s comfy sandals I had brought along no longer feel comfy when my feet are swollen from the heat at the end of the day.
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| These look like petunias to me, but I could be wrong. They seem to thrive in the heat. |
When we go out to dinner, I no longer want to wear a long dress in order to “look nice.” Instead, I wear the comfy old shoes, not the sandals, this last pair of socks, and the BugsAway clothes which originally allowed for 70 washings, some of which by now down to 55 washings (does it surprise anyone that I count the washings in my head?) for the Permethrin to retain its effectiveness.
In my old life, in prepping to go out for an evening, I’d easily spend 30 minutes getting ready; the perfect outfit, often changing two or three times if unsatisfied; my makeup, my hair, the matching shoes and purse, the perfect selection of jewelry, striving for what I considered to be the best I could do. Now, I can be ready in 5 minutes. It just doesn’t matter so much anymore.
I suppose I needed to learn something here. The usefulness of that knowledge escapes me at times. I guess it’s all a part of the bigger picture… change. You can teach an old dog new tricks.
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| Simple yellow flowers, always in bloom. |
Was it the price I had to pay to fulfill my dream of seeing Africa? If so, I gladly paid. I have no regrets, just an indescribable sense of fulfillment and not-to-sound-egotistical, a bit of awe at both of our resilience in exploring this life and rarely, if ever, complaining to one another, for fear of it catapulting out of control.
I’m amazed by us: How well we get along together around the clock, never tiring of being together (we never did). How much we’ve changed. In some ways, we were rigid in the past. We continue to make an effort to protect each other from worry (always did with different types of worries now). We continue to share household tasks and travel responsibilities. (That’s new now that Tom isn’t chained to a 12 hour a day “job’).
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| I know. As our time winds down, I always roam around the yard looking for vegetation photos to share here. |
We’re ready to go. Several times each day, I glance at the lower right-hand corner of the toolbar on my laptop, checking the date, to be reminded once again, how many days until we leave. Today, it’s 9.
We’re ready to go.
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| Jessie was sticking out her tongue trying to kiss Gucci. I’ll miss them. |
Hi from Pat,
I thought I would put my name first so you can tell right away who is writing.
I love the pictures of the flowers and plants, the colors are so vibrant. I especially liked your photo of the coconut tree and how you composed it.
The two dogs are adorable.
I can certainly understand your being ready to move on. The heat and humidity must be unbearable by now. But you and Tom are to be congratulated on how well you have done under these conditions. I know I would have called it quits a long time ago. But then, we have not experienced all the joy or seen the amazing things you have seen. I am sure that is what motivates you to take it one day at a time.
You sound like real pioneers with your socks with holes and your clothes and shoes wearing out. And you should be proud of yourselves. Your statements on how well you and Tom get along, brings joy to my heart. It makes reading your blog even more exciting. We have been watching the Reality show called the Amazing Race and we always pick our favorite players based on how well they get along with their partner. I do not like to watch a couple who are always yelling at one another or tearing each other down. And there are always some that do a lot of that. So you and Tom are a couple to be congratulated and emulated.
Dan got home safely and was happy to be back. It rained the entire day on Thursday so he was driving in the rain. His friend gave him some deer meat that he already had processed so I made deer hamburger for dinner tonight. He loved it but I have to admit, I ate spaghetti instead. Aren't I terrible!
I enjoyed reading Isabell's comments too.
I meant to mention yesterday that when I said I found the title for your book, that I was only kidding. Never would I think I could pick a book title for someone. I was just having fun and thought you would laugh too. So sorry if I came off too forward.
May you have more cool breezes!
Pat
Hi, dear Pat,
The bad thing about email and writing back and forth is that one can't hear the voice inflections to determine humor from seriousness. You can never be too forward in my eyes and I love all your input, humorous and serious. Actually, people often do ask for help for book titles and book covers. A friend of mine is a literary agent and she just asked me to participate in a survey to select from a number of possible book covers. So it does happen. And, if we do ever write that book, we just may ask our readers for their input!
Thanks for your sweet comments about Tom and I. We realize that not all couples could do what we do, not so much due to the challenges but more so due to their coping abilities and communication as a couple. We knew we'd do well together.
Don't blame you for not eating the venison last night. Glad to hear Dan got home safely and all is well. Enjoy your time back together again.
We used to watch the Amazing Race. Recently I downloaded the first episode of this season but we've yet to watch it. We watched the first 15 seasons and lost interest. Since they go to many places we've been and will be I thought it would be fun to watch it once again. We shall see if we can get interested again. We've been watching Dancing with the Stars. That's fun! We usually watch it during dinner since it doesn't require total concentration while savoring our food leaving us plenty of room for idle chatter while we dine.
Have a great day. Tonight we're going on a double date with Hans and Jeri to a local restaurant we haven't tried. People from outside the US eat dinner much later than our usual 7:00 pm so we're not even leaving until 8:00 pm, most likely not eating until 9. Guess we'll have a snack in the afternoon to tide us over.
Warmest regards,
Jess & Tom