Oh, oh, packages didn’t arrive!…Are we running out of time?…

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The four of six boxes we received from the pharmaceutical company. We’re awaiting the two missing boxes, hopefully to arrive or be replaced before leaving Italy in less than two weeks.

When living in the US we rarely gave a thought to our few prescriptions.  Ordering online through Medco it was a relatively painless process with the large white plastic bags arriving about a week after placing a refill order.  Once a year we visited our doctor to get newly written prescriptions to comply with insurance requirements.

Now, traveling the world, taking literally everything we own with us everywhere we go, all of our supplies, prescriptions and otherwise, take on a new meaning. It’s not to say that we’re preoccupied with these items. However, we must stay mindful and proactive to ensure that we have everything on hand as needed, avoiding a crisis and its resulting stress.

Early in July we ordered a year’s worth of prescriptions for both of us through ProgressiveRX, a reputable, prescription required, highly rated BBB online pharmacy with the best prices we’ve found so far.

Between us, we take a small handful of medications. Running out of them could be a problem. Having purchased enough to last us the first year in our travels, now  gone since Halloween, 10 months have passed.  We’d have run out while in Kenya.

Tom’s vitamin and pill cases.  Originally, we had four of these cases, allowing me to restock them once a month. Having to ditch two of these to make more room, I now have to refill them every two weeks. Mine is similar. We carry on all of our meds and few vitamins after the incident in Belize when security confiscated all of our vitamins for 24 hours. Lesson learned.

After considerable research and reading online posts, we felt it was too risky to receive a package through USPS while in Kenya with its reported high risk of never arriving or of getting caught up in customs, all of which is less of an issue in Italy. Ordering in July, with our plan to leave Italy on September 1st, made all the sense in the world. 

Unfortunately, ProgressiveRX process is to send a variety of the prescriptions in a variety of small boxes.  With us needing more Z-Pak (antibiotic) since I’d used one in Dubai when I was so ill, extra malaria pills and our few combined prescriptions, six small boxes were due to arrive. 

Two weeks ago, four of the six boxes had arrived, leaving two missing. “OK,” I said, “Let’s give it a little more time.” 

Becoming concerned last week, I contacted the company by email, receiving a prompt response. They suggested we give it a little more time.  By the end of last week, the two missing boxes had yet to arrive. The rep at the company asked that we wait until today to put in a request that the two boxes be replaced and shipped the quickest method available. With only nine business days until we leave Italy, this plan in itself is risky.

Yesterday, I went through the four boxes that each contained a variety of the medications counting every pill, all individually wrapped in childproof shrink wrap plastic packages, to determine exactly what we’re missing. Once completed, I checked the stock against the original order coming up with a list of the missing items.

As suggested, I sent them an email with this list this morning, suggesting that they quickly resend the missing meds. We shall see how this rolls out over the next several days. In my email this morning, I suggested that if the boxes, missing and new, arrive before we leave, we’ll either return the extras or pay for them, preferring to keep them, thus avoiding the necessity of finding a place to mail them.

We have no complaint with the company. They are responsive, providing quality products. This company was recommended to us by the wife of a delightful mature newlywed couple (they hooked up on Facebook after having dated in high school many moons ago) that we met the day after their wedding while in Belize.  She had a home in San Pedro, Belize  but they had decided to have their honeymoon at our resort, LaruBeya in Placencia. Gee, we loved that place. 

In any case, I took her recommendation for the online pharmacy seriously. As an American citizen, she too required a handful of meds having found ProgressiveRX to be ideal for ordering from afar. 

The names of the prescriptions, although containing the exact same ingredients, are different in some cases.  This is important to know to ensure a patient knows precisely which named prescription replaced the familiar name to avoid incorrect dosing.  Should any of our readers’ order through this company, please be careful in observing the named differences. Their website is helpful in defining these different names.

With the time differences in between Italy and the US, it may be hours before we hear back as to what they will do to get the missing meds to us as quickly as possible. We’ll report back here once we know.

Today, our plan was to grocery shop. After looking in the refrigerator and freezer noting the additional meat products we have on hand and seeing our delicious leftovers for tonight from last night’s dinner of Chicken Breasts stuffed with homemade pesto (from the garden on the patio), Parmesan cheese, wrapped in Prosciutto, we’ve decided we can wait until Wednesday. We’ll recalculate our grocery list to get us through 11 more days, instead of the original 13 days.

Perhaps today, a little refining of our items to be packed is in order, a task I thoroughly dread, among other “moving” tasks.”  Oh, I can’t wait to be sitting on the large veranda overlooking the gardens at the house in Kenya; the packing, the excess baggage fees, the three flights, the trip from the airport to the house in the middle of the night and the unpacking will all behind us. 

Housekeeping for upcoming travel…

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Definitely, not as much “stuff” on the bed when we originally packed almost a year ago.

Two weeks from today, we’ll drive the five-hour journey from Boveglio, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy to Venice Italy, where we’ll stay overnight in a hotel close to the airport.  Planning to drop off the rental car after we’ve checked into the hotel upon arrival was a plan I’d originally resisted, thinking it made more sense to drop it off in the morning before our flight. 

Tom was adamant that we drop off the car on the day of arrival in Venice and take the hotel’s shuttle to the airport in the morning. He felt that the time spent returning the car, from past experience when we picked it up on June 16th, would impose upon the time necessary to board the plane.

Those darn vitamins! This is only a portion of the supply!

After thinking about this premise for a few days, I saw his point.  With the free airport shuttle offered by the hotel, it was one less stressful task to perform before boarding the plane. 

The Marco Polo Airport in Venice imposes a strict rule that passengers may not appear at the airport more than three hours before their scheduled flight.  This small airport doesn’t have adequate space to accommodate travelers for longer periods. Thus, careful planning is a must. Otherwise, passengers can be refused entry with their bags into the terminal. That could be stressful!

With only two weeks left, we’ve begun planning for all the tasks we must accomplish before leaving Italy.  No, we don’t have household goods and furniture to move, but in a way, it’s comparable to moving after the moving van has removed the household goods and furniture, a monumental task in itself.,

Its not easy keeping a cupboard tidy with clothing as opposed to dresser drawers, none of which we available in this extra bedroom.

Not only do we have to ensure we’ve collected all of our belongings scattered about the house, but also the following tasks to complete over the next two weeks:
1.  Carefully pack all of our luggage including careful planning for the carry on bags to avoid further delays at the airport when going through security.
2.  Weigh all of our luggage to ensure we’re prepared for any excess baggage fees which we fully expect, although not as costly as on our flight from Dubai,  UAE on our way to Barcelona, Spain to board our last cruise.
3.  Hold back clothing and toiletries for overnight in the hotel to avoid opening the packed luggage, using only a duffel bag.
4.  Ensure we have comfortable clothing and shoes to wear for the long flight, prescriptions, toiletries (especially toothbrushes and toothpaste) considering the almost 24 hours from the time we arrive at the airport in Venice, to the rental house in Kenya.
5.  Grocery shop tomorrow, purchasing enough food to last through our final night here on Saturday, August 31st, while using any items that are frozen, refrigerated, and in the cupboards.  (We’ve already planned a menu for each of the 13 remaining nights with an accompanying grocery list, utilizing our on-hand supplies).
6.  Scan and store all of the receipts we’ve accumulated while living in Italy, tossing the actual paper.
7.  Clean and reorganize our laptops’ bags of any superfluous materials.
8.  Ensure that our digital equipment is fully charged with the hope that the three planes we’ll be flying will have plugins at our seats. If plugins are not available on the planes we’ll locate and use “digital kiosks,” available at most airports during our two layovers.
9.  Return the house to its original condition as we received it upon arrival over two and a half months here, replacing any items we moved about to facilitate our personal needs.
10. Clean, leaving only the towels and bedding we used on that last day. Santina will clean on our last Friday, two days before our departure. With no paid deposit, we are none the less committed to leaving everything in excellent order, as we’ve done at each of our prior rental homes.
11.  Write a glowing review on Homeaway extolling the virtues of our lovely owners, Lisa and Luca, her parents, Cici and Dano, and the overall comfort of this well-stocked and maintained home, which without a doubt we’ve fully appreciated.
12.  Update the budget with any last-minute expenses, including gas for the long drive, rental car fees, hotel and dining, taxi and tips, etc.  Doing so leaves us a clean slate to begin anew in the first of three upcoming homes in Africa:  Kenya, South Africa, and Morocco.

Need I say more?  There’s plenty to keep us busy over the next few weeks with little time for frivolity.  Yes, someday we’ll return to Italy, most likely by ship, allowing us an opportunity to explore further.  But for now, we’re ready to move on, feeling no disappointment in leaving with plenty of enthusiasm for our upcoming adventures.

Tom has kept all of his clothing in the master bedroom where we sleep. Mine have been scattered among three rooms, the master, the above guest room, and the huge main bathroom where I’ve kept fresh clothing for dressing after showering each morning.

Tom just reminded me of one more thing.  We’ll have to empty the Ziploc bags hung in the doorways and windows in order to recover the Euros we’d placed inside with the intent to repel flying insects which, as we’ve mentioned, does seem to work to a degree, although not entirely.  With screens on the windows in Kenya, we’re hopeful that the biting flies won’t be such a bother. 

Lately, in the evening, I’ve been wearing my BugAway long pants for a few hours which have totally protected me from receiving a single fly bite.  Although lightweight they’re too warm to wear all day, during which time I’ve taken on two or three new bites per day, continuing to itch for days.  The cumulative effect is the most annoying, new bites, old bites, all itching at once!

Yesterday, I finally washed my BugsAway pants for the first time. Having worn them to the Pyramids in Egypt, Petra in Jordan, and a few other excursions, they didn’t appear dirty nor did they smell. Most likely they were covered in fine dust.

With the embedded insect repellent Permethrin in the fabric, they’re good for 70 washings of which I’m now down to 69.  That should be enough to see me through our upcoming time in Africa which, dear readers, will begin, sooner than later.

Tom’s online football experience…

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The haze in the hills continues day after day with the high humidity.
After signing up at NFL.com in order to watch the Minnesota Vikings games, which we wrote posted on August 8th.  At that time, he had yet to watch his first game.
Last Saturday, after the game had occurred the previous night, he watched the first preseason game.
In his words, “I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  I’m not happy that I paid (US) $169 to watch the Vikings games.  Every time there’s a commercial, which has been removed, there’s a black screen. Either I sit there and watch the black screen for the length of the commercial or I can click ahead in either slow-moving, 10-second increments or by using the scroll bar to try to find the spot when the commercial ended.”
With the lack of rain, few flowers remain.

We all know how long those commercials can be. This task is annoying and cumbersome for three-plus hours, definitely taking away from the enjoyment of watching the game. Tom’s expectation in purchasing a prepaid package from the NFL, was that it would be similar to watching an on-demand program minus any intrusion by commercials. 

When originally booking the house in Boveglio online comments seemed to indicate that this old hotel’s bar was still open. Unfortunately, the bar and the hotel both closed a while back.
This room at the end of the hotel was once used as a ballroom.

One would assume that in this day and age with advanced technology, that this type of issue would have been resolved prior to offering such a package for sale to the public. Will he cancel?  No. 

He’ll continue to watch the game the morning after they’ve occurred with the ongoing frustration associated with this poor system. Isn’t it frustrating enough that the Vikings have yet proven to be the team that loyal fans have fantasized about for many years?

The local residents frequently place flower pot at this neighborhood shrine.

Although not a football fan, I certainly empathize with him over this issue when encountering poor technology by major corporations.

It’s no wonder that we can hear lively Italian conversations and toilets flushing in the tight little neighbor.  All the plumbing pipes are on the outside of the buildings.

Most recently, one of our credit card companies was sold out to a larger credit card company, resulting in the necessity of the customer set up an online account at the new company. Should be easy, right? Oh, no. 

Each day there appears to be a new stack of prayer candles at this shrine across the street from our house.

After trying to create an online account for this card over a period of the past 5 days, only to have the screen require me to enter the same information over and over, I’m left with no alternative but to call. Yes, I can use a toll-free number on Skype without having to pay for the call.  But the issue is the time difference and the loss of my time in making this call. 

Regardless of the drought-like conditions, homeowners continue to regularly water their outdoor plants. With no lawns to tend to, plants fulfill their desire to connect to nature.  Community gardens are within walking distance in which some neighbors participate.

After trying various numbers, I’ve been informed I must call during regular business hours, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm, Pacific time.  With this time difference, I must call after 6:00 pm here, a time when we’re busy getting dinner ready with the expectation of enjoying a stress-free evening. Being on hold for 10 to 15 minutes only adds to the frustration.

The vantage point from the road heading southwest.
This is across the street from our main entrance, looking up from the road. In most neighborhoods, homes across the road aren’t located so high up!

Wherever we may be, we aren’t free of the time-consuming tasks of managing our daily lives. There’s literally no way that one can choose to be “off the grid” if they require any type of insurance, banking, handling of their assets, managing their credit cards, and paying taxes.

The road as I returned home from my walk.  We’re located a few doors down on the right.


To my left in the lower level as I entered the house.  The laundry room is located behind the curtain.

Years ago, I heard a motivational speaker say, “Everywhere you go, there you are.” So true. So true.

Walking gingerly is a must on these step stone steps to the basement.  The Homeaway listing for this house clearly stated that this property is not intended for the older population due to the many steps required to get from one end to another down the long hallway and the tricky access to the patio on the right of this stairwell.

Updates and tidbits…Fun photos!…

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A photo from guests staying at our upcoming rental house in South Africa.  Doing laundry takes on a whole new meaning!

As we write about the nuances of our days, on occasion we may leave a reader wondering what transpired with a particular situation that we may have mentioned in an earlier post.

The rental car: With no further email from Budget, we are assuming they decided to let us keep the car until we return it to Venice on September 1st.

When they agreed to extend the rental agreement (which we have in writing), they billed our credit card on file for the prorated balance through the return date.  Oddly, when they informed us that the car was sold, they reversed the charge of over $1300, yet to charge us for the balance.  There’s no doubt they’ll charge us for the balance once we return the car.

The bees and the fly’s issues: The coins in the Ziploc bags hanging in the doorways have reduced the influx of bees by 95% and the flies by 75%. Unfortunately, a few flies enter each day. For some peculiar reason, they don’t seem to land long enough to kill them. They are vicious, biting me with a frenzy. As a result, I have no less than 10 fly bites at any given time, that take no less than 5 days to stop itching. 

Can you imagine soaking in the tub with these visitors stopping by to say hello?

At 4:00 am this morning, I was awakened by the itching forcing me to take a Tylenol PM to get back to sleep.  Tylenol PM and other over the counter sleep aids, often contain diphenhydramine, an antihistamine that causes drowsiness and stops the itching. Luckily, I fell back to sleep.

It seems most of the bites occur around dinner time, the smell of food drawing them inside. Instead of feasting on the food, they feast on my arms and legs so fast I can’t shoo them away. Tonight, I am going to wear my Bugs Away long pants during and after dinner, hoping to keep the biting at bay.

The weather: For almost two weeks, we had over 90 degree days. Last week, it was 97 degrees, one day with humidity to match. It cools down nicely at night. On two nights we slept without covers, fortunately, not losing much sleep over the heat. 

Now that it’s beginning to cool down, it was so cool last night that I slept in warmer PJs. With the mosquito netting over one of the master bedroom windows, we can sleep without buzzing around our heads, enjoying the cool breeze. As we sit on the veranda while I write this, it’s no more than 68 degrees, wonderfully comfortable.  We’re hoping it continues to stay cool as we prepare to leave Tuscany soon.

Seat assignment for our upcoming flight: A few days ago, I called Turkish Air able to speak in English to a representative. She informed us that arranging seat assignment wasn’t possible until August 26th, a full week before the flight. I’ve never heard of this before. Most likely, we’ll be charged to sit together which we’ll disdainfully pay. 

Upcoming year’s prescription order.  In early July, we ordered all of our upcoming year’s prescriptions. They were to arrive in 6 boxes.  As of this date, only 4 boxes have arrived.  Now it may be too late for them to send them.  I’ve decided to wait until Monday. If they haven’t arrived, I’ll contact the company having them resend the missing boxes (hopefully, at their expense for expedited shipping). 

A box from our mailing service: The chargers for both of our computers will soon die, based on the difficulty we’ve begun to experience. Thus, it made sense before we leave for Africa, to order two new chargers, in the event either or both of them entirely fail. The replacement cost was US $9.95 each with free shipping in the US only. Also, I needed a few cosmetic items I’d be unable to find in Italy. 

We put together an order from Amazon, all with free shipping to be shipped to our mailing service in Nevada.  The chargers, along with my few cosmetic items were all shipped in one small box at a cost of US $50. Of course, they included the few pieces of mail we hadn’t received as yet, most of which we look at online at a cost of $2 per scan. The box arrived in 18 days from the shipping date via USPS international, coming directly to the door here.

Overpayment on credit card: When we saw the charge on the credit card for the prorated balance (as described above) on the rental car, I immediately paid the bill off in full.  Our goal is to keep all of our credit cards at a zero balance in the event of an emergency. When Budget reversed the charge (go figure) a few days later, we ended up with a credit on Master Card. Wouldn’t one assume, they’d just leave it there until additional purchases we made? Oh no! They mailed a check to our mailing service. How inconvenient!

Fortunately, we’d left dozens of envelope and deposit slips with our mailing service before we left Nevada, in the event we received any checks. Contacting our rep at the mailing service by email, I requested they deposit the check. Looking each day to confirm the deposit was made, it finally came through, taking a full week from the date it was mailed for the deposit to show in online banking.  Good to know. 

Staying on top of situations and tasks such as these, however small they may be, is thought-provoking and time-consuming. Luckily, Tom and I both prefer to avoid tasks hanging over our heads, so we strive to be diligent in getting tasks out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible.

We’d rather save our time and energy over that which we have no control, the surprises, the unexpected. 

Now, I’ll go make a baking soda paste to see if that will help with the itching. I checked today to discover that both houses, in Kenya and in South Africa have screens. Yeah for screens!

Turning off the brain long enough to sleep…

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As a poor sleeper most of my life, a few years ago I went on a rampage researching methods to improve my ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. 

Discovering nothing new or life changing, the frustration over the scientific research extolling the virtues of a variety of solutions for improving sleeping found me with little relief.

Some of these suggestions included:
1.  Using light as a means of resetting one’s biological clock (circadian rhythm) by increasing waking light and reducing evening light.  This method, although described in brief here, increasing the production on nighttime melatonin, the miracle sleep adjusting hormone.  This means, no TV or computer before attempting to sleep.
2.  Reduce nighttime noises or wear earplugs.  
3.  Don’t exercise at night before bed. 
4.  Don’t go to bed on a full stomach, allowing two hours for food to digest before lying down.
5.  No caffeine late in the day, preferably after 2:00 PM.  Mostly done but usually have ice tea up until dinner, water after.
6.  No stimulating activities before bed. 
7.  Drinking less fluids at night, reducing necessity of getting up during the night. 
8.  Comfortable bed, blankets, pillows and bedtime attire. 
9.  No biting, noise making, annoying flying things buzzing one’s head at night.
10. No negative conversations or thoughts that instill anger, excitement or frustration before retiring for the evening. 
10.  No worrying about not sleeping which in itself can be a deterrent to a good night’s sleep. 
11.  Turning off the brain at night!

Most certainly, there are hundreds of other suggested solutions to poor sleep but these appeared to be most applicable in my world.  Trying them collectively or one by one, I found some relief but frequently awaken between 2:00 am and 4:00 am each night, struggling to fall back to sleep.  This is a common phenomenon many have described, particularly as one ages. 

For years while a working person, I awoke at 5:30 am every morning, never needing an alarm clock to get up to ready for work.  Now, as a retired person, my self imposed waking time is blissfully, hopefully at 7:00 am.

Tom, on the other hand, has less trouble sleeping, seeming to fall asleep as soon as he puts down his ebook, possibly waking a time or two during the night, usually falling back to sleep easily.  I’m less fortunate, needing a few “crutches” to make it happen:

1.  Falling asleep:  If I don’t try to fall asleep at the first indication of sleepiness, I find it difficult to do so a few hours later.  Now, when the sensation overtakes me, I succumb, putting down my smart phone ebook.

2.  Awakening during the night:  Five out of seven nights, I awaken during the night, either from a sound or a dream.  If I don’t fall back to sleep in 10 minutes, I pull my smart phone off the nightstand and read until sleepy again. 

If after 10 more minutes, I’m still not sleepy, I take a dose (two for me or three for a person over 200 pounds) of a safe homeopathic, non-addictive over the counter remedy, called Formula 303 containing Valerian and magnesium, suggested by the doctor that was instrumental in my changing my diet to low carb, sugar, starch and grain free. Within 20 minutes, I fall back to sleep. This safe product doesn’t result in drowsiness upon awakening, as do often dangerous and addictive prescription medications.

3.  Awakening too early in the morning:  Following the above in point #2, if it is before 6:00 am, usually reading for a short while will lull me back to sleep, immediately putting the book down the minute sleepiness becomes evident.

Overall, following these methods, I am able to sleep a total of seven hours each night, certainly enough for a well-rested day.  In many of the studies I’ve read, there was emphasis on the fact that seniors usually require less sleep.  Why?  Most believe it is merely due to the reduced amount of physical and mental energy utilized during waking hours.

Here is a listing of thousands of sleep research performed at various universities, such as Harvard.  It is from these resources that I spent many hours looking for answers to a lifelong problem, now seemingly under control.

Overall, the biggest issue I’ve found, is turning off my brain at night.  That’s the most challenging.  At night, we seem more vulnerable to negative thinking as our strength and determination to be positive dissipates as we become tired. 

Right now, I could be engaged in a load of negative thinking. Is it safe to fly to Africa? To live in Kenya?  Will we be able to arrange our seat assignment on the upcoming three flights to Kenya on order to sit together? How will we feel with no sleep when we fly with layovers for over 15 hours, arriving in Kenya the middle of the night?  It goes on and on. 

Turning off these thoughts at night is a commitment I’ve made to myself to ensure a good night’s sleep. So far, its working, especially when there’s no flying things buzzing my head at night!

Sitting too much as we age?…

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Having spent a lifetime in a constant flurry of activity, it’s been refreshing doing nothing. It’s a skill I’ve had to learn. Tom, on the other hand, has been a role model, quite the expert. I’m not criticizing, just observing.

In our old lives, I seldom sat down during the day, until I’d finally fall on my face after dinner. This changed when I began researching and booking our worldwide travels while sitting in my comfy chair all day with my fingers madly flying across the keyboard. In March 2012, I began writing this blog that ultimately added to my daily “sitting time.”

Since arriving in Tuscany, Italy on June 16, 2013, I’d found myself sitting more than I had during those last seven months in Minnesota.

Sitting was not good for me at that time and it’s not good for me now. Sure, I do my hilly walks which prove to be 30-minutes of strenuous activity. But the remainder of my day has been spent performing low activity household tasks such as cooking and laundry. A considerable amount of time is spent reading, writing, and searching online. Not good for one’s health, all of which are activities performed while sitting.

With no health club within an hour’s drive, I’ve had to accept the limitations of my opportunities to work out and, my motivation has diminished to be as active as I had been in the US, as a retired person prior to March 2012. 

It’s mighty pleasant sitting on the veranda overlooking the mountains, watching the butterflies fluttering about, listening to the birds singing, only occasionally batting off the flies and the bees. The hours can easily tick away.

Don’t we seniors notice a stiffening in our legs and back when sitting too long? Aren’t we all aware that over time, excess sitting will cripple us as we age, causing the tentative steps so familiar to old age? Doesn’t it nag at us that moving around spending less time sitting will keep our step youthful and determined? Yes, to all of these.

Ironically, as I’d thought more and more about this reality during this past year and a half, realizing that even an hour of strenuous working out each day won’t defray the ravages of sitting for the remainder of the day, I stumbled across a book, Sitting Kills, Moving Heals by Joan Vernikos, PHD. I couldn’t download and read it fast enough.

I must admit that guilt was a huge motivator for me to read this book. It’s scientific studies, many of them dry and boring, tempted me to put it down at times, but the guilt forced me to forge ahead. 

It changed everything for me. The mere act of purchasing the ebook made me start moving more frequently.  After all, I’d made the $8.69 purchase (which you can find at any online bookseller). 

Reading the book brought me to the next level, realizing that the mere act of slowly arising from my chair without the use of my arms for support (or working toward this in time) once every 20 or 30 minutes, to a short time later slowly sitting back down, once again without the use of my arms, could greatly improve my level of fitness.

The research Dr. Vernikos extensively manifested as a result of her year’s long studies of NASA astronauts losing muscle mass while in space, even for short periods of time. These studies are astounding, shared in this book. 

Rather than spending hours here retelling the author’s profound years of research, I recommend to all our of senior readers, to please consider this small investment in buying and reading this book that will change the quality of life as we age. (I should mention that we are in no way involved in the sale, the marketing, the profits, or distribution of this book or any other books we’ve mentioned here).

The first few days I started this process, I set the timer on my phone, leaving it in the other room. I had to get up to turn it off. Easy. Now a month later, I no longer need a timer, automatically knowing it’s time to slowly stand and a short time later to slowly sit back down, hands-free. This simple act affects the body in the same manner as if we actually stood for 30 minutes (see location 1231 in the ebook).  It’s all about gravity.

As written in the book, based on scientific research, this simple act is life-changing, definitely worth a read, definitely worth trying, with nothing to lose.

Now, a month after implementing this process, my legs don’t fall asleep, the stiffness has greatly improved and I feel more steady on my feet than ever. Of course, this process may not be possible for some, with serious limitations, but for the rest of us, it’s a small commitment for a huge gain, especially if a daily workout routine is unappealing.

Life is short.  Health and well being not only extend our lives but the all-important “quality of our lives,” allowing us to live life to the fullest treasuring every moment whatever we may choose to do, wherever we may choose to be.

For me, for now, the veranda is all the more enjoyable, no longer feeling guilty about sitting which added a rich quality to the experience. 

Twenty days…Leaving Boveglio…Future travel plans…

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The archway in our yard that ventures out to the winding, hilly roads, kept locked for privacy.   these small villages in Tuscany it is difficult to determine where a house and yard begins and ends with most houses “stuck together.”

It’s hard to believe in less than three weeks we’ll be leaving Boveglio to drive to Venice to fly to Kenya the next day, the 3rd. 

We’re reminded that fall is near, by the pumpkins and gourds in our yard.

It will be the beginning of almost a year of living in Africa, ending with two and a half months in Madeira, Portugal, an island located off the northwestern coast of Africa.

A pepper plant growing in the lower garden. These are most likely too hot for our taste buds.
With an open space in time from August 1, 2014, until November 30, 2014, Tom has been busy searching as to how we’ll fill this gap in our travels. At this point, the biggest challenge we have in booking this gap period is the result of a few crucial factors:

1.  What are the most enjoyable and sensible means of us traveling back across the Atlantic Ocean toward Hawaii when we’ll be getting together with our adult kids and grandchildren at our upcoming rental house in Kona, Hawaii at Christmas time in 2014?
2.  With the added expense of airfare for 13 family members, how can we spend this period most economically to perhaps offset a portion of the cost?
3.  Do we want to stay in Europe until December 1st when our rental begins in Hawaii, as we end the upcoming one year stint from Portugal?
4.  Are there cruises available to use as a means of travel, which we prefer?

The doorway and patio of a house below us where we heard cheerful Italian chatter last night.

Tom has been spending considerable time at Vacations to Go and Cruise Critic in an effort to determine our best options. Once we pin down possible cruises, we’ll contact our representative, Joaquin at Vacations to Go to book our chosen cruises. 

How dry and brown the yard is becoming with a lack of regular rain.

The further we continue into our world travels, we’ve determined that we love cruising for several reasons:
1.  Cost-effective in many cases with housing and meals included.
2.  No enforced luggage restrictions.
3.  Ease of living:  no cooking, no cleaning, no laundry (although it does pile up)
4.  Meeting new people almost every day while meandering on the ship and during meals.
5.  Date night every night with the option of ordering included room service. (After eight cruises, we’ve yet to order room service).
6.  Opportunity to visit many countries in a short period of time with the numerous scheduled ports of call.
7.  Movies on board. 
8.  Exercise facilities on board.
9.  Often interesting classes on board.
10. Chefs on cruise ships make every effort to accommodate my restrictive diet. Although boring and bland at times, it’s much easier than trying to communicate my restrictions in a new restaurant with possible language barriers.

The herb garden in the yard, separate from our patio garden.

After extensive research these past days, we’ve finally come to the conclusion that we’ll wait until the 90-day ticker begins (until sail date) with discounted cruise fares for 2014. In reviewing the ticker for cruises in the next 90 days we’ve seen how beneficial it is to wait with discounts as high as 82%. 

Impatiens growing in an old wooden barrel in the yard.

Yes, by waiting we run the risk of a particular cruise being sold out. Willing to take this risk, we accept the reality that if our means of transportation by cruise is sold out, we can always fly to our next preferred location.  In a rare position for this flexibility, it makes sense for us to proceed in this manner.

A cozy corner of one of the covered garden areas.

With most of our first two and a half years traveling well planned in advance, we now feel experienced and confident enough, after almost a year to attempt last-minute planning. Doing so opens the opportunity for us to experience cruises normally priced beyond our budget, at suddenly lower pricing.

The morning sun filtered through the covered garden.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, Vacations to Go has a policy whereby they will honor price reductions on cruises up to 90 days before sailing. If one watches the pricing on their pre-booked cruises, one can request the reduction which becomes effective immediately which will be guaranteed through sailing. However, neither the cruise lines nor Vacations to Go will watch this for a customer.  One must do this on their own.

Few roses remain as summer winds down.  Often, I wanted to make a bouquet for the kitchen table, deciding against it, knowing it would attract bees indoors.

Learning the nuances of enhancing the quality of our travels is an ongoing process. Many have asked us why we booked so much in advance for the first two and a half years. The answer is simple. 

Last year, we left Minnesota to begin our travels on Halloween.  It seems so long ago.

As neophytes, if we weren’t able to find and book the next desired leg in our travels, we may have become frustrated questioning why we ever took this enormous life-changing challenge.  With bookings planned and deposits paid, we were committed which proved to bring us comfort, excitement, and peace of mind as we learned the ropes.

These variegated green and white leaves are vinca vine, always a favorite of mine when planted to hang over a rock wall.


This planted shoe could easily have been in this yard for over 100 years.

Now, it is becoming clear to us that we can patiently wait.  Unless, of course, some amazing opportunity presents itself that we cannot turn down. 

After all, the world is a big place.

Winning Powerball…What would we do?…

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Santina brought us more vegetables when arriving to clean the house on Friday that we’ll be using tonight in our homemade taco salads (minus the shells).

No, we didn’t win nor did we purchase any Powerball tickets, although Tom was an avid weekly player while we lived in Minnesota. I’d always shrugged, somewhat disinterested, having watched a few reality shows depicting how winning destroyed many people’s lives.

“Money is the root of all evil,” so they say.  Without enough to survive, our lives are wrought with misery and sorrow. With the sudden acquisition of too much money, life may also be equally unhappy.

As we read the news story about the Powerball winner in Minnesota this week, who lives a mere 35 minutes from our former area, we wondered what would eventually become of this winner and other winners making the news this week. Would they wisely invest to secure their future or would they become like many past winners, bankrupt a few years later, after lavish wasteful spending?

Yesterday, Tom asked the question, “How would we change our current lives traveling the world if we won the Powerball with money suddenly to became no object?” 

We chuckled over the prospect as many couples do, fantasizing over winning tens of millions of dollars. Yea, yea, yea, we’d give money to family, donate to our favorite charities, set up investments for our future. La la la.  The usual. 

But, the big question remains…would we continue in our travels? Our definitive answer is “yes,” with some changes, of course. 

Zucchini we picked from our small garden on the patio. Soon we’ll have Pomodoro (tomatoes).

Here’s our combined list of 10 factors we’d be inclined to change:

Tom
1.  Flying:  First Class airline tickets
2.  Cruising: Select the best cabins and services or all-inclusive smaller luxury cruises.
3.  Bring the family to visit more often
4.  Buy all new clothes and personal items each time we’d arrive at a new location, to be donated when departing, carrying only our laptop bags with digital equipment.  No checked luggage.

Jess (in addition to Tom’s above four items)
5.  Ship favorite food items to our current location enabling me to cook more varied meals.
6.  Pay the extra weight checked luggage fees without concern.
7.  Hire a maid to clean, twice a week as opposed to once.
8.  Maintain the availability of a driver with an air-conditioned roomy vehicle to transport us at any time, to locations of our choosing.
9.  Maintain our budget while increasing spending in most categories.
10. Purchase clothing and personal effects online to be shipped to our current location.

To some degree, we are able to do a portion of the above, except for the opportunity to fly first class or cruising on $1000 per day/per person cruises.

However, reviewing the above list doesn’t leave us drooling over what we wish we could do differently.

When one has a massive amount of money, their “job” becomes managing it and ensuring that the professionals they’ve hired aren’t making bad decisions on their behalf. At that point, one would have a life consisting of “working.” We’re living this life we choose to avoid feeling as if we’re working. I wouldn’t change that for anything!

Bats or just batty…

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Common pipistrelle, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, common house bat, a much better photo I took from Wikipedia.  I guess this is nothing compared to the bats awaiting us in Africa. 

One night years ago, after falling asleep with the TV on, I awoke to see a bat fly in front of the TV screen.

Terrified of bats I bolted out of bed waving my arms and screaming, scaring Tom to death. After turning on the bright overhead light and looking around the bedroom, not finding a bat, he assured me it was a bad dream and to go back to sleep. I swore I’d seen a bat.

Two days later I was cleaning one of the upstairs guest rooms to find a dead bat on the inside of the screen apparently dying after trying to escape. I jumped for joy! I could hardly wait to show it to Tom when he’d return from work.

It was less of an “I told you so” than a “see, I’m not crazy” when I rushed him when he walked in the door that evening.  Of course, I had picked up the dead bat (much to my surprise) wearing a thick rubber glove saving it in a paper towel to show him. He shrugged his shoulders, “Oh, it’s a bat.” 

Little gratification was found there. 

Why is it when women are proven “right” that we don’t jump for joy when we prove it?  And yet men will gloat for days?  Ha!

After that experience I became less afraid of bats, merely preferring they don’t fly around me, touch me, or live with me.  No more screaming while running around in circles when spotting a bat flying nearby in the night sky.

A few days ago, walking down the mile-long hallway in this house, I noticed this clump on the floor in a corner of one of the nooks and crannies, meaning to toss it many times as I walked past, never having a handy paper towel. 

My blurry photo, taken zooming in with a shaky hand when  I realized it was a bat.

In my old life, I would have picked it up as soon as I saw it.  Now, living in a more relaxed environment in someone else’s house, I thought, I’ll get to it, whatever it is.  It wasn’t moving so I wasn’t particularly concerned.  Besides, it was neatly tucked away into a corner.  I thought it was a small clump of leaves.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, realizing that Santina was coming to clean today and not wanting to leave it for her, I grabbed a couple of paper towels to remove the pesky intrusion, leaning in closer to get a better look. It was a dead bat. I didn’t scream. Instead, I took a photo.

I must admit that a bit of the old fear gripped me keeping me from holding my hand steady as I zoomed in to take the photo. Thus, the blurry photo.

Calling Tom to come to see, he made a mad dash to the hallway from the veranda. Looking closely as I had done, he said, “Oh, I thought it was potpourri!”

Need I say, I laughed so hard I cried, repeating over and again, “Potpourri?” I’m still laughing as I write this.

He ran to the kitchen to get the broom and dustpan, scooping it up, taking it down to the garbage to dispose of it. Surely, it flew in over the past several nights when we had the windows-without-screens opened when the temperature was in the high 90’s. Gee, I knew there was a reason I didn’t want those windows wide open at night.

Good thing we don’t have a TV in the bedroom.

Giving up favorite pastimes…For Tom, not the Minnesota Vikings…

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Several months ago, Tom canceled his subscription to the Minneapolis StarTribune newspaper due to its inability to be downloaded several days each week. 

The newspaper was available either from the StarTribune’s own website for almost $1 a day, after an initial $8 for eight weeks offer, or through Barnes and Noble for $10 a month. Of course, he chose the lower-cost subscription. Well, you get what you pay for. Downloading was a frustrating daily task, taking the fun out of reading the paper when it did arrive.

He’s been reading the StarTribune in the late 50s when only a kid when the sports section was a peach/pinkish colored paper. Do any Minnesotans out there remember that?

Thus, as an avid reader of the daily paper, this was a big change for him. I always joked that he read and memorized every word in the daily paper, even the page numbers, able to quote dates, times, and most minute details months, if not years, later.

Easily bored reading the newspaper, I’d ask Tom to tell me the news if a topic caught my attention, to which he did so verbatim, perhaps with a bit of “spin” of which I didn’t object.

Newspaper reading days are long over for him, although the upcoming Minnesota Vikings football season had frequently come to mind as he contemplated the options available for viewing the games quickly after airing on US TV.

Looking online, for apps that may be options was fruitless. Many sites offering “free” viewing of games were a hoax, many of them pirating the games through various means. 

Viewing live TV on a computer has yet to become readily available to the average viewer, although the technology will be available soon. There are various companies such as Slingbox, as recommended by son Greg, that for a fee allow a subscriber to watch live shows.  Unfortunately, such an option isn’t unavailable to viewers when outside the US. 

With our use of Graboid we’re able to download and watch primetime commercial-free shows the day after airing.  But this doesn’t include sporting events, concerts, and special events.

After considerable research, Tom discovered that the easiest, most cost-effective option available to football fans, outside the US, was to subscribe to the NFL’s online viewing program GamePass.

For US $169, he will be able to watch the Vikings all preseason and regular-season games. If by a miracle, the Vikings make it to the playoff, he will purchase an add-on to view those as well. 

Yesterday, he subscribed to the GamePass plan to begin watching the first preseason game which airs live tomorrow (Friday, the 9th).  However, this game will air online at 2:00 am here in Italy, which he won’t be interested in doing. However, he’ll be able to watch the recorded game on Saturday at his leisure. Son TJ made a good point: don’t look at Facebook or the news during the game, if he prefers the outcome to be a surprise.  Good point, TJ!

This particular subscription service is only available to viewers outside the US or US territories. Other options are available online for those who don’t have access to TV or prefer to watch the game on their computers at a later time.

Need I say this Vikings fan is rather pleased to know he won’t miss a game. Not a football fan myself, he’ll be watching on his own, which he prefers rather than be interrupted by my idle chatter. 

In any case, I’m thrilled for him and will provide a quiet, comment, and question free environment during his game viewing.

With modern technology, traveling the world doesn’t have to leave a traveler’s favorite pastime, totally beyond reach, as we see here with Tom’s Minnesota Viking viewing options. 

Go Vikings! I guess.