Soon, Rita will arrive to pick me up for our outing to Stoep Café in Komatipoort. Afterward, Rita and I will head to Spar Market to shop for groceries. Since I need quite a few things and don’t want to keep Rita waiting while I shop, she will drop me off, and Tom will pick me up when I’m done.
He always loads the food at the register while I help the bagger pack the groceries into our various bags, some insulated, some not. He loads the car and brings everything into the house. Next, he empties all the bags while I put everything away. It’s a practical system that works well for us.
Since I had that dreadful open heart surgery 3½ years ago, I have had trouble bending over, a common lingering side effect of having one’s sternum cut in half. Tom pulls up a chair to the refrigerator so I can load the food neatly on the lower shelves and in the produce drawers. This would be impossible for me to do otherwise.
Besides that, I can do almost everything required for household tasks and cooking, but I have a fantastic helper who makes life much easier. I never have to ask for his help since he pays attention to everything I’m doing, either out of curiosity or love. In either case, I always appreciate sharing tasks chosen by one’s abilities, strengths, and interests.
How lucky we are to have one another, and neither of us ever forgets that for a day. Often, in the evening, while sitting at the table on the veranda, watching the animals, while listening to oldies (not too loudly) using the fantastic JBL Bluetooth speaker. It’s our favorite time of the day. Sometimes, we have sundowners, and sometimes we drink iced tea, but we enjoy this pleasant break from responsibilities and household tasks.
The only exercise we get on those evenings is getting up and down to feed the wildlife. Speaking of iced tea, this is the first time in our travels that we’ve been out of Crystal Light iced tea. As mentioned, our shipment is tied up in customs to ensure the iced tea isn’t a bomb or toxic chemical. Good grief.
I made cinnamon green tea, using tea bags to make iced tea for me. I added non-caloric sweetener, and it tastes pretty good. But Tom doesn’t like it, and right now, he’s drinking water or Sprite Zero since he ran out of Crystal Light only yesterday. We should have had the package delivered weeks ago but now it’s held up in customs due to the many packages of Crystal Light.
We’ve had this tea sent to us while in South Africa in the past and have never had such a problem with it. We can only wait and see what happens in the next week. It would be nice to get this shipping fiasco off our minds. I am considering if we’ll ever order supplies again and make purchases in the country we are in at any given time.
Within the year, an Amazon facility is opening up in South Africa. Hopefully, they will carry most of the products they sell in the US. If so, that will eliminate the need to ship items to us from the US.
Have to run now, folks. Rita will be here shortly and I am trying to get this uploaded before I leave the house.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, September 8, 2021:
