The risk was real. Tom was losing weight while I packed for our 5-10 years on the road, traveling the world. Some suggested we bring one duffel bag each. If we were going for a weekend, that would have made sense.
We have no home to go back to and repack. We have no place to go and do laundry and get ready for another round. Dirty clothes, travel with us. So, we packed big. When we arrive at our various vacation homes, we’ll wash clothes. On ships, we’ll place them in a cloth laundry bag to haul to our next location.
We are OK with this. It’s been discussed at length. So we each have three bags, a carry-on, a computer bag, a purse and, two 250 pound capacity wheeling carts that hold it all. Once we go to Africa and return to Europe, we’ll mail our big boots and Africa clothes back to Nevada in order to lighten the load (thanks again, son Richard).
We had decided that toward the end of our time in Scottsdale that we would repack, suctioning the air out of our Space Bags, sorting cruise suitcases from the others. This way we’d only have to open one or two bags each during the cruise. This idea came to us only after the bags were already packed months ago.
When I shopped for Tom last summer, he was down about 30 pounds. The weight loss had slowed to a snail’s pace and honesty, I didn’t think for a moment that he’d lose another 20 pounds. We were enjoying our way of eating (low carb, grain-free, sugar-free, starch-free) and he was losing about one pound a month at that point. Who knew?
When he started eating this way 16 months ago, he wore size 44 pants, mainly due to his belly, certainly not the rest. When I purchased his new clothes, I purchased size 38 pants and XL shirts figuring at the very most he’d lose another three or four pounds until we left the US, thus not affecting the fit.
Since shortly before we left Minnesota, he’s since lost another 20 pounds now down a total of almost 50. Wow!
Who cares about clothes? My man is healthy and slim! His health had a complete turnaround. He’s now a size 34. Yesterday, we unpacked all of his clothes. There are 18 (yes, 18) pairs of a combination of shorts, casual khaki pants, dress khaki pants, jeans, and dress/suit pants (for formal nights on cruises) that would fall off him if he wore them. And I mean falling off! They look ridiculous!
We can salvage the swimsuits. They have the string ties in the waistbands. OK. Guys wear baggy swimwear, don’t they? But the pants have to go!
Today we are taking everything to an alterations shop in Old Town with the thought that we’ll only have the dress pants altered. We’re bringing along the other 15 items. Maybe, just maybe, the tailor will be willing to give us a deal on the lot of them, getting them done in less than three weeks Unlikely. It will probably cost less to start over.
If the tailor is not cooperative, we’ll go shopping this week in Scottsdale to replace everything. There’s no time to shop online with only a week until we leave for Henderson, Nevada for eight days for Christmas with family. We’ll have no time while we’re there. Plus sales tax is higher in NV as opposed to AZ.
Tom despises shopping but I’m fast. He can wait in a try-on room while I’ll throw the pants at him. He can bring his phone and play Angry Birds while he’s waiting. It will be OK.
Hum, 10 inches lost in the waist. Remarkable! Better health. Amazing! Perfect colonoscopy and endoscopy results. Astounding! No more IBS. Impressive!
Able to carry bags without puffing and panting. Yeah! Who cares about buying new pants? No one.