Yesterday afternoon, I decided to start going through some of my clothes, making a pile to donate, and packing what I will keep and bring. We are leaving a plastic tote with Louise with some items we won’t need until we return in December 2022. But, most of the things we’ll store here will be cooking and other supplies, not necessarily clothing.

While in the US in 2019/2020, before we left for India, I purchased some clothes, but since then, I am now over 20 pounds less, and most of them don’t fit. I plan to donate most of those items and restock my wardrobe once we get situated in Arizona.

I don’t purchase expensive clothes; generally, prices are found at The Gap and Old Navy. But now that Old Navy no longer carries jeans long enough for my legs, I won’t be shopping there anymore. This trend of “highwater” pants will go out of style before the blink of an eye, and I don’t want to be stuck with ridiculous-looking pants. With my long legs, shorter pant lengths don’t look good on me.

Honestly, I don’t think shorter-length pants/jeans look better on most people. I try to be a little bit fashionable, but I won’t wear anything that suits my body type. Finding longer pants in the US won’t be easy. I liked the higher-waisted jeans but was never in a location where I could try them on. Now, I read these are going out of style, and low-rise jeans are making a comeback.

Oh, good grief. Who can keep up? No more skinny jeans??? No high waist? No boot cut? Short? Long? Bell bottoms? Hems or unhemmed? Go figure!

I’m no fashion maven, but I do like to dress in a manner that doesn’t make me appear to be an out-of-date senior citizen who doesn’t know a thing about style. After all, I can only own enough clothes to fit into one suitcase. I have to be picky on what goes in there. It will be interesting to see what I can find in Arizona. The closest mall is 10 miles away in Mesa.

Also, while in Arizona, we’ll need to find clothes to wear to Karen and Rich’s wedding. Soon, I’ll check with her to see what type of clothing she suggests, so we’ll blend in. Whatever we buy, we’ll keep for the formal nights on many upcoming cruises over the next few years.

At this time, Tom doesn’t own a blazer, suit, or sports coat. Those are heavy items to pack in our bags. Plus, I’ll need appropriate shoes and a small handbag. I am not opposed to shopping at the discount shoe and clothing stores, such as DSW or TJ Maxx, where I’ve often found great options at reasonable prices.

Well, I can’t worry about that now when I need to think about packing and preparing to clear out of this house entirely, not an easy task after being here for over nine months. As always, we’ll get it all done and certainly be ready to go when the time comes.

This morning we stopped at Louise and Danie’s to say goodbye to her parents, a lovely couple who’ve been visiting here from Cape Town.

It was fun planning our return with Louise in December 2022. On December 23, 2022, it will be Tom’s 70th birthday, and of course, we’ll be planning a party at Jabula for whatever friends of ours will be here during the holiday season. Many leave to return to home countries during the holidays.

At 4:00 pm (1600 hrs), we met Rita and Gerhard at The Giraffe Bar and Grill at Phumula Lodge. We had been to this establishment several times over the years but hadn’t noticed many changes since the last time. After sundowners, while sitting at the bar, which the four of us love to do together, we got a table for dinner and carefully perused the menu. The food was OK but not spectacular, but the service ambiance and prices were excellent.

Our dinner and drinks for the evening, including tax and tips, were US $30.43, ZAR 452, prices that can’t be beaten for an evening out. When we get to the US in several weeks, dinners out will be three times that amount or more. I imagine we won’t eat out as often as we have here.

Nothing much on the horizon today. It’s cooler and a little cloudy. There are few animals in the garden, many still hiding away after the noisy weekend. In two days, the school holidays start for ten days, and we won’t see many animals during that period. It changes the entire “nature” of our day.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, September 29, 2020:

This photo was posted one year ago while in lockdown in a hotel in Mumbai, India, on day #190. One of our favorite recipes: baked, low carb, almond flour chicken stuffed loaves. We tripled the recipe to result in four meals, freezing part of it. Please see this link for instructions and the recipe. For more photos, please click here.

Last night, sundowners weren’t quite the same without a glass of my light red wine. Still, once the conversation started at Rita and Gerhard’s house, I forgot all about it and was content with my mug of iced tea, as I’ve been the past few weeks since the awful tooth extraction two weeks ago resulting in a dry socket.

Miracle of all miracles, I am better today. Although there is still some pain, it’s diminished considerably from the horrors of a few days ago. When Tylenol (Paracetamol) and Advil (Austin) stopped working on Monday, I switched to the pain meds the dentist had prescribed, which gave me good relief for about five hours, resulting in waking up during the night when they wore off. I barely slept two or three hours most nights over the past eleven days.

Finally, I am off of those dreadful drugs and almost feel like my “old self.” Hopefully, in a day or two, I will be free of the pain. Thank goodness, I went to the dentist in Marloth Park when Dr. Singh was on holiday. She treated the socket, which helped tremendously, but it took a few days to feel the improvement.

Tonight, we’ll have dinner at Jabula with Rita and Gerhard, leaving us with only three more Jabula Friday nights until we depart on October 21.  They will leave here on October 15, returning to their home in the US for the holiday season. Tomorrow evening we’re heading to Kathy and Don’s for dinner. In the morning, we’ll make a dessert to bring.

Some foreign nationals that stay here for part of the year leave the park during the holiday season since it’s crowded with tourists and outrageously sweltering in December. Those realities don’t scare us. We’ll be back in December 2022, a mere 14 months after we leave, a few days before Tom’s birthday.

It is always such a joy to meet up with our readers, as we have on many occasions throughout the world. One of our loyal readers, Lisa, and her husband wrote a few days ago and plan to be in Marloth Park when we return in 2022. That was how we met Rita and Gerhard, who’ve become such dear friends. They’d been reading our site for years and decided to visit Marloth Park, renting holiday homes from Louise as well.

Little did we know or expect, we’d become such close friends with people who happen to come to a location due to reading our posts. What a fantastic side benefit we’ve been blessed to experience!

But then again, we’ve been blessed in many ways, and we often pinch ourselves when we take a moment to reflect. It’s times like the past few weeks that it’s easy to forget how grateful we are when we are distracted by illness or inconvenience.

We are grateful for many reasons; the first, we are together, and we never forget it for a day. Secondly, we have the love and support of family and friends as we continue on our journey. Thirdly, we have the carefully managed financial resources to continue to travel for as long as we physically are able.

No, it’s not always easy, and like most people in their 60s and 70s, we have setbacks, some age-related, some not. But, above all, most importantly, for now, we are experiencing good health. We’re grateful we’ve been able to avoid contracting Covi-19. However, we’ve both suffered from other viruses that made recovery time-consuming and complicated in the past year.

Through it all, we’ve stayed strong and resilient. We have no regrets. And we pray for more time and good health to allow us to carry on, fulfilling a dream neither of us ever knew we had until 2012, when we decided to embark on this journey, never aware of how long we’d be able to continue.

Here we are almost nine years later, amid many trials, and yet in 27 days, we’re on the move again. Yes, it’s a temporary foray back to the US for a variety of reasons, but a few months later, we’ll be back into the “world” to explore its many wonders.

Thank you for sharing it with us.

Photo from one year ago today, September 24, 2020:

One year ago, this photo was posted in lockdown in a hotel in Mumbai, India, on day # 185. Minutes before the sun descended from view in Sumbersari, Bali, in 2016. Before dark, the security guy visits our villa, turning on outdoor lights, returning at sunrise to turn them off. For more photos, please click here.

Yesterday afternoon, Tom beaconed me outdoors while I rested in the bedroom after another stormy night’s sleep due to this darned painful tooth socket to say we had 30 to 40 visitors of the same species. I assumed they were impalas since they are the only animals, other than birds and mongoose, where we’ve had such numbers in the garden.

Impalas are the most prolific antelopes in Marloth Park and also in Kruger National Park. They can give birth twice in one year and are healthy and sturdy animals. As mentioned in a prior post, over 100 impalas were relocated from Marloth Park to Lionspruit, providing more hunting opportunities for Desi and Fluffy, the only two lions in that game reserve located within the borders of Marloth Park.

I couldn’t believe how many impalas were in our garden and the surrounding bush when I stepped outside. It reminded me of a similar invasion we had in 2014 while living in the Hornbill house Rita and Gerhard currently occupy.

On that particular day, there were many more impalas, hundreds, much to our surprise. What an experience that was! But, yesterday, we were as thrilled as we’d been way back then. With many impalas recently moved to Liosnpruit and the possibility many were culled, it’s unlikely we’ll see hundreds of them in the garden anytime soon.

Here are some interesting facts about impalas from this site, you may find enjoyable:

“Impalas are medium-sized antelopes that look like a mix between a goat and a deer. They have long legs and necks and black, twisted horns. As members of the Bovidae family, they are related to goats, cattle, and sheep.

Size

Impalas weigh around the same amount as a large dog at 88 to 165 lbs. (40 to 75 kilograms). According to National Geographic, they grow to 33 to 39 inches (84 to 99 centimeters) long by adulthood and typically come up to the chest of an average-sized adult man. The male’s horns grow to 18 to 37 inches (46 to 94 cm) long.

Habitat

The impala is native to Africa and ranges from Angola, Namibia to northeast South Africa and north through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya. According to the University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web (ADW), it lives in woodlands with little undergrowth and low to medium-high grassland. They also live in savannas.

Habits

Impala is diurnal, which means they are most active in the early morning and right before sunset. During the rainy season, impalas gather in groups of hundreds. In the dry season, the herds roam together to look for food. During the rainy season, males can be territorial and will herd females around a territorial area.

Groups of young impalas are called creches. According to ADW, these offspring groups are like nursery schools for the young, and they play together and groom each other.

Diet

Impalas are herbivores, which means they only eat vegetation. Their diets consist of bark, leaves, wood, and stems.

Offspring

Before giving birth, a female will leave the herd. After a gestation period of six to seven months, she will give birth, usually to only one offspring at a time. After a day or two, the mother impala will bring her calf back to the herd. Baby impalas are called calves. Calves are weaned at four to seven months, and at 12 to 18 months, the calf is mature enough to have its offspring. Impalas usually live to around 13 years in the wild.

Conservation status

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), impalas are not endangered. Currently, the population is estimated at almost 2 million. Fifty percent of the population is found on private land, and another 25 percent of the population lives in protected areas. As a result, for the most part, the population is stable or increasing.

Other facts

Impalas are fantastic jumpers. According to National Geographic, they can leap as far as 33 feet (10 meters) and as high as 10 feet (3 meters). If impalas are running from predators, they are known to jump over obstacles in their way, such as large bushes or stumps, instead of going around them.

Impalas have reddish-brown hair with white fur on the underside of the chin, inside ears, on the belly and lips, over the eyes, and on the tail.

They also have black stripes down the forehead, tail, thighs, and ear tips. According to the University of Michigan, some scientists think they use these black stripes to identify each other. ”

Excitedly, I scurried about the veranda attempting to get good photos. However, impalas are very shy and cautious. Every motion I made sent them running into the bush. Instead, I decided to stay in one spot with the camera to ensure the best possible shots. They even reacted to the sound of the click when taking a photo. I have since turned off this feature.

As for today, I had booked a 10:00 am appointment with the dentist at the clinic in Marloth Park. Dr. Singh was off this week, and I couldn’t wait another day. The pain in the socket was excruciating, with no improvement over the past week. It has been nine days since the extraction.

With little sleep due to the pain, I had no choice but to seek help from another dentist in Dr. Singh’s absence. Fortunately, I was able to get an appointment for this morning with Dr. Lizannie, a 10-minute drive down Olifant Road, the only paved road in Marloth Park.

Tom waited for me in the car, playing with his phone, while I entered the medical clinic, fully masked, as always. After a 20 minute wait, I was escorted into the dental suite, where the dentist was waiting while filling out a health history form.

It took her exactly 30 seconds to diagnose my painful situation as a “dry socket,” I’d expected this after reading considerable information on pain after tooth extraction. In almost every case, I continued pain a week after the extraction due to a dry socket.

A dry socket (alveolar osteitis) is a painful dental condition that sometimes happens after a permanent adult tooth is extracted. A dry socket is when the blood clot at the tooth extraction site fails to develop, or it dislodges or dissolves before the wound has healed. From the Mayo Clinic in the US, a dry socket is described as follows:

Typically, a blood clot forms at the site of tooth extraction. This blood clot is a protective layer over the underlying bone and nerve endings in the empty tooth socket. The chunk also provides the foundation for the growth of new bone and the development of soft tissue over the clot.

Exposure of the underlying bone and nerves results in intense pain, not only in the socket but also along the nerves radiating to the side of your face. The socket becomes inflamed and may fill with food debris, adding to the pain. If you develop a dry socket, the pain usually begins one to three days after your tooth is removed.

Dry socket is the most common complication following tooth extractions, such as removing third molars (wisdom teeth). Over-the-counter medications alone won’t be enough to treat dry socket pain. Your dentist or oral surgeon can offer treatments to relieve your pain.”

Dr. Lisannie explained precisely how she was going to resolve it. She would numb the area of the socket with several injections. With the gums so sore from the past nine days, I was hesitant about those long needles, but surely whatever she would do would be more painful than the injections.

In no time at all, I was numb, and she began scraping off the layers of the socket to reveal fresh blood, which is intended to form a new blood clot to start the healing process all over again. The first clot never stayed in place.

Back home by 11:00 am, I didn’t take any more pain medication when I wanted to see how it feels when everything wears off. Now, at almost 3:00 om (1500 hrs), the pain is back, but it is nowhere near as painful as it had been before the procedure.

It’s expected I will be pain-free within a day or two. In the interim, no coffee, acidic foods, chunky foods, or wine until I am pain-free. Of course, I never felt like any of my light wine with this degree of pain, plus it’s not a good idea while taking any pain medication.

I already made our dinner tonight. Italian mozzarella stuffed meatballs with sauce and cheese for Tom, and finely chopped chicken salad, using chicken breasts we’d cooked yesterday. I may try to add a small finely chopped lettuce salad on the side.

Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, I’ll feel much better when we head to Rita and Gerhard’s house for sundowners. If I’m still not 100%, I’ll drink room temperature iced tea instead of the wine I am drinking now and throughout the evening.

Sorry for the late post! Have a lovely evening!

Photo from one year ago today, September 22, 2020:

This photo was posted one year ago today while in lockdown in a hotel in Mumbai, India, on day #183. Hans, our landlord and next-door neighbor, invited us for dinner outdoors in their garden. He built a roaring fire to which he later added a grate to cook an entire beef tenderloin without charcoal or lighter fluid. Check out that moon smiling down on us! For more photos, please click here.