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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. |