Three days and counting…Getting things done…

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Locals were walking on the steep roads during the procession last night. The woman on the far left in navy blue is our own, Santina, our precious cleaning lady.

Note: Today’s photos are from this date in 2013 while living in Boveglio, Tuscany, Italy. For more details, please click here.

It is so busy around here. This morning we finished your order to have the suitcase shipped to the hotel in Minnesota, waiting for us when we arrive on September 9. I contacted the hotel’s general manager that the briefcase will arrive in a few days, asking him to store it for us until we arrive. I also included a photo of the bag with the message.

As we stood on the road outside our house, the procession stopped for a few minutes for prayer. There’s Santina again in navy blue. Notice the heels on her shoes!

Then, we headed to the postal station, but three items I ordered from Amazon weren’t in the mailbox, nor was anyone at the postal station, so I could inquire if they had the packages. Now, we’ll have to return later on Wednesday or Thursday. There’s a huge rainstorm occurring right now with lots of wind, thunder, and lightning. We’re not going out in the golf cart in this weather.

Tomorrow is my much-needed pedicure appointment at 11 00 am. While I’m busy with that, Tom will fill up the tank on the golf cart at Walmart and buy a dozen eggs to get us through the remainder of the week.

This patio is where we suntan a few times a week. These impatiens attract the bees, as do most flowering plants requiring us to pay special attention during our hour in the sun, quite close to the planters.

Once back at the house, I’ll finish the post, upload it, and then return to packing. We already arranged transportation through Groome from The Villages to the Orlando International Airport, which picks up for the international flight at 5:50 pm for our 10:30 pm international flight. It’s over an hour-long drive, especially with rush hour traffic at that time of day.

We’ve gone through all our remaining food, and we need one more dinner to wipe out everything we have. Thus, after my pedicure tomorrow, we’ll stop at the Mexican restaurant in Colony Plaza and order food for tomorrow night’s dinner.

The second of the two planters. As you can see, the giant leaves belong to the zucchini. We’ll see more zucchini over the remaining summer as well as the abundant herbs we’ve been using.

For Thursday evening, we have frozen burger patties for Tom with bacon, cheese, onion, and canned tuna for me, which I’ll make into tuna salad using the remaining eggs, onions, and celery, using sour cream for the salad dressing. This will be the best we’ve ever used up our remaining food. In the past, we were happy to leave food for the household staff but with no household staff here, there was no one to leave it with.

Speaking of household staff, yesterday I got a wonderful message from one of our housemen in Marloth Park, Vusi. When we left, I had reformatted my old laptop, which worked well except for one key on the keyboard. I cleaned the exterior, screen, and keyboard so it looked brand new. Vusi was thrilled, hugging me several times, saying, “Oh, thank you, Madam.”

A zucchini that grew in the garden box on the patio.

Thus, yesterday when checking my email, there was a sweet message from Vusi that warmed my heart. He wrote:

“Morning, madam, hope everything is good there, I just wanted to say we (the animal, us) miss you, have a great day🍹🙏may God bless you

And thanks for the laptop. It’s still working good. I really appreciate 🙏Vusi.”
Immediately, I wrote back to Vusi, thanking him for his thoughtful message and how much we’re looking forward to seeing him in less than 11 months from now. We have so much to look forward to.
That’s it for today, folks. We have lots to do and look forward to being on our way soon.
Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, July 25, 2013:

Here’s a Ziplock bag half-filled with water and a few Euros to ward off house flies. See the story for the results of using these well-placed bags over the past 48 hours. (BTW, it didn’t work). For more photos, please click here.

Tender story from Marloth Park…We’re still paying attention to what’s going on!!!…

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This young giraffe was saved from certain death by Marloth Park Rangers, who cleared the way for the youngsters to escape. Photo Maureen Oxlee Jarratt
MARLOTH PARK SIGHTING PAGE
“A young giraffe fell into a gully opposite Naboom/Seekoei and was trapped. Thank you to all our rangers and Mark de Beer for coming to its rescue. They cut away exposed roots and branches, allowing the exhausted giraffe to pull itself out independently. After a short rest, it came up close to us, almost as if saying “thank you” before it galloped off down Seekoei.”
Even though we’re no longer living in the bush in Marloth Park, South Africa, surrounded by wildlife, we’ve managed to stay up-to-date on everything happening while we’re away. It’s easy to do with friends sending messages and photos and the availability of photos and stories on Facebook under the “Marloth Park Sighting Page.”
Each day, Tom and I peruse Facebook, him for all his communication with friends and family and me to know what’s going on in our absence in my favorite place in the world. No, we do not wish the time to pass quickly to return there in a little over a year. We enjoy each day here in The Villages while living in the moment.
Last night, we drove to Lake Sumter Landing, a 15-minute drive, intending to watch the Thursday night movie. Once we arrived at the movie theatre, we looked at each other and almost said simultaneously, “I don’t feel like going to a movie.” We hadn’t eaten all day and felt having a bite to eat was more important than waiting until after 8:00 pm when the movie started at 6:00 pm.
No photo description available.
The young giraffe resting and recovering after the ordeal. Photo Maureen Oxlee Jarratt
We moseyed across the street to find a restaurant from the theatre and picked the first restaurant we spotted, grabbed two seats at the bar, had a drink, and munched on some appetizers. Afterward, we were too full for dinner, and by 8:00 pm, we headed back to the house to relax and unwind, watch the semi-finals of Dancing with the Stars, and eventually have a snack an hour later. Tom had popcorn, and I had Fage Greek yogurt. It was a lovely evening.
I didn’t sleep well for some odd reason, but I slept almost seven hours, according to my Fitbit. When I got up, it felt as if it was only three or four hours, but once I was up and moving about, my energy level picked up, and now I feel fine.
In a few hours, we’ll be heading to the Sunrise Asian Restaurant to pick up lunch to bring to Karen’s mom Donna, who’ll we visit for a few hours. She lives about 20 minutes from here. I haven’t seen Donna in over ten years, and it will be fun to see her again. She and I have always had a special relationship, just like I have with her lovely daughter Karen.
After the visit with Donna, we’ll make a quick trip to the market to pick up a few items and then head back home. We plan to go to Spanish Springs Town Square tonight, where we found a great-looking restaurant, Amerikanos Grille, that serves one of Tom’s favorites…Rueben Sandwiches. Several items on the menu are befitting my way of eating.
Spanish Springs Town Square is 20 minutes from the house, so we should go while we have the car. Otherwise, to go on the golf cart would take twice as long, and we may not appreciate a 40-minute return drive back at night in the dark.
Tomorrow we’re going out on the river on Burt and Linda’s boat. We’ll be bringing the camera and taking photos throughout the day. In the morning, I’ll make chicken salad and coleslaw for our picnic lunch on the boat. No doubt, it will be a nice day.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, May 26, 2013:
There was no photo posted ten years ago on this date. For the story without photos, please click here.

Hysterical feedback from Garage Logic about our “Adults Only” post a few days ago…

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At last! The Treasury! This sight made us gasp with our hearts pounding wildly, less from the walk, more from sheer joy! See below for the progression of this long walk to arrive at this magnificent event.

Note: Today’s photos are from the posts of May 15 and May 16, 2013, ten years ago, when we visited Petra, Jordan.  Here is the post from May 16, 2013.

The raw beauty of nature, coupled with artistic skills, made the walk exciting, moment by moment.

On May 12, we wrote about the myth about perceptions of The Villages as being a “swingers” retirement community. Please click here to read that post. We heard from the hosts at the Garage Logic podcast mentioned this perception when they realized where we are staying.

In response to that, in a light-hearted manner, I wrote the post entitled “Adults Only,” which may be found at the above link we rebutted the perception that The Villages is a “swingers community.” It is not. It’s a myth.

We thought we couldn’t make it through each time we encountered these narrow crevices, but we managed at each turn.

When Joe Soucheray, host of Garage Logic, read parts of our post on their show, we couldn’t stop laughing over their comments. If you’d like to hear what they had to say, please click here and have a chuckle with us. If you don’t want to listen to the entire podcast, scroll forward to 1 hour, 13 minutes, and 27 seconds, and their comments will begin. But listen all the way to the end of the podcast since they add more as they go. It’s very funny.

We love the connection we have with Garage Logic every day. If you enjoy their banter, click here for the full archives of their podcasts. We listen five days a week while Tom continues to submit daily, “On this date in Minnesota history.” It provides us with a fun connection to our original home state of Minnesota, along with our friends and family members who still live there.

Can you imagine the excitement of the Swiss adventurer that discovered this find in 1812?

As mentioned at 12:30 pm, Karen and Rich will arrive, and we’ll drop them off at the Orlando Airport for their trip to Minnesota for son Jack’s wedding, leaving their SUV with us to use for the next few weeks. In a few weeks, we’ll pick up Rich at the airport after Karen flew off to support an ailing friend and return the car at that time.

We don’t have a lot of plans for using the car other than to visit Karen’s mom, Donna, next week, a short drive from here, and to drive around The Villages, exploring and taking photos. That will be fun to do, and it will be nice to get out in a car as opposed to the golf cart.

Check out the intriguing details of theTreasury performed by craftsmen over 2000 years ago. The twelve pillars represent the twelve months of the year.

The golf cart is great, but it takes much longer to get from place to place. If we were to have been here any longer, we’d have needed to rent a car. When we checked on prices for rental cars in Florida, it was outrageous. We’d have spent over $3000 for the time we were staying here and felt it was an expense we didn’t want to bear with our expensive upcoming cruises.

It was a small sacrifice for the time we’re spending here since we can use the included golf cart to go anywhere in The Villages. With the handy app for approved golf cart paths, it’s relatively easy to get around, albeit slowly. Although, in the next few weeks, having a car to use will be great.

Actually, Tom was much happier than he looks in this photo!

After the long walk, sitting down for this not-so-smiley photo was a huge relief. The grates behind me at the front of the Treasury are protecting the more intricate design.

Today, I uploaded the Kroger online grocery order, which will arrive tomorrow morning. With company coming for dinner tomorrow evening and more houseguests again for three nights starting Saturday, we have plenty of meals to plan and prepare. Feeling so much better, I won’t have any trouble managing the upcoming visitors.

After the long walk, sitting down for this not-so-smiley photo was a huge relief. The grates behind me at the front of the Treasury are protecting the intricate design.

This morning we headed out on our walk and returned to make a lovely breakfast, and both get to work on our laptops. My hope was to upload this post before we leave at 12:30. Most likely, we’ll return by 3:30 or 4:00 pm and then get busy preparing tonight’s dinner of Italian meatballs, topped with sauce and shredded mozzarella and rice and salad on the side. I’m having grilled salmon and scallops with baked spaghetti squash and salad on the side for me.

Last night, we began watching “Dancing with the Stars” on Disney+, which we signed up long enough to binge-watch the show. Once we’re done, we’ll cancel the service. We often sign up for a streaming service long enough to watch a certain series and then cancel it thereafter. However, we keep Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime all the time. We thoroughly enjoy streaming shows in the evening when we don’t have other plans.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, May 16, 2013:

In Jordan, the camel owners proudly let us take photos. In Egypt, at the Great Pyramids, either they’d grab your camera and smash it or demand $50 to get it back. For the post, please click here.