Three days and counting…Getting things done…

Posted by worldwide-admin on with 2 Comments
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.

Pack or sort???…

Posted by worldwide-admin on with 2 Comments

Yesterday, was a “sorting” day. 

The definition of sort, a verb as found in the Dictionary.com:

  1. Arrange systematically in groups; separately according to type, class, etc.: “she sorted out the clothes.”
  2. Look at (a group of things) one after another in order to classify them or make a selection:  “she sorted through her mail.”

Henceforth, in this blog, I will use either of these two words, “pack” or “sort.”
“Pack (in our case), referring to the systematic, relatively insane process (in my case) of placing myriad clothing, electronics and personal effects into four suitcases and two carry-on bags with the ultimate goal of being dragged (yes, dragged) around the world.

Oh, there is one exception to the above “pack,” the process of packing a variety of memorabilia into approximately four over-sized plastic totes which our adult children have offered to store for us in their basements. Thanks, kids!

“Sort” (in our case) referring to the systematic, relatively insane process (in my case) of examining and determining the fate of myriad household items as I peruse endless cabinets, closets, drawers, containers, boxes and old totes. 

Yesterday, I spent the entire afternoon sorting only a few items: a small plastic cabinet filled with office supplies and another smaller plastic cabinet filled with cosmetics. 

As I pulled these two dusty cabinets from my walk-in closet where they’ve resided for years in the living room with the TV on in the background, placed them in from of my comfy chair with a “to save” bin on my right an a “trash” bin on my left, working on the smaller cosmetic container first.

Small and smaller plastic cabinets

Two hours later, after picking through every single item, testing, smelling, washing, tossing I discovered I had found 26 years of good quality make-up brushes as shown in the above photo.  

After washing each and every brush and tossing a few, I placed them in this neat little black foldout makeup brush case.  I was thrilled!  It was like brand new, definitely going into the “to be packed in suitcase” pile.  

Toiletries to pack.

On the island of Madeira, Portugal, located off the coast of Africa where we’ll spend 2 1/2 months beginning May 2014, if I need a little paint brush, it will be right there!  As for a makeup brush, yes, I will use some of these, not all of them. As I wrote this today, reality hit me. 

These brushes, minus, two or three for the trip, must go in the “to be sold” pile. If I have had these brushes for so many years and still hadn’t used them it was time to say, “Bye, bye brushes.”

Bye, bye, office supplies.  Bye, bye little cabinets.  But, hello middle photo of miscellaneous toiletries (minus the brushes) including three pairs of false eyelashes that I can’t seem to get to adhere to my own lashes (bye, bye, perhaps?), eight packages of plastic brush teeth picks (our dentist says we’ve saved our gums using these), a portable magnifying mirror, silver cleaning polish (for my silver jewelry), and a plastic container with my cosmetics, enough to last for at least two years.

Office supplies for the estate sale.

All afternoon?  Well, I did four loads of laundry, ironed a pile of clothes, made dinner, washed all the display glassware in the kitchen and spoke to a friend in Florida for an hour, who also retires in the fall. 

Today? Back to the “sorting” in preparation for the upcoming shredding event next Saturday morning; one “to save’ bin on my right and one “to shred” bin on my left.