A lovely mess indeed…
June 24th, 2021
I am sitting in the camper this late afternoon, with heavy rains pouring down and thunder rumbling overhead.
Of course it would be the evening before leaving from the state park. This undoubtedly guarantees we will be packing up a dirty, muddy, soggy mess of things tomorrow to haul back to Naples. A beautiful storm like this makes it all worth it though. Being the pluviophile that I am, I look forward to rainy season in Tanzania when we finally get settled there. But tropical deluges just south of the equator for months on end makes me wonder if I’ll feel differently after living through them. Hopefully it will prove to be an inspiration for both writing and painting. Or maybe I’ll decide to become a microbiologist so I can analyze all the mold and microorganisms that will be growing on everything. I’m keeping my options open.
A lovely mess… it applies to so much more right now than just the muddy aftereffects of the storm. These days I feel like I’m part of the Clampett family from The Beverly Hillbillies. Except for the glaringly obvious difference in our abode which is not a mansion, nor is it in Beverly Hills. But we do have a truck filled with all kinds of crap and living in an environment that feels somewhat foreign to us. Like fish out of water – and we haven’t even left the country yet! Practice and preparation for the next chapter I tell myself hourly.
Mi
ssing IKEA…
We have been amazed to discover how little we truly need though to live comfortably. We drive by IKEA wistfully, realizing there is no point in stopping. Where are we going to put a Poang chair in the camper, after all? Are high gloss white Scandinavian cabinets really what we need when our ‘home’ is parked on a mound of dirt, surrounded by fire ants, with a long plastic tube attached that offloads all human waste into a small pipe in the ground? IKEA will have to wait.
But we are super happy which is the weirdest part of this whole thing.
A month or so ago, after selling our beautiful art gallery that had gone through a recent renovation and did in fact have those high gloss white cabinets from IKEA, we both said, in unison, that we did not miss it for one tiny second. I do know however, that soon I am going to feel a primal urge to buy a Persian rug, like an addict in rehab that needs a fix. We have rugs galore in storage right now, including a Persian one that belonged to my grandparents. But the camper doesn’t have one, and I think it should. This is where the struggle gets real as I am reminded of that everyday now. There are a few things I’m not willing to give up, Persian rugs being one of them.
Scouting mission to Tanzania…
Our scouting mission to find a place to live in Tanzania has been delayed slightly. We are are now combining that trip (scheduled for July) with the first longer stint and will head there early fall for around three months.
Typical of our approach to life and business over the years we have always said ‘Sure, we can do that’, and then we figure it all out. With this long established habit in place, September will see us jumping in feet first! Not to say I haven’t done a ton of research on moving to Tanzania in the past year, but it’s one thing to plan it from the comfort of the sofa with a glass of tequila nearby, and another thing altogether to buy the plane tickets for three months and just go. I’ve done that before, too, in my twenties. Here’s hoping we meet with the same kind of success in our sixties!
July 6th, 2021
More rain…
So, here I am again, reviewing what was previously written, listening to a torrent of rain outside from tropical storm Elsa. Fortunately, it was just downgraded from hurricane status. It has been our experience over 25 years living in Naples though that the tropical storms do more damage when it comes to flooding. I don’t think we will have to worry about the travel trailer floating away however as it has probably sunk deep enough into the mud that it ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Signing off for now – time to paint for a bit and tap into that creative energy, courtesy of all those positive ions from the storm. Or maybe a nap. Yeah, probably a nap…
