Loading up on protective gear…Celebrating our special day in lockdown…

Protective gears; face masks, N99 masks, goggles, face shields, and hand sanitizers. Gloves have yet to arrive. (Sorry, this is a video. I hit the wrong button, but I’d already repacked everything, so a retake was too much trouble).

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Today’s photos are from June 28, 2013, while in Boveglio, Tuscany, Italy. See the link here for more details.
I suggested we use the rain gutter to dry the sheets. Tom ran to get the hangers to avoid getting the sheets dirty.  Then, he moved the table and chairs to ensure the sheets didn’t touch the tabletop.

We’re confident we have sufficient protective gear for the eventuality of flying out of Mumbai, hopefully to South Africa, in the months to come. This morning, I received a news blurb stating that South Africa intends to open its borders to all international travelers sometime in September.

I’d expected to see more hanging laundry on a Monday morning while on a walk in 2013 in Boveglio, Italy.

In other news, it appears India may be opening flights to international travelers in the next two to three months. This provides us with the hope that both of these countries will make these changes in the next few months, allowing us to move on.

This was our tiny clothes “dryer.” We’d sure appreciate one of these right now in lockdown.

In the interim, we’ve been gathering a variety of protective equipment we’ll be using when we fly out of Mumbai, which will require multiple layovers along the way. The above photo includes everything we’ll need, except for gloves that are yet to arrive from Amazon India. Of all the items we’ve ordered, gloves have been the slowest to arrive.

Early morning walk to the garden.

The photo shows the N99 masks we ordered to protect us from air pollution while touring in India. We never used them, but in the future, we’ll certainly use them while traveling. The popular N95 mask has a 95% virus protection rate, while the N99 has a 99%.

What a morning! What a view!

As mentioned in a prior post, when we ordered the N99 masks while we were in the US many months ago, there was no mention of COVID-19, making them readily available at Amazon USA. Surely, by now, they may be more challenging to acquire.

We noticed these live vines over a doorway to another “attached house when we walked to the garden. I thought they were cute. Tom grumbled, “You’d never catch me walking through those vines each time I went outside!”

Hopefully, our diligent use of these products will keep us safe on what may prove to be 24 hours of total travel time, plus extra time at the airports, due to COVID-19. Wearing a face mask can be difficult for extended periods, but with the above-shown face shields, we may be able to remove the masks for short periods when not in close proximity to other travelers.

I took this unfamiliar walkway, wondering what was on the other end.

Before face shields became available on Amazon India, we purchased goggles with face masks with many reports stating the virus can enter through one’s eyes. We won’t need to wear them with the face shields, but if we take off the shields for some reason, we can supplement our level of protection with the goggles worn along with face masks.

This entrance to another 300-year-old house appeared well maintained.

Well, enough about that! It’s the anniversary of the day we met in 1991, 29 years ago. Today is a special day for us which, under normal circumstances, we’d celebrate with a night out or a special homemade dinner whenever we may be at the time. 

Moments later, I was walking on another narrow passageway. It was like a maze. Of course, I was concerned I’d get lost, which seemed possible with my lack of a sense of direction. Tom makes up for that!

Tonight, there will be no special meal and no celebratory happy hour due to our current circumstances. There are no different or unique meals we can order. Instead, we’ll both stick to our usual meals. But, this doesn’t prevent us from reminiscing over the past 29 years, which we can easily do, especially over the past eight years since we began posting.

The entrances to many homes were appealing.

Through all of the challenges of being in lockdown, we easily entertain ourselves through playful banter and appreciation of one another. The fact that we both maintain a reasonably positive attitude makes this long period of isolation tolerable. When one of us becomes low or worried, it’s easy for the other to lift the mood with a bit of humor or comfort.

This was the view over the railing; tile rooftops, green valleys, clouds rolling in over the hills.

We are grateful for one another and for all the love and support we continue to receive from our family, friends, and readers every day.


Stay safe.

Photo from one year ago today, June 28, 2019:

This was the only photo we posted one year ago today, as we continued with the details of the then-upcoming journey on the Maharajas Express Train. India is a huge landmass that provided endless opportunities to explore, eventually cut short due to COVID-19. For more, please click here.