The View from the Hermitage, Day 2

I ventured out for my annual breast-squishing today, and that's it until the husband and I take my car to the shop tomorrow night for its annual physical. We'll leave her there tomorrow evening, and see about getting her the next day. She seems to be running well, so I'm hoping it's just topping off various fluids and checking various other things.

Older son has been keeping a close eye on us. He insists that he will bring us anything we need from the grocery store, drug store, and so on. This morning, he took my mother's laundry back to her assisted living facility so that I would not have to. When he heard we would be dropping my car off tomorrow evening after the shop had closed (social distancing), he said that he would go by the next afternoon to pay and pick up the key so that we could go get it after the shop had closed.

It's a bit hard to get used to a kid, even an adult kid, offering to do so much. I guess that if he were doing something because he thought we were not able do it, it would be different. While emailing him a recipe (for rice, corn, and cheese casserole), I thanked him for all he was doing or offering to do. He noted that we were important to him, and that knowing we were "squared away" helped take away any worries he might have. We raised a good adult.

We heard today from the company with whom we had booked a May 14 trip to part of the Silk Road, in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. Needless to say, the trip has been canceled due to covid-19. The company said we could defer the trip until a later date or take a full refund. I told them that with the husband's being a university professor, it was tricky to find a tour that meshed with his teaching schedule. I asked for the full refund but noted that if a rescheduled, later tour did fit with the husband's teaching schedule we would re-book with them.

I must admit that while I had my fingers crossed that we would get a full refund, I wasn't 100 percent sure that we would. I know that hotels and flights are often booked in advance, and that money might not be recoverable. We had purchased trip insurance from the tour company, and I figured that if it was the insurance handling the reimbursement we would not see the money we'd paid for the two policies. Not so. We are getting the full cost, including what we paid for the trip insurance, back. In case you're wondering, the tour company is Odysseys Unlimited, and we think they're a pretty class act.

And so we have survived Day 2 in the hermitage. I haven't gotten bored yet even if I might be boring anyone reading this. I checked the news feeds less today than I did yesterday. I hope that doesn't mean that life in the hermitage is becoming the norm.